Age-Friendly Laramie Works on Housing and Assisted Living

While finding affordable housing has become a statewide issue, Age-Friendly Laramie (AFL) has been working with the Laramie City Council - to bring focus to the cause in Albany County. AFL is a grassroots effort to consider how issues related to population aging can be addressed by the community now and into the future. The organization is a part of AARP’s Age-Friendly Network of States and Communities and receives support and best practices from The World Health Organization’s Global Network for Age-Friendly Cities and Communities.

“Age-Friendly Laramie is deeply vested in making our community more livable, walkable and creating more housing choices for older residents,” says Age-Friendly Laramie Director Bernard Steinman, PhD. “To that end, we worked with AARP Wyoming and the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) on a city code review to identify significant land use regulations that act as barriers to meeting our age-friendly goals.”

AFL’s City Code Review was done to find ways to make building in Laramie easier, while maintaining safety. The City Council’s own housing study illustrates the need for every type of housing, suggesting an additional demand of 4,106 units needed by 2030 in Albany County.

In 2023, AFL provided the City Council with a code review, suggesting specific codes be eased to foster building. Among the suggestions were to encourage more accessory dwelling units in Laramie. These are small homes or apartments on the same lots as an existing home. Right now, Laramie’s development code is vague on whether ADU’s are allowed. The AARP code review offered specific changes that could be made to encourage the building of ADUs through zoning and wording changes for things like required parking space mandates. In addition, the code review also discusses the need to allow more “work-from-home,” flexibility, which currently requires an off-street parking area. Even facade requirements for the front of a home and the word household itself were brought up by the code review. In 2024, AFL will follow-up with the City Council to see if there are specific changes that have come out of the code review.

“Our objective was to identify the most problematic coding barriers and suggest simple small changes, for instance, eliminating, clarifying, or adding specific wording, to address barriers related to housing, transportation, and more complete neighborhoods,” says Steinman. “We are focusing on some of the easier recommendations to implement. Fortunately, members of Laramie City Council have been receptive to conversations regarding elder housing in our city.”

One other need citizens of Laramie have been considering is an assisted living facility. That effort is being headed up by The Regency Retirement Residence of Laramie, which is an independent retirement community. Assisted Living Facilities are a little different than nursing homes, allowing residents to receive some help with activities of daily living but, for the most part, live independently in their own room or apartment.

“In elder housing, there is a continuum of alternatives that ranges from single-family homes to group-living settings with various levels of support,” says Steinman. “As people get older, they may have greater difficulty maintaining their homes, and so their preferences may shift toward group living, including independent living options and assisted living where there can be more support if it’s needed.”

The current vision for Regency’s Assisted Living Facility would have between 20-24 shared and private rooms, offer three meals per day, snacks, housekeeping, laundry, some help with medical services like blood pressure monitoring, help with bathing, and 24/7 nursing support. The facility would also have a seamless connection to the Regency Retirement Residence.

“AFL has tried to assist Regency in mobilizing resources, advocating for elder housing needs in the city, and being supportive of Regency’s efforts to add an assisted living wing, where residents can move to if their needs increase,” Steinman says. “Regency’s plans align well with AFL’s general goal to improve access to affordable housing, with a good fit between the functioning of older residents and their environments.

Kristine Koss is the director of Regency Retirement Residency in Laramie and says the facility currently has a waitlist of 30 reservations for units, with more calls and emails coming in each week. Koss says Regency is a non-profit, which, along with the fact Regency has available land to build on, should make Regency’s ALF efforts more affordable than other facilities while allowing for assisted living for residents who may not need a high standard of care immediately, all the way to skilled nursing care.

“It is very difficult for family and friends to leave their loved ones whenever someone’s health situation changes - this happens way too frequently,” Koss says. “Thus, we are trying to keep loved ones together by having a graduated care situation here.”

The hope is to have the facility built between three and five years, which will depend on the fundraising efforts which are already underway. To donate to Regency’s effort, contact Koss at 307-742-6366 or rrrlaramie@gmail.com.

Regency benefits from housing an AARP backed Trishaw Bike, which the community received through AARP Community Challenge Grant. The Challenge Grant is an annual program that supports quick turn-around projects that positively impact the quality of life for older adults. The trishaw provides rides to residents, helps get them out into the sunshine, and combats social isolation. AFL volunteers Maryalice Snider and Lucille Norwood pilot and maintain the trishaw.