Living Resources’ first Smart House opened last week in Guilderland. The single-floor, solar-powered home is designed to give people who have disabilities a place to live independently while having the support built in to help them with such things as opening and closing the blinds or turning on the TV — by themselves.
It’s great that there is now a facility in place to help those with disabilities live more independently, and we think the technology could even be extended to a greater percentage of the population. Specifically, this technology can help our rapidly growing senior citizen population continue to live in their homes.
The Smart House has a lot to offer, and we applaud Sen. Neil Breslin for helping secure the funding to make it a reality. It is designed to allow for ease of movement from one room to the next. The kitchen is equipped with a stovetop that remains cool to the touch, special cookware and self-closing cabinets and drawers. From an iPad, residents can find recipes and step-by-step instructions for making their own meals, or they can switch TV channels.
Basically, anyone who has a physical issue can safely navigate the house without any assistance, but they first need to be a Living Resources client to benefit from the technology in this facility, and even then there is a waitlist. We know making strides in accommodating people with disabilities and mobility issues often start with baby steps, but we are eager to see this Smart House technology available to and even greater percentage of our population.
While this is good, there are many more people with physical issues who don’t have access to this technology in their homes. They also don’t have the financial means to move into an assisted living facility, or they simply don’t want to leave their homes and lose their independence.
As more members of the Baby Boomer generation age become less mobile, they will need some form of assistance. The trouble is eldercare facilities such as nursing homes are already filling up, and the cost of having a loved one placed in these facilities is more than what some people can afford. And if someone is determined to live out their days in their own home, the risk increases because there won’t be a direct link to medical staff should a crisis arise – be it a stroke, a heart attack or a fall in the bathroom.
Living Resources is currently seeing this first-hand. Only six of the individuals the nonprofit serves will live in the first Smart House. Its 36 remaining individuals are still living in homes that no longer meet their needs for an independent lifestyle, and there are an additional 31 people on a waiting list for future Smart Houses. That waiting list is sure to grow.
Being able to install this type of technology in already-established homes and apartments will make it easier for those who can – and want to – live an independent life to achieve that goal. It may take government subsidies like the $650,000 state-issued grant to make this a reality, but we believe that would be a small price to pay when it comes to a quality-of-life issue for our senior citizens.
Hopefully, more people will benefit from the technology offered in the Smart House in the not-too-distant future.