Healdsburg: Zen-inspired retirement community leading new wave of more personalized senior housing

New Healdsburg retirement community embracing impermanence.

Ray Saint Germain/Bay City News --Susan OConnell, Spiritual Director of Enso Village in Healdsburg, Calif., on May 9, 2024. Enso Village is a Zen-inspired life plan community with a focus on mindful aging, the joys of nature, environmental stewardship, contemplative care and healthy life choices for adults 60+.

Susan O'Connell brought up an interesting paradox to the enthusiasm surrounding the Zen-inspired Enso Village retirement housing in Healdsburg.

She said it's about better spiritual living until you die. Which may or may not be a great slogan, but she knows it to be true.

"We know we're going to die," said the founder of the village and former director of the San Francisco Zen Center. "We don't dwell on it."

"But, pretty much, when you move here, this is the last move. I'm going to die here," O'Connell said. "So what I really want to pay attention to is (being present) and maybe go deeper and answer some questions that were really important to me before I die and all that.

"It's the tick tick tick of aging. It ups the interest in being present. We're supporting that in various ways."

Presence is key -- not worrying about the past or stressing on the future. Enso Village residents meditate. They do yoga. They take classes. They swim and work in the gardens and socialize in the courtyard. It's already a community, which was what O'Connell had in mind when imagining a future for 20 teachers at the San Francisco Zen Center in 2006.

"We promised retirement to our senior teachers, but no one figured out how it was actually going to work," said the 77-year-old O'Connell. "So I started bringing awareness to the issue. And then I had an idea one day about how it might be possible to fix."

Enso Village opened its doors last fall. It's senior housing with focus -- a Zen focus spiritually, the physical centerpiece of which is a Japanese zendo (meditation building) right in the middle of a well-sculptured courtyard, surrounded by three-story residential buildings.

The idyllic Sonoma County setting, pushed against hills with a vineyard across the street, could be called a pure California stereotype. It's also the beginning of what could be a new way to approach housing during the later years of one's life.

When full, Enso Village will hold about 300 residents 60 and over. There will soon be different levels of care, including in-home care and assisted living and memory care, with the latter two starting in June. There will be 24 rooms designed for residents with mild to moderate dementia, Alzheimer's or similar conditions, and 30 assisted living units separate from memory care.

The demand has been enthusiastic enough that senior living developer Kendal Corporation, which partnered with the SF Zen Center and investors, are already planning a second community in Southern California, scheduled to open in 2027 in Simi Valley, for which deposits are already being accepted.

"We have about 180 residents living here now, which is about 60% occupancy and 221 independent living units and then around 50 assisted living units, said Nick Flores, Enso Village's head of marketing and communications. "We're about 70 percent reserved. It's a constant series of people moving in."

Some of the first residents were more than a dozen former SF Zen Center teachers, for whom 20 units have been reserved. They teach at the village, as do other people with various specialties. Flores said the average age of residents is about 76.

Judee Humburg moved into Enso Village in December. The former tech worker and teacher doesn't have family but is a big believer in community and meditation. She heard about the village, did a bit of research, and sent them a deposit within a few hours of getting on its website.

"For me, it was taking responsibility for my life in a way that had grace and some social responsibility and commitment to it," said Humburg, 78, who said Enso was much preferable to owning a home at this point in life. "I like the idea of community and caring for one another, but not for cleaning gutters and dealing with the fence falling down.'

Humburg said the village is the beginning of a bigger movement in senior communities, as more people are living longer.

"It's groundbreaking," said Humburg, a holder of two degrees from Stanford University. "Aging isn't what they thought it would be. You can still live a quality life in a graceful, caring, whole-hearted way."

Ray Saint Germain/Bay City News --A ceremonial bell or Bonsho, and wooden block or Han, hang outside the Zendo at Enso Village in Healdsburg, Calif., on May 9, 2024. Both serve as part of the soundscape in Zen temples. Enso Village is a Zen-inspired life plan community with a focus on mindful aging, the joys of nature, environmental stewardship, contemplative care and healthy life choices for adults 60+.

Humburg's point about people living longer and needing to find new ways to connect is well made.

In 2019, about one in every 11 people on Earth was 65 or older. By 2050, that number will nearly double, rising to one in six, according to the United Nations.

The World Health Organization has said the number of people 60 or older will more than double from 2015 to 2050, from 900 million to 2 billion. U.S. Census Bureau projections say roughly the same thing: In 2016, there were 49.2 million people in the U.S. 65 and older. By 2060, that number will increase to about 94.7 million.

So as Boomers and Gen X move into their senior years, not only will much more senior housing be needed, but more imagination will be needed in keeping up.

"We are seeing more types of housing that address the particular preferences and needs of older adults than in the past," said Jennifer Molinsky, director of the Housing an Aging Society Program at Harvard University.

Molinsky said she hasn't heard of any other Zen-influenced senior communities, but "with the growth in the older population, there are, of course, more active adult, as well as continuing care, retirement communities."

"We've been interested in co-living, focused on older adults as well as multigenerational households; these are more typically resident-driven developments," Molinsky said. "And there are some unique models of non-profit-led, or for/non-profit partnerships, who have built communities for older adults and families adopting from the foster care system."

Enso Village is a nonprofit. There's a one-time entrance fee and monthly fees the company says are comparable to owning and maintaining a home in the Healdsburg area. Prices depend on the size of the residential unit, whether one or two people live there, and the level of care provided. Some fees may be repayable if a resident relocates or to their estate if they die, once a unit is occupied again.

O'Connell said Enso Village is for people who plan.

"A lot of people here live in California and bought their homes 35 years ago, 40 years ago, even 20 years ago," O'Connell said. "They bought a house and with the real estate values, as they are in California, they can sell their house for a lot. Usually people sell their home in order to pay the entrance fee, and then there's a monthly fee, which is kind of like what you spend on your life right now, every month. That's your fee."

Tam Perry is a professor in the School of Social Work at Wayne State University in Michigan. Her ethnographic research addresses housing transitions of older adults from a network perspective.

Perry said there's a movement among senior living facilities to offer residents what's familiar.

"You can't replicate someone's house, but you can certainly try to make people feel at home," Perry said.

Doing so involves design that feels less institutionalized. Pets may be also involved. For some residents, it's just making them feel better about where they are. For others, it's less disorienting. Either way, it's more personalized.

"It helps people interact with the person, or their former self," she said.

Ray Saint Germain/Bay City News --The Enso Village residents garden in Healdsburg, Calif., on May 9, 2024. Enso Village is a Zen-inspired life plan community with a focus on mindful aging, the joys of nature, environmental stewardship, contemplative care and healthy life choices for adults 60+.

Perry said she hasn't heard the word "Zen" used much in connection with senior housing, but more facilities are designing quiet spaces or using Snoezelen rooms, which are designed to be a relaxing space helping reduce agitation and anxiety. Some are colorful, multi-sensory environments meant to engage users, stimulate reactions and encourage communication through imagery and touch.

Perry said more facilities are also incorporating nature into design, as well as things like cooking and gardening.

"The new models are going to come because of demand," Perry said, adding that she worries about older people without the income to have many options when it comes to retirement living.

"California, as a housing market, is an expensive place to live anyway," Perry said. "I would also caution that social commiseration and feeling like you can belong can be achieved at any price point."

Enso Village's units are roomy and comfortably designed, with kitchens. There's also restaurant-style community dining and a separate kitchen for vegetarian fare.

Kyle Evans is Enso Village's executive chef. Much of what he cooks comes straight from the facility's garden. There are five or six entrees on the menu each night. Unlike similar senior facilities, he said he has an "open canvas to be creative, to deliver the nourishment needs of the residents."

"It's a little less restrictive," Evans said. "But when we deal with assisted living and memory care, we have to be a little bit more compliant about those aspects. But for the most part it's really wonderful that we have a resident population that welcomes variety and they're comfortable with different varieties of food. It's not just mashed potatoes and meatloaf, though I think I've done that twice."

O'Connell said Enso Village doesn't have lifestyle requirements. Residents don't have to be Buddhist or even practice meditation. Many residents have put their own spiritual development on hold while raising families. Now it's their turn.

"There are a lot of people who put their spiritual curiosity on hold," said O'Connell, who was an actor and independent filmmaker, with TV acting credits on shows like "Ironside" and "The Streets of San Francisco," before getting involved with the SF Zen Center. "You knew it was there, and then there was no time with kids and everything. To them, it's an opportunity to go back into that and complete something. That's definitely a whole bunch of people."

The surroundings also grow on people, especially those who move with a partner already versed in a Zen lifestyle.

"I always say the only requirement is that you not be allergic to meditation because you don't have to do it," O'Connell said. "There are some people here who have a cynical bent. I have watched a couple of them just turn into these, you know, teddy bears, because it's not what they were afraid it was."

When asked if Enso Village transformed the skeptics, O'Connell laughed.

"Maybe they're a little cynical, but it's a beautiful place and they want to give it a try. I don't think 'transform' is too big of a word."