After an unprecedented year of challenges for residents and staff members in skilled nursing facilities and assisted living communities, senior living and care expert William Thomas, M.D. — better known as Dr. Bill Thomas — and colleagues this week unveiled a multi-generational model for seniors designed around “pocket neighborhoods.”
Kallimos Communities would offer residents small dwellings clustered around shared green space, said Thomas, the founder of the Eden Alternative model, the Green Houses Project and ChangingAging.org, and co-founder of Minka Homes & Communities. The model will be built to reduce the cost of living, encourage neighborliness and feature optional shared households that millennials call “co-living.”
“Some of the loneliest elders in America live at home on streets filled with houses but without friends, family or neighbors as part of their daily life, and large senior living buildings offer a solution for some but can be expensive and often carry the stigma of being [for] ‘old folks’ homes,” Thomas said in a press release Wednesday introducing the model.
Kallimos already has two locations in the works for the model, one in Texas and one in Colorado, Megan Marama, chief operating officer of Kallimos Communities told McKnight’s Business Daily. Timelines on the communities are still to be determined, she added.
“Kallimos” is a word that describes “a beautiful way of living,” Thomas said, adding that the communities will be based on the MAGIC (Multi-Ability, multi-Generational, Inclusive Community) model, developed by Thomas at the University of Southern Indiana in 2018. Thomas will serve as the chief innovation officer at Kallimos, and he’ll be joined by several other senior living and care experts, including Nancy Fox, who will serve as chairman and CEO, and Nancy Schwalm, who will serve as chief business development officer.
“Clearly the public’s preferences, and policymakers’ priorities, are swinging toward greater access to home- and community-based services, giving people more choices and control over where they want to live,” Thomas said. “Kallimos Communities will bring new neighborhoods to life and help the people who choose to live in them experience the greatest health and well-being possible.”
