Holiday Fund: Lytton Gardens adds gold to 'golden years' Holiday Fund: Lytton Gardens adds gold to 'golden years' (December 10, 2003)

By Jane Knoerle

Almanac Staff Writer

Thirty-five years ago, Palo Alto community leaders founded Lytton Gardens to give seniors a chance to live in a friendly, safe, active community.

Since then, more than 10,000 seniors have called Lytton Gardens, at 437 Webster St., their home.

Lytton Gardens offers seniors three programs with a variety of health-care services. In independent living, 375 residents live in their own apartments. They are able to take college courses, play bingo, sign up for classes, and join fellow residents every night for dinner.

They give back to the community by teaching arts and crafts to pre-schoolers, tutoring at Garfield School, serving lunches at Avenidas and volunteering at the Palo Alto Library.

The assisted living program gives 50 seniors assistance with bathing, dressing and medication, while still living in their own apartments. A new program, due to open in the spring, will provide assisted living arrangements for 40 residents with Alzheimer's Dementia.

The skilled-nursing facility offers rehabilitation, post-operative care, Alzheimer's, long-term and hospice care for 99 patients.

Providing for seniors costs money. The average cost to Lytton Gardens for each resident in independent living is $9,500 a year; for assisted living, it's $19,400; and for the skilled-nursing facility is $60,000.

To qualify as a resident of Lytton Gardens housing options, applicants must fit the HUD income requirements, which means roughly a $57,450 a year income for a single person; $65,000 a year for a couple. The average income for residents, however, is actually less than $13,000 a year. Residents contribute according to their ability to pay.

Most of Lytton Gardens senior communities' revenue (59 percent) comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Medicare and MediCal. Residents, donors, corporations and foundations make up the rest. Revenue from grants, foundations and corporations in the fiscal year ending in March 2003 was $198,157, up from $160,000 in the previous year.

The number of seniors over the age of 65 in the United States is expected to grow 60 percent by 2020, according to Lytton's figures, with the population over 85 nearly doubling. The average age of Lytton independent living residents is 79 and rising.

Today Lytton Gardens continues to serve this growing segment of the population and provide them with a vibrant community to call home.

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