Senior housing for staff retirees, emeriti on the way

By Cynthia Lee

Retired faculty and staff are closing in on a goal they've been working toward since 2000 — senior housing located near UCLA so that they can maintain close ties to the campus even as they age and become frailer.

Sometime during 2009, the doors will swing open on Belmont Village-Westwood, a new senior living community near Wilshire Boulevard and Warner Avenue. The six-story building, with three levels of underground parking, will offer 162 rental units, with sections for those living independently, for those who need help with bathing, feeding or taking medication (assisted living), and for people with Alzheimer's or dementia.

The Houston-based Belmont Corp. has leased a former parking lot for 55 years from an adjacent church, Westwood United Methodist Church. Belmont is building and funding the entire project, which began construction last August. UCLA is not providing any funding, but the university has agreed to distribute marketing information about the new facility to the UCLA community. Priority placement in the units will be given first to retired faculty and staff; then to the parents of retired faculty and staff; then to current retirement-eligible faculty and staff; and lastly, to the parents of current faculty or staff. Residents must be at least 60 years old.

For UCLA retirees, "it's a win-win situation," said Eddie Murphy, director of the UCLA Emeriti/Retirees Relations Center and an ex-officio member of the Joint Housing Committee, which has been searching for senior housing options near campus for seven years. Since then, the committee has been meeting with developers, visiting complexes and conferring with campus administrators. "I can't say enough about how committed and passionate committee members have been," Murphy said.

While retiree housing has been built near some universities, such as Stanford, UCLA's retirees are the first from any UC campus to undertake such a project.

There are two basic models of retirement housing the committee is pursuing. The rental model, which Belmont Village would follow, typically does not have a skilled nursing facility. Belmont will, however, have licensed nurses on site around the clock. While rents have not yet been announced for Belmont's Westwood project, monthly rents (which include meals and various amenities) for its assisted living apartments in Rancho Palos Verdes start at $4,725 for studios and $6,475 for one-bedroom units.

"You have to look at what you're really renting," explained Lew Leeburg, committee chair and a former president of the retiree association. Apartments come with support services, chef-prepared meals, a technology center, supervised exercise facility and transportation.

The other model, the continuing care retirement community (CCRC), includes a skilled nursing facility staffed by licensed health-care workers. This model typically requires a substantial initial payment — at least $500,000 in places where land costs are high — as well as a monthly fee for services. But residents get a portion of their initial payment back when they leave.

One company, Praxeis LLC of Jacksonville, Fla., has indicated its willingness to pursue the possible development of a CCRC facility for the UCLA community. Praxeis is now seeking to identify possible sites for property acquisition within a convenient radius of UCLA.

Retirees who decide to live in Belmont Village-Westwood or the CCRC would be dealing directly with the owners or operators of these complexes. The university would not have any responsibility or liability for either facility or their operation. For more information, call Eddie Murphy at (310) 825-7456.