Environments for Aging’s 2025 Senior Living Design Industry Predictions series continues with Margaret Calkins, board chair and senior researcher, Ideas Institute (Cleveland Heights, Ohio).
Check out Calkin’s thoughts on what opportunities and challenges are ahead for the industry over the next 12 months, including her desire to see more households/small house model projects.
Environments for Aging: Post election, how might the regulatory environment change and what will that mean for our industry and the built environment?
Margaret Calkins: Like many people, I have concerns that this administration will be overly accommodating to industry concerns and less concerned about consumer protections.
There are too many nursing homes that are focusing on ways to make a profit instead of focusing on the care and well-being needs of their residents and staff.
While I can envision a number of changes to the regulatory and survey process that make it less onerous for care communities that are high performers, there is still a need for close oversight of the proportion of homes that barely meet acceptable quality metrics.
EFA: Do you think the new administration’s policies will affect construction prices and labor—how? If so, what impact will that have on the senior living design sector?
Calkins: Imposition of tariffs will likely increase cost of construction and FFE materials. I can envision that a percentage of projects that are in the planning phases now that will either not get built or they will consider more modest renovations/face-lifts versus new construction.
EFA: Where do you think the senior living design industry is heading in 2025?
Calkins: While I would love to see the creation of more households/small-house models, the pace of development on these projects is generally very slow and the number small.
I would also love to see more attention paid to developing age-integrated projects. Most people don’t really want to be in a totally age-segregated living environment: they want to interact with people of different generations.
For more insights from industry leaders, read here.
Anne DiNardo is editor-in-chief of Environments for Aging and can be reached at [email protected].