Retirement or Senior Housing for recently widowed Mother (Atlanta, Marietta: apartment complexes, rental)

[Sdeprotx]

Hi There! I’m looking for some advice and feedback on the senior housing market in the northern Atlanta suburbs. My mother is 72 and her husband recently passed away. She lives in her home in Dacula which is too far away from her kids and a good support system. She has 3 kids living in the Atlanta are and one out of state. Her kids live in Gwinnet, N.Fulton and Cobb. She doesn't drive (legally blind), and has a small dog. We are looking for a way to get her closer to one or all of us, but we are finding the task of finding a community daunting. Her favorite hobbies are playing duplicate bridge, swimming and traveling. We are looking for a good fit that supports her life style, preferably a rental option. Please share your house hunting experiences and let me know what you ultimately ended up doing. Her budget is about 2-3K a month total, all including expenses. Thanks for your feedback.

[lorilove]

I have a 93 year old mother and we spent a great deal of time visiting many places about 3 years ago.

My mom currently lives at Somerby Alpharetta - we are totally happy wit the place. She pays at the top end of your budget but there are smaller units. This is basically all inclusive. We have taken advantage of every discount they offer (most don't exist any more) but things like paying for the full year in advance etc which used to keep the cost down. She plays bridge 3x per week.

I know some residents have cats but I don't know about small dogs. Swimming ("dog paddeling") was very important for her. She gets what she needs from their indoor pool but that has been somewhat of a dissappointment. The other property we liked alot was Parc at Duluth - they had a wonderful pool that I believe was heated but was in a semi-outdoor area. I think from a pool standpoint that would have worked better but she was convinced that she had to have an indoor pool.

The age difference between your mom and mine will be huge and much better for your mom. Mine was very active in her 70's and probably would have made much closer friends and taken advantage of the community. She is still doing great but has slowed down so much in her 90's that she does not do much of the road/local trips.

She does take the Somerby bus to her doctors and that works great. In the very end we are very happy with her choice. PM me if you have specific questions - and yes we took advantage of all the site visits and had lunch at many many places before we made a final decision (FYI - we did this for about 10 years because my mother started talking about it in her early 80's). When we originally started Atlanta had no decent places and we got a bit panicky but the options continued to grow and there have been several new ones built since then.

[AnsleyPark]

I would recommend checking into Sunrise. There is one in Johns Creek which should be convenient to at least the Gwinnett and N. Fulton family members. Johns Creek, GA Senior Living Communities | Sunrise Senior Living

[lastminutemom]

We have a friend whose mother lives here and she loves it:

Parc at Duluth - Gwinnett | Senior Living Duluth GA

Downsized from a huge house. She goes on their "field trips" and uses their transportation extensively.

[Esteban5]

Depending on what your Mom's medical needs may be in the future, that range seems hopelessly low. We pay nearly double that for assisted living with dementia help.

[lorilove]

Originally Posted by Esteban5

Depending on what your Mom's medical needs may be in the future, that range seems hopelessly low. We pay nearly double that for assisted living with dementia help.

Esteban5 - assisted living is not the same as independent retirement living which include Somerby and Parc which are both around $3,000 (for single 1 bedrooms) and VERY NICE!

If you go to Buckhead or the newest units in East Cobb (forget the name) they can cost $4,000 up

There are some older places like Delmar Gardens in Smyrna that I assume are cheaper but I still hear generally good comments.

Huntcliff Summit in Dunwoody was one of the older very nice places. Not sure what they run as far as cost.

Many places offer both independent and independent living - they are distinct sides and the residents don't mix for most activities. This works well if you get ill and need to move from independent to assisted (which happens often). It is also a nice solution for married couples where only 1 needs assisted and the other needs independent. In this case, the can live separately but freely move between the two dining rooms to eat together etc.

[residinghere2007]

You may not consider it an option, but I wanted to through out there that all local counties and some smaller cities including Atlanta (though not little), Marietta, Decatur, and others have housing authorities that offer seniors housing at only 30% of their incomes. Most of them include utilities and planned activities for seniors (shopping trips, botanical garden, aquarium trips, yoga and fitness classes taught by the YMCA, etc.)

Many people have a bias against public housing but since I work in the housing field, I am now looking forward to hopefully having senior public housing locations available to me when I get older. I get jealous of their outings lol.

AHA has 11 senior housing locations some even in Buckhead and Midtown. The City of Decatur has senior housing as does DeKalb. They have some new locations in Brookhaven that are really nice.

I would check them out if I were you. Contrary to what many believe, they are really nice places (at least the ones I worked for in Atlanta and DeKalb) as they were renovated with stimulus money and they offer a lot of amenities for seniors at a price that can't be beat. Atlanta also has newer apartment complexes that are only for seniors that offer discounted rent. If you are interested, you should check out your local housing authority to see if they have any vacancies.

ETA: senior public housing is only for seniors who can live independently. There are active resident services departments that can help with visiting nurses or house keepers if needed, but the senior has to be able to live alone and not need assisted living.