photography: Beacon Hill Village:

Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs) are helping adults 50 and older enjoy healthier, more independent lives.

Judy and Roy Trotter have lived in their comfortable ranch house for almost two decades and have no intention of downsizing to a retirement home the way some folks their age have. With a little help from their neighborhood NORC, they shouldn’t have to.

NORC stands for Naturally Occurring Retirement Community. If you’ve never heard the term, you will soon—it’s the newest on a growing list of options for seniors who wish to age in place. It refers to condos, apartments or neighborhoods that have evolved over time to house a high concentration of seniors. The residents organize, usually under the direction of a social service agency, to bring in supportive services they need.

“We bought this house with retirement in mind,” said Roy Trotter, 74, who recently retired after a primary career in insurance claims and a second stint as a courier. “It was a ranch home. We didn’t want to walk up stairs.”

What the Trotters didn’t know then was that the home’s location on the north side of Indianapolis would be as retirement friendly as its single story. They ended up smack-dab inside Indiana’s only NORC, called Elder-Friendly Communities, which was established by the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis and a nearby elder resource center.

They also couldn’t have imagined what would happen to Roy that would bring Elder-Friendly Communities to the rescue. After getting a flu shot that his doctor had recommended, Roy developed meningitis that left him unable to use his hands or legs. He spent time in a rehabilitation hospital and gradually regained use of his limbs. His therapist told him he could go home a week earlier than planned but only if he could modify his garage to get from car to house without having to climb a steep step.

Within two days, the NORC had arranged for construction of a garage platform that made the house accessible. “Believe you me, it doesn’t sound like much, but that extra week was all the time in the world,” Trotter says.

Thus the reason for NORCs’ existence. They manage tasks both small and large that might overwhelm or discourage the residents themselves to the point they consider moving. NORCs are an ideal alternative for the fiercely independent hoping to avoid an institutional setting.

That’s most people in the Trotters’ generation. According to the AARP, nearly 90 percent of seniors want to remain in their own houses as they age. Even if they need day-to-day assistance or healthcare, a whopping 82 percent still prefer staying at home.

“These are people who largely do not have the expectation that somebody’s going to take care of them. We’re going to have to take care of ourselves, look out for ourselves,” Trotter explains. “There does come a time when it’s going to be hard to do that. Myself for example, I can’t do things around the house I used to be able to do.”

By making services available, organizing educational programs, providing transportation and helping with healthcare, NORCs duplicate the benefits of retirement homes without the drawbacks. They also allow people to maintain social networks that have been forged over time. For many seniors, this is preferable to moving to new communities where they’d have to build friendships from scratch.

And NORCs really are more natural. Just ask Professor Michael E. Hunt of the University of Wisconsin, who coined the term NORC in 1984. Much of Hunt’s research focused on the effects of forced relocation of seniors to nursing homes, the standard, if distinctly modern way that society has grouped older people together to deliver services. Hunt became intrigued by places that were not intended to meet the needs of the aging yet attracted a preponderance of residents over 60 nonetheless. In some cases, the people simply aged in the homes where they had always lived; other times, seniors seemed to gravitate toward certain condominium complexes or apartments. The policy question that flowed out of this discovery: How best to deliver services to them?

In 1986, the first NORC was established in Midtown Manhattan at a large working-class housing cooperative called Penn South. When the 13-building complex was constructed in 1962, most of the residents were young adults with families. The children grew up and moved out, but the parents stayed. By the 1980s, the demographics had shifted, and most residents were over 60.

Nat Yalowitz, president of Penn South and a social worker by occupation, has watched the NORC concept blossom. He, his wife, and three children were in the inaugural group of Penn South residents. Now he’s about to turn 80 and has become a leading advocate nationally for NORCs. “It’s not a new thing for us. It’s very much a part of our life now,” Yalowitz says.

But it’s taken a lot of work to acquire funding and piece together a seamless array of services that make it possible for Penn South residents to age in place.

“Obviously you can’t bring a hospital to where the people live, but there are many things you can bring,” Yalowitz says. “For many of the services people need, they’ve got to get in a bus or car. It’s a hassle for people. What we decided: We would bring all the programs and services to people where they live, so they’re accessible.”

To be a member of the NORC, residents must be at least 55 and pay a $15 annual fee. Among the benefits they get in return: an on-site nurse, recreation programs, discussion groups, card leagues, exercise classes, financial counseling, social workers, and legal assistance. Two area hospitals rent space in the complex where geriatric specialists hold office hours.

The experience at Penn South was so promising that United Jewish Communities launched a national Aging in Place Initiative, which has spawned about 40 NORC demonstration projects in New York State. These have been funded with seed money from the U.S. Administration on Aging and other public and private sources.

Organizers understand that every NORC has distinctive needs defined by geography, socioeconomic status, and the residents themselves. While dense urban areas like Penn South may demand one kind of solution, suburban neighborhoods, such as the Trotters’, require others.

In the Indianapolis NORC, few things are as important as arranging transportation—to medical appointments, cultural events, or the grocery store. That’s because the NORC has no retail or commercial areas within walking distance. It’s almost entirely residential, with the exception of a church, two synagogues, and the Jewish Community Center, which provides an array of exercise and fitness opportunities.

For residents who still drive, other issues arise. Cindy Wides, community resource coordinator, tells the story of a member who does her own grocery shopping. One week, the woman decided to go to a different supermarket than usual and, while there, became the victim of a purse-snatcher. She lost her driver’s license and Social Security card and had no idea what to do. The NORC took care of it.

“She could not have known which way to turn,” Wides says. “None of the residents want to bother their kids. They say, ‘My kids are very busy.’ ”

Even when their children live nearby and could be of assistance, seniors don’t always solicit their advice. This is especially true if they fear counsel to curtail their activity, as well as comments like: “Don’t shop alone,” “Quit driving,” or “Isn’t it time to sell the house?”

The purse-snatching victim “is not going to stop shopping,” Wides says. “Instead of reprimanding her, we’ve taught her new ways to protect herself. We’ve taught her ways to do the things she wants to do.”

Similarly, the NORC evaluates residents’ homes for accessibility and safety and helps them remodel rooms that are not senior-friendly. Enhancements range from the simple—getting rid of slippery rugs—to the more complex, such as installing grab bars in bathrooms or constructing ramps in lieu of front steps.

Households sign up to be members of the NORC for a $120 annual fee, with scholarships available for those unable to pay. The membership buys them access to what is essentially a concierge service. It screens home-repair companies, lines up volunteers to cut the grass, and recommends emergency response systems, all made available at discounted or subsidized rates. In addition, the NORC offers a multitude of social and educational programs and the expert advice and loving care of Wides and her colleagues, Ann Allen and Lori Moss.

A slightly different model can be found on Beacon Hill in Boston, a 19th-century residential neighborhood known for its distinctive brick row homes, window boxes, and hidden gardens. It’s not the sort of place residents choose to leave, even when physical disability makes life more challenging.

The desire to remain in the homes they loved was what prompted a group of longtime residents to come together eight years ago to brainstorm ways to age in place. The fruits of their labor? A new not-for-profit organization called Beacon Hill Village, “a virtual retirement community” that assists people 50 or older who live on Beacon Hill or in the adjacent neighborhoods of West End and Back Bay.

Beacon Hill Village partners with service providers to offer members preferred access to social and cultural activities, exercise programs, and home-maintenance services, as well as medical care and assisted living at home. As a nonprofit, membership organization, it can provide these programs and services more cost-effectively than conventional retirement communities, its organizers say.

“We have created a mechanism to take care of ourselves, and we control it,” says board president Susan McWhinney-Morse. “We set the pace, the policies—and that is what is so exciting.”

The standard membership fee is $580 for individuals and $850 for households. Folks over 60 of modest means can join for $100 and $150, respectively, thanks to underwriting from private donors.

Then there’s Avenidas Village in California, an upscale NORC on the West Coast, which announced 340 charter members as of April 2008. The Avenidas Village program is open to adults 50 and older who live in Palo Alto and surrounding communities. Annual membership dues are $750 for individuals and $900 for couples.

Mary Minkus, a retired attorney, realized the need for such a program after she injured her arm and found that her health insurance would cover a nursing home stay but not in-home medical care. She and other residents worked with Avenidas, an existing private nonprofit agency for seniors, to develop the “self-sufficient village” model.

Many experts on aging predict these kinds of communities will become the dominant form of senior housing in the next ten years as 78 million baby boomers retire. The biggest obstacle, no doubt, will be funding.

Although membership fees are common, they won’t sustain NORCs in the long run, especially in neighborhoods of lesser means. Supporters would like to leverage more government money, even Medicare or Medicaid funds that presently favor hospital and nursing-home care over in-home services.

In 1995, New York became the first state to establish funding for NORCs through a bill called NORC Supportive Services Program Initiative. “This was a pioneering effort by a state to create policy that would change how services for seniors are defined and organized, where they are delivered, and to whom and how they are financed,” according to The Handbook of Social Work in Health and Aging. In 1999, New York City started putting money into the budget to fund NORCs as well.

“The best-case scenario is to have it in legislation,” Yalowitz said of long-term funding sources. To that end, he and other advocates continually lobby Congress on the issue and are urging activists at the state level to do the same with state legislatures and local assemblies. Working in their favor are the statistics: Aging at home is far cheaper than moving to an assisted-care facility or nursing home, the most advanced of which can cost up to $100,000 a year.

Also in their favor are rave reviews from people who’ve chosen to live in NORC neighborhoods. United Jewish Communities, a primary force behind the growth of NORCs, recently surveyed nearly 500 members in 24 NORC demonstration projects in operation since 2004. The residents reported they spoke to more people, knew more people, participated in more group activities and events, left the confines of their home more often, and felt healthier than they used to as a result of their participation in the NORC.

Quester Adams, 64, who lives in the 1.5-square-mile NORC in Indianapolis, is positively sold on the idea. “NORC is a great place to live. There’s not a lot of hustle and bustle. I like the quietness, not to mention the many activities available for seasoned men and women,” he said. “Since the elderly are living longer, I think there will be a huge need for elder-friendly community services in the future.”

For more information about creating a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC), a new, free website presents practical information on launching a program in your area.