Housing
When Seniors Can't Count on a Place to Call Home
When assisted-living and nursing facilities close their doors, elderly residents—many of them ill and vulnerable—are often left scrambling.
When Emily Berger helped her mother, Mary Berger, move into the Prospect Park Residence, a long-term care facility in Brooklyn’s trendy Park Slope neighborhood, her mother settled quickly into the community of seniors, making friends among other residents and attending social events.
Mentally sharp but needing a walker to get around, Mary Berger couldn’t live independently any more. Her daughters thought the residence would be their mother’s last home before she died: Prospect Park Residence was just the kind of facility where children want their elderly parents to “age in place.” The average age of residents was 88; some residents had dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, and others used wheelchairs.