Housing is essential to safety and well-being and plays an important role in healthy aging. Most older adults want to age in place, yet our current homes may be unable to meet our needs as we age. The availability of appropriate, affordable housing with a choice of styles and locations that incorporate adaptive or Universal Design features will be essential for many of us to continue living independently. We also need to consider alternative living options such as shared and communal housing, which are not yet widely available in our community.
The Age-Friendly Sarasota County Action Plan includes the goals, objectives, and strategies for the "Housing" domain during the plan's implementation phase (2022–2025).
How Can You Become Age-Friendly Today?
Use housing options incorporating universal design
Make some minor low-cost changes for better safety and accessibility, such as switching the door handles in your house from knobs to levers, adding lighting to walkways and entries, installing simple safety features such as grab bars
Offer to change your neighbor’s smoke detector batteries every six months ... a good way to remember is to change out batteries when you change your clocks for daylight saving time
County officials continue to monitor the status of COVID-19 and follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Florida Department of Health.