Officials from facilities who made themselves available to an interview with The Business Journal note that most of the newer assisted-living homes are upscale. They also report that they have few vacant apartments. Donald J. Medd, director of District XI Area Agency on Aging, suggests that many who worked in the steel mills during the Valley's heyday can afford to move into these newer facilities should they need assisted living. This is a generation of people who didn't spend their money. Most who avail themselves of assisted living are in their ninth decade, say administrators.
Women outnumber men by anywhere from four to one to three to one, administrators say.
It costs anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent more to house a resident in a nursing home, administrators and directors say. They also say government agencies lack the manpower to catch such premature transfers, which begs the question of the next step in state or federal government extending Medicaid to assisted living. All think it's only a question of time. Troy Snyder at Jameson Place Assisted Living Center, New Castle, Pa., is one of only two interviewed to think some degree or type of subsidy for assisted-living rent will come out of Columbus or Harrisburg as early as 2002. Autumn Hills' Woodford says the Assisted Living Association of Ohio, a lobbying group, reports state legislators told it there is no money in Ohio's budget for assisted living.