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Senior co-op lifestyle fosters friendships, promotes freedom
Catholic Spirit special section
March 23, 2006
Co-op living suits independent seniors seeking social interaction
by Pat Norby
Maureen McDonald is a strong proponent of cooperative living and has talked with strangers and friends alike about the co-op lifestyle.
"I think I am responsible for at least half-a-dozen friends living in co-ops," McDonald said.
As a board member for Gramercy Park Cooperative of Plymouth and member of a co-op network, she often speaks to individuals and groups seeking information.
After searching for a place to live when she moved back to the Twin Cities from Chicago, McDonald, now 78, put her name on a waiting list when the Plymouth co-op was being built. She moved in seven years ago.
"I had the idea when I was about 67," said McDonald, a member of St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove. "I've lived alone most of my life," she said. "I was looking for social interaction."
McDonald said the amount of interaction varies. Some members get involved with committees of the board, on which she is serving for the third time. Other co-op members are still working full time, so are less involved.
Sally Licari, property manager at Gramercy in Plymouth, said, "we have a lot of people looking for a place where they don't have to do lawn care, shovel snow or worry about repairs." Others who do a lot of traveling want a home base but don't want to worry about their things when they are gone, she said.
"A lot of people here travel in the winter months, and they just turn the key and go," she said. "Others are looking to be around other people of the same age, but in an independent setting."
There are no social services, such as health care or food service, which are available at assisted-living developments.
Although the co-op has activities, such as card games, pot lucks and monthly birthday gatherings, nothing is mandatory, Licari said.
"More important, they want to know that their neighbors are friendly," she said. The co-op lifestyle provides a convenient and safe environment, she added.
Locked entries, underground parking, security cameras, no lawn care or snow shoveling and neighbors who look out for one another are among the things that draw in seniors.
Maryjane Hyser, 81, knows, firsthand, how people at the Plymouth co-op watch out for one another.
"If your paper isn't picked up in the morning and your car is still down in the garage, they check on you," said Hyser, who usually goes out every morning to walk at the Brookdale Mall. "One morning, I didn't do this."
She was busy making fresh strawberry pie for company at 11 a.m. and forgot about her paper.
Hyser said the co-op administrator called and said, "Maryjane, are you OK?"
"I said, 'Yes. I'm baking pie. Why?'
"She said, 'Would you please pick up your paper because I checked and your paper is there and your car is there,'" recalled Hyser, who moved into her unit in 1999 after living alone in her home for two years after her husband died.
"I don't know if I would have moved in any sooner," Hyser said. "But, now that I've done this, I can say you should be younger when you make the move."
While living alone in her home, Hyser found that she couldn't continue to maintain everything, and she didn't want her adult children to do everything she could no longer do.
"They say you can live cheaper in your own home, but there are a lot of drawbacks," she said. "To maintain a house, you have to do more than get grass cut and snow shoveled."
Hyser said she feels safer now, and her children are happy, knowing that someone else is around.
Another plus, she said, "If you move into an apartment, you have nothing but rent receipts." Co-op residents can claim a property tax deduction.
"I'm lucky, at 81, that I can still get around and do what I did 10 years ago," she said. Hyser still volunteers at St. Raphael in Crystal, where she is a longtime parishioner.
"I still volunteer to do funeral lunches and help count money the third Sunday of the month, and I clean the sacristy and the sanctuary," she said. As a member of the co-op's social committee, she usually attends the monthly birthday gatherings and weekly card games.
"This is perfect living," she said. "You can go and come as you please.... You can be busy all day if you want."
Don Murray, 80, said he and his wife, Betty, 81, have lived in a Gramercy-developed co-op in Inver Grove Heights about six years. They attend nearby St. Patrick parish.
Some time after their seven children were grown and on their own, the Murrays began looking at co-ops.
Minnesota is a lieder in Senior Limited Equity Co-ops, which is what his building is, Murray said. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development controls the values, which increase at only about 1 percent a year - despite booming housing values - so units remain affordable for cash-strapped seniors.
"We fell into this one point blank, and we were in it in a week. It was like it was meant to be," Murray said.
"It's nice for relatively low-income - about $40,000 a year," he said. "You can have a car and go on a vacation, but you don't have a lot of money to throw around."
One of the nice things about buying into a co-op, he said, is that owners get a deduction for interest on the mortgage and a deduction for taxes on income tax.
"We're paying less rent than we were paying three years ago because we refinanced our mortgage," Murray said.
The co-op obtained a $8 million loan for 5.54 percent when the interest rates were down. The original building loan was 7.75 percent. That reduced the monthly payment by 6 percent, he said.
The Murrays now pay $846 a month for a "nice apartment." They also pay their own heat, electricity and telephone. About 50 percent of the original owners of the 111 apartments are still living there, Murray said.
"It's sort of like joining a club and paying a heavy membership," he said. The Murras paid $33,000 to get into the co-op. "You get the money back (when you sell), but it doesn't grow very fast."
The Inver Grove Heights co-op also has committees that plan potluck dinners, monthly anniversary/birthday celebrations and other activities.
Like most co-ops, there is a large community room with a fully-equipped kitchen that members can reserve for a small fee, a guest room that also can be reserved for a low fee, library, fitness room, atrium and woodworking shop.
Those open spaces, Licari said, give members a place to go to get out of their unit, especially during the winter.
For more information on senior cooperatives, call Terry McKinley at the Senior Cooperative Foundation in St. Paul at 651-310-0225 or visit the website at: www.seniorcoops.org. For Gramercy Park in Plymouth, call 763-531-9421-4; Inver Grove Heights, call 651-450-9851.