The baby boomer generation in the United States has frequently been likened to a pig in a python. That’s because both before and after the post-World War II boom in births, there is an otherwise fairly even age distribution in our nation.

As the pig moves through the python it creates a strain on institutions. We can see that here in Guilderland, a microcosm of the national challenge.

The school district in Guilderland, for example, rapidly built five elementary schools after its mid-century consolidation to accommodate the bulge.

Once the boomers had passed through — and before residential growth in the suburban town burgeoned sufficiently — schools had to be shuttered. Guilderland Elementary became a Hebrew academy. Fort Hunter Elementary School was sold.

Now the boomers are old.

What can a town do to meet the needs of its elderly residents as the pig continues to pass through the python?

We raise this question now because the town, with admirable foresight, is in the midst of updating its comprehensive plan. The Guilderland Town Board has indicated it will, when the time is right, adopt a moratorium to institute changes in its laws to reflect the vision of the not-yet-completed plan.

We urge the planners and the legislators to pay attention to the needs of the town’s elderly residents.

This month, Hamilton Parc launched its campaign to recruit residents to its new apartment complex, pitching a “luxury active lifestyle” for “independent seniors in the Capital Region.”

How does this serve Guilderland? How does this help long-time older residents who can no longer manage to stay in their homes?

The apartment complex, as our reporter Sean Mulkerrin summarized last week, was the subject of controversy over the years as neighbors objected to the aesthetics — a massive facility right on State Farm Road — and concerns like increased traffic and burdening of the town’s infrastructure.

The protests led to the formation of a grassroots citizens group, the Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth. Tensions heightened when the Guilderland Industrial Development Agency granted mortgage- and sales-tax relief totalling over $6 million.

Median rent in Guilderland, depending on the source, ranges from about $1,400 per month to close to $1,700 per month.

An analysis submitted by developers placed the market rate for senior housing in Guilderland between $1,600 for a one-bedroom unit and $2,000 for a two-bedroom apartment. 

Hamilton Parc, now in its first phase, will eventually have 256 units — single-room apartments with a starting low of $2,475 per month and two-room units at the high end for nearly $4,000 a month.

Again, we ask, with rents twice the market value, how does a project like this serve Guilderland residents?

Guilderland has 200 families on a waiting list for government-subsidized housing but has only 95 slots; the vast majority of those slots are filled by the elderly or people with disabilities. Many have waited for years.

Late last year, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released an eye-opening report, “Housing America’s Older Adults.”

The study has been hailed as groundbreaking because, for the first time, it considers housing and care for the elderly as one.

Samara Scheckler, one of the authors of the Harvard report, explained in a panel discussion that, with baby boomers on the cusp of turning 80, they will need services to live in their homes.

The number of adults in their 80s is expected to grow especially swiftly as the oldest of the baby boomers — born from 1946 to 1964 — reach age 80 in 2026, the report says.

Scheckler also said that family assistance for the elderly, provided in earlier generations, will be “limited” because baby boomers had fewer children and their children tend to work full-time.

Seventy percent of baby boomers will need long-term support and services at some point, she said.

“Medicare doesn’t cover these services and most states operate long waiting lists for home support through Medicaid,” said Scheckler. “Last year, only 7 percent was covered through private insurance.”

The cost of such home care will be “out of reach for most,” she said.

Older households with very low incomes will almost certainly become more common, the report says, given that income inequality is growing and the baby boomers are aging into a cohort that has fixed and falling incomes.

“Consequently, demand will increase for housing that is both affordable and able to accommodate older adults’ changing health and care needs,” the report says.

With people living longer, the need for care will increase, said Jennifer Molinsky, another author of the 36-page report, during the panel discussion.

Renters will be particularly hard hit since they have accumulated on average just 2-percent of the wealth of their home-owning contemporaries. 

While most older adults own their homes, more than one in five older households — over 7 million — rent, the report says; the number of older renters is increasing with the growth of older households and will continue to rise as those aged 50 to 64, who have lower homeownership rates, enter older age.

But, Molinsky stressed, the inability to afford home health care is a problem not just for the elderly with low incomes but for middle-income adults as well. Such care, she said, is “beyond the means of most people.”

The report includes interactive maps that show, for the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area, about 30 percent of households for ages 65 to 79 are “cost-burdened,” meaning a third or more of their income is going for housing; that jumps to 36 percent for ages 80 and older.

For the same Albany-Schenectady-Troy area, 85 percent of seniors cannot afford assisted living, calculated at $75,000 annually, and 84 percent cannot afford daily home care, calculated at $43,000 for care and combined with the cost of living totals $68,000.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that long-term care provision has changed significantly over the last three decades. Alternatives to nursing homes have emerged that provide care in people’s homes and communities, such as assisted living and memory care.

“Given that nursing home residents are older and the population of individuals age 80 and over is set to soar,” the Harvard report says, “demand will grow for residential settings that include the services and supports of the types provided by nursing homes.”

At the same time, communities across the country are experiencing growth in their older populations, largely because the baby boom generation is opting to remain in their longtime homes and communities, the report says.

Over the last decade, the report says, the share of counties in the United States where at least a quarter of the population was age 65 or older increased more than threefold from 3 to 11 percent.

So what can one town, like Guilderland, do to help its aging population?

“For older adults with changing needs, housing choices suitable to diverse household configurations and affordable across the income spectrum are crucial,” says the Harvard report, citing as examples accessory dwelling units, known as ADUs; cohousing communities; and house-sharing, which can offer alternatives for people seeking to remain in their communities.

Multifamily buildings can encourage interaction and support from neighbors, as can various program offerings, the report says.

One of the panelists said that three simple requirements when homes are built can make them habitable into old age: a no-step entrance; wide hallways and doorways; and everything necessary for living — bathroom, kitchen, bedroom — on the first floor.

Another approach to supporting older adults who wish to remain in their community as they age is the “village” model. Villages are membership organizations that use staff and volunteers to help with transportation, home repairs, shopping, and other household tasks, and to build community connections to combat isolation.

“Started in 2002 in Boston to aid older residents seeking to remain in their Beacon Hill neighborhood,” the report says, “the village model has gained popularity in recent years and played a critical role during the pandemic.”

The report also stresses the importance of both internet connection and available transportation.

“Lack of access to transportation increases isolation, constrains autonomy, and can even increase mortality risk among older adults,” the report says.

While transportation is essential for shopping, socializing, working, and other activities of daily living, many old people do not drive or cannot afford a private vehicle. Consequently, walkability, access to public transit, and other transportation options are critical for older adults, the report says.

We wish the upscale elderly from across the region who move to the new luxury apartments in Guilderland well. We hope they remain active, healthy, and prosperous.

But at the same time we urge the people on the committee updating Guilderland’s comprehensive plan as well as the town board members who will ultimately be responsible for legislating change to take a good, hard look at what the future holds for the elderly people now living in Guilderland, many of whom have called the town home for their entire lives.

Leaders, the Harvard report says, “have abundant opportunities to address the mismatch between a rapidly aging population and an insufficient supply of affordable, accessible housing connected to services and supports. Zoning reforms and housing financing incentives together could encourage a wider variety of housing options, providing new and better opportunities for older adults who wish to remain in their communities but in more suitable homes.”