By LINDA COBURN Contributing Reporter The 818 area code is home to 533 licensed residential care facilities for the elderly. These range from private homes that care for as few as two or three people to huge complexes with hundreds of dwelling units. But there is something special about University Village Thousand Oaks, a retirement community whose first residents moved in just two weeks ago, on Aug. 21. It’s not just the picturesque setting that sets it apart from other projects; it’s a completely different financial animal as well. “It’s kind of a funny and complex concept,” said Warren Spieker, vice president of Continuing Life Communities, the project’s developer. Specifically, University Village Thousand Oaks is what the state defines as a Continuing Care Retirement Community, or CCRC. “It feels like real estate, like a Del Webb or Sun City or Leisure Village, but it’s actually not,” said Spieker. What he is referring to is the fact that residents of University Village pay a hefty entrance fee which is about the same cost as purchasing a piece of real estate. The average entrance fee is $400,000. But what they get for that is not the deed to a condominium or a piece of land. It’s more like an annuity. According to the Assisted Living Federation of America, a Continuing Care Retirement Community is, “A community that offers several levels of assistance, including independent living, assisted living and nursing home care. It is different from other housing and care facilities for seniors because it usually provides a written agreement or long-term contract between the resident (frequently lasting the term of the resident’s lifetime) and the community, which offers a continuum of housing, services and health care system, commonly all on one campus or site.” To move into University Village, a prospective resident must prove they are at least 62 years old and they must be capable of independent living. The 65-acre, gate-guarded community has 367 units within three types of independent living housing: apartment homes, garden terraces and villas (single-story cottages with an attached garage). Units start at $360,000 and top out at about $1 million. Amenities include a chip-and-putt course, fine dining, housekeeping, 24-hour security, scheduled transportation for people who don’t drive or don’t drive at night, a pool and hot tub, a fitness center, card rooms, billiard rooms, computer labs, tennis courts, bocce ball courts and putting greens. “It’s basically like a huge resort,” Spieker said. Also, and most critical to its designation as a CCRC, the University Village also has an on-site “health center,” which provides assisted living, skilled nursing and Alzheimer’s care. This means that if residents should ever need that type of care, they can remain close to their spouse or their friends, “they don’t have to uproot and move for temporary or permanent care,” said Spieker. Here’s how the contractual aspects work. When a resident “buys” a unit, they pay a monthly fee that covers their monthly rent and all of the services mentioned previously including one meal a day in one of the dining rooms. But most importantly, they also get access to on-site specialty nursing care. So, according to Spieker, “You’re basically signing a contract for a place to live, for all of the services and also for long-term care coverage.” That entrance fee, or purchase price if you will, is then amortized down in five percent increments until it reaches a floor of 75 percent of the initial fee. That means a seller is guaranteed to get back no less than 75 percent of their initial buy-in cost, even if they end up needing to spend long periods of time in the skilled nursing or other specialty care units. If a resident dies, the money goes to their heirs or estate. So it really is more like an annuity. “It’s like getting long-term care insurance,” said Spieker. “There is no increase in monthly fee if they need that kind of care other than for the two extra meals.” For example, let’s say someone moves into a one-bedroom unit and is paying $2,600 a month. Then that person falls and breaks their hip and they need to go into the skilled-nursing facility to recuperate. At this point, they still only pay $2,600 a month plus they pay now for the two extra meals (one meal is included in the monthly fee for the non-health center residents). “That right there can be worth $6,000 to $8,000 a month,” Spieker said. “Essentially they are getting long-term care insurance included. And that’s a big benefit because people of this age often can’t qualify for long-term care because of existing conditions, etc.” Donna Pick, president of Senior Residential Choices, is an independent consultant based in Sherman Oaks who helps seniors and their families find appropriate residential facilities. She says that the continuing care part of University Village is what makes it so different. “It has a separate section of independent living,” she said, “which means people that are a little bit younger might go to University Village.” That’s because active seniors might not be interested in being in a facility where independent living and assisted living are mixed together. “At University Village there is a feeling of youthfulness, so people can come in, more so, in their late 70’s to early 80’s and feel they’re going to have some camaraderie with people that are youthful like themselves,” Pick said. “Plus, they can stay there all the way until the end of life.” The other thing she thinks will appeal to the upscale residents that University Village is targeting is the view. “Other retirement communities that have skilled nursing generally don’t have that,” Pick said. “All that acreage out there and the beauty.” There are relatively few CCRCs in Los Angeles County, and none in the Valley, Pick said. They are heavily regulated by the state of California, through the Department of Social Services. The regulations are long and stringent and several other developers who tried to get their own CCRCs off the ground have not been able to do it. Spieker explained that before breaking ground, a developer has to pre-sell 50 percent of the units and get a 10 percent fully refundable deposit on each one. “That’s a huge hurdle to overcome,” he added. (Before January of this year, the state was requiring a 20 percent deposit.) “Everybody wants to do senior housing today, but what nobody wants to touch is the skilled nursing facility because it’s very expensive and the regulation is huge,” said Spieker.
