Retirees heading West raise issues of housing, jobs

? When Steve Marsh first drove into this dusty town outside Las Vegas, he took one look at the gravel roads and sagebrush flats and grunted: “This is in the middle of nowhere.”

This small blue-collar town doesn’t seem like much. But it boasts miles of clean, open space and is surrounded by desert mountains. The weather is mild, the housing cheap and national parks are nearby.

It was enough for Marsh and his wife, Donna, to retire here.

“We love it,” Marsh said, relaxing after a round of golf at his Desert Greens retirement community. “We’re happy as pigs in slop.”

Others apparently agree with Marsh. The Census Bureau says the population of those 65 and older will increase more rapidly in the West than in any other area of the country.

While retirees settle in, states are figuring out how to keep up with an aging population.

“This affects all of us,” said Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne. “It’s life, and it’s time that we step up, recognize it, identify the challenges and find solutions.”

THE place to retire

You don’t have to tell retirees in Pahrump that the West is THE place to retire. They live in the third-fastest growing county in the nation for those 65 and older. Only about 5,000 seniors call Nye County home, but that is more than three times the number that lived here in 1990, according to Census Bureau figures.

Nevada leads the country in the senior population boom. From 1990 to 2003, the state’s 65 and older population almost doubled — from 129,107 to 250,787, according to census numbers.

Lured by the nostalgia of rural towns and outdoor recreation, retirees have turned Western towns into retirement hot spots. Florida and California have long been Meccas. But today, Bend, Ore., St. George, Utah, Sheridan, Wyo., and Silver City, N.M., are hip places to be.

Straining resources

Retirees who migrate are the “healthiest, wealthiest and best-educated of all retirees,” said Mark Fagan, a sociologist at Jacksonville State University in Alabama. Few pass time in rocking chairs on the front porch.

“Before, when you thought of a retirement home, you’d think of bingo and all that,” said Wynne Angell, a retirement housing consultant. “Now … you don’t even want to advertise that. Bingo — that just creates the impression of people that are real frail.”

But as retirees age and join the baby boomers already in the West, their housing and medical needs will change.

Through 2025, the Census Bureau projects the West will continue to dominate the country in the growth of the senior population. Utah will lead, followed by Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon, Alaska and Colorado. The senior population in those states is expected to at least double. All those extra people will strain state resources.

“We’ve known this was coming for a long, long time,” said Bev Morrow, administrator of the Wyoming Aging Division. “Little has actually been done.”

Kempthorne felt so strongly about preparing for older residents that he made long-term care his initiative as chairman of the National Governors Assn. this past year.

The Wyoming Legislature this year created a long-term care subcommittee to study such issues as whether to put Alzheimer’s units in assisted living facilities and the shortage of doctors.

“It’s difficult to attract providers into all of the places we need them,” Morrow said.

‘Tug and pull’

Nurses also are scarce. In 2000, 10 of 13 Western states had nursing shortages, according to a 2002 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report. By 2020, the shortage is projected to spread to all Western states and beyond.

“There’s a tug and pull here,” said Dr. Joanne Schwartzberg, director of aging and community health for the American Medical Association. “You have the age wave coming, and we just don’t have work force.”

Pahrump, where Steve Marsh, who has Parkinson’s disease, moved to from Indiana, won’t have a hospital until 2006. Marsh, 67, goes to a Veterans Administration clinic in Pahrump or drives 60 miles to Las Vegas for medical care.

“That’s not what they think about,” Schwartzberg said. “They think, finally I’m ready to retire. I want to enjoy myself. I don’t want to think about problems that won’t arise for 10, maybe 15 years.

“It’s hard enough to get people to plan for retirement. How do you get people to start thinking about health care?”

States, experts say, don’t have a choice. They must prepare.

Senior-friendly city

Sheridan, Wyo., is expanding its hospital, making sure its older buildings are accessible to the handicapped, and working to keep housing affordable in a town where new residents have driven up home prices.

That’s a big problem in retirement spots. New, wealthier residents can afford to pay more for homes, but that raises property taxes for longtime residents.

The West accounted for 19 of the top 25 counties in the country for the most expensive homes owned by people ages 55 to 74, according to estimates from the National Association of Home Builders based on census numbers.

Looking for work

But preparing for an older population is more than just making sure health care is adequate and housing is affordable. It’s also about quality of life and making sure jobs are available for the many retirees who plan to continue working.

States will need to attract companies that want to hire older workers and businesses will have to accommodate job-sharing and employees who want to work from home, said Clare Hushbeck, an economist with AARP.

“It does require big vision,” she said. “It’s not an easy thing to wrap your mind around, but it’s coming.”

The Idaho governor hopes his yearlong work on long-term care paid off and that his fellow governors will include the issue in their state-of-the-state addresses next year.

“You don’t have to look very far down the road with regard to your budgets,” Kempthorne said. “You’re going to be impacted one way or another. You better get ahead of the curve.”