Truth in Marketing: Enhanced Senior Living at Homestead Village

It is more than just a tag line or a marketing slogan.  Enhanced senior living is the perfect description for life at Homestead Village.  In every area, we excel in enhancing the lives of those who have chosen to make Homestead Village their home!

Enhanced Care

Perhaps the most important reason a person chooses a senior living community is the availability of future care.  Homestead Village has spent ten years developing the most comprehensive aging in place program available.  With both Supportive Services and Homecare Services, Homestead residents are able to age in place wherever they live.  Homecare allows cottage and villa residents to stay in their homes longer.  For a more comprehensive solution to aging in place, our Supportive Services program offers a cost effective 24 hours a day.  When a resident requires more comprehensive care, the households at Homestead Village offer the most homelike memory support and nursing care available.

Fickes House Dining Room and Kitchen

Enhanced Location

No other retirement community is tucked into the beautiful neighborhoods of western Lancaster and just minutes from Lancaster’s hospitals, the Fulton Opera House, Central Market and downtown shopping.  Looking up and down Good Drive, the largest, most comprehensive collection of medical offices in Lancaster is anchored by Lancaster General's Health Campus.  Good Drive is also the home of Stauffers of Kissel Hill's flagship store and leads to great shopping at Park City Mall.  Homestead Village is also located between Franklin & Marshall and Millersville University and just minutes from Route 30.  There is no better location.

Enhanced Dining

Homestead Village's dining program continues to improve its quality, freshness and selection.  With great chefs like Eloy Jaimes and Ross Keene, the food is outstanding.  Residents enjoy a wonderful Sunday Brunch and many fresh, cooked to order options throughout the week.  Our chefs enjoy moving out into the dining room to put their talents on display nearly every week.  CURA's gold standards are a promise that Homestead Village's meals will be healthy, fresh and tasty.

Enhanced Life Enrichment

One of many summer picnics featuring great food,
entertainment and fun for all!

Adventures in Life is our outstanding life enrichment program.  Homestead residents have so many great choices - educational, entertainment, social, travel, and dining.  The list goes on and on.  What used to be known as activities is a highlight of life at Homestead Village.  One look through the monthly Adventures in Life booklet will convince you that Homestead Village is the place for living an enriched life.

Enhanced Health

Do you like to swim?  Walk?  Play basketball?  Lift weights?  Practice Tai Chi?  Homestead Village has many healthy choices.  With our beautiful swimming pool and fitness club, as well as exercise programs such as Tai Chi, health is an important part of living at Homestead Village.  With Rader Park and its miles of walking trails, and outdoor sports opportunities, outdoor exercise is always available, too.

Enhanced Faith

Homestead Village's Rose Window

Founded by Church of the Apostles and forever an integral part of its ministry, Homestead Village's mission and its purpose is founded in the Christian tradition of caring and compassion.  Many Homestead Village residents have made COA their home church.  Right across the street, Faith Baptist Church offers another faith tradition and just down the street St. Leo the Great serves our Catholic residents.  Degel Israel Congregation is only minutes away on Columbia Avenue.  Many other faith opportunities exist in the immediate area around Homestead Village.  Church services our held every Sunday in the Apostles Center for Care and devotions and Bible Studies appear regularly in our "Adventures in Life."

Enhanced Senior Living did not spring out of a marketing idea that was then turned into a campaign.  In fact, Enhanced Independence and Dignity has been a core element of Homestead Village's mission statement for decades.  Our mission is:

"Enhancing independence and dignity as together we create a compassionate community."  It just made sense to feature enhanced senior living in our advertising because it clearly defines life in our community.  If one asks the question, "What does enhanced senior living look like?"  The answer is obvious.  It looks like Homestead Village!

Townstead Update!

We are nearly half way to our goal of 70% pre-reserved for Phase One of Townstead.  We have been listening to our customers and can now offer the following improvements to the already fantastic Townstead living experience.  Phase one now features two new apartment floor plans.  The Harriet Lane is a spectacular 1650 square foot residence with two balconies, a study, 21/2 baths and beautiful finishes.  The George Ross is a spacious one bedroom deluxe apartment.

The Harriet Lane, 1650 square feet, 2 Bedroom, 21/2 bath

In addition to new floor plans, the big news is smaller meal plans.  The new standard Townstead Meal Plan mirrors our cottage and villa meals plans, currently just $67 per person per month.  The Homestead Village dining department offers fresh, delicious, healthy meals throughout the day, everyday.  Contact Susan Doyle or Nettie Cimadamore in the Homestead Village marketing department for more details.  Remember Phase One depositors receive a free granite counter upgrade!  Come see why Townstead is your best senior living choice.

Scams Come in Many Flavors. Some Might Really Appeal to You!

Some of the political solicitations for money that one
Homestead resident received so far in 2012

Phone calls, e-mails and letters in the mail.  All three bring needed information, greetings from friends and family and requests for money.  Recently a Homestead Village resident asked me to review her mail because there were so many requests for money.  In the stack of official looking documents were many, many requests for donations from organizations that appear to be reputable but all wanted the same thing – hundreds of dollars to help “them” protect “us” from the evil politicians on the other side.  This is not a Republican or Democrat, Liberal or Conservative problem.  Whenever people have passionate feelings about a topic, entrepreneurs find a way to make money on it.

It is not just politics though; religious organizations, animal rights and environmental groups and nearly every other social issue attract questionable groups that solicit money allegedly for the cause.  What should you do?  Here are some suggested responses to the avalanche of requests for donations.

Just say NO to any organization that seeks you out for money.  The sad truth is that once you give money to a cause, that organization may sell your personal information, allowing a plethora of copycats to solicit you as well.  If you are passionate about a cause, you should seek out a reputable organization or two and give to them exclusively. 

Throw away, delete or hang up on any request for money that you did not initiate.  These requests for money use passionate language and create a sense of urgency designed to cause you to write a check.  You must resist these sophisticated schemes.  Only give money to organizations that you have sought out and confirmed their integrity.  Any money sent to an unknown organization may end up in someone’s personal bank account and do nothing for the cause you are passionate about.

In other words, check writer beware!

Property Tax Article in the Lancaster Sunday News Fairly Portrayed the Story

Mews Boulevard

Property tax is a very passionate subject in today's society.  It is the principal source of revenue for most school districts and local municipalities and the tax rate varies significantly from district to district.  By law, charitable non-profit organizations in Pennsylvania are not required to pay property tax, yet most non-profit retirement communities do pay taxes or make payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs).  In Lancaster County, the non-profit retirement communities pay over $10,000,000 in property taxes a year.  In Hempfield School District the three largest tax payers are  non-profit, health care and retirement organizations - paying far more in property taxes than the many large industrial neighbors in the district.


Homestead Village has paid many millions of dollars in property taxes over the past decade.  As an organization, we believe it is our civic duty to pay our share of the cost of providing quality education and services to the community. It is important to note that we maintain all private streets and infrastructure.  From paving to snow removal to lighting to sidewalks, Homestead Village is 100% responsible for our miles of roads We cost the township no money for maintenance.  When we built The Mews and expanded to the other side of Good Drive, we paid a significant portion of the cost of the creation of Noll Drive and we paid for nearly half of the cost of the traffic light at Noll and Good Drives.  it goes without saying that Homestead Village's neighborhoods do not contribute any students nor place any financial burden on Hempfield School District.

Our property tax for last year was approximately $650,000 representing one of our largest budgeted expenses.  In 2010, we refinanced our long term debt.  As part of that process, the financial institution required an appraisal on The Mews property.  To our surprise, the appraised value was 50% of the assessed value.  That discovery prompted our leadership to hire an independent consultant to analyze our property taxes.  His determination was that Homestead Village's property taxes should be reduced 30%.  It is important to point out that the consultant we contracted  with was recommended by another retirement community.  In that case, the same consultant determined that community was paying the appropriate amount of taxes.  Thus we believe our consultant is very conservative in his determination.

Lastly, it is important to note that Homestead Village is committed to paying our fair share of the property tax burden

Using The Resident Expectations Survey to Improve Life at Homestead Village

As mentioned previously, the 2011 Resident Expectation Survey was very positive.  Summarizing, overall satisfaction came in at 98.54% and satisfaction increased or stayed the same in 18 of the 23 areas surveyed.  While the numerical ratings for each question in the satisfaction survey are both  interesting and beneficial to benchmark the satisfaction scores versus previous surveys, the comments are the the very best source of information for quality improvement. 

Each of the 23 questions in the bi-annual expectation survey includes space for comments and many residents took advantage of the opportunity to provide feedback.  For 2011, the comments spanned 44 pages and totaled over 1100 separate points of feedback.  Well over half of the comments were positive regarding services and quality of staff members; but the constructive criticism contains many illuminating statements and good ideas.

Each Department Leader reviews the comments pertaining to their department, identifying comments that are positive as well as those that raise concerns.  For each concern, an appropriate action is determined.  For concerns that span more than one department, a quality improvement task force is developed to address the shortcoming.

Some examples of comments follow: 

Question 17 covered the quality of staff exhibiting friendliness, helpfulness, competency and cheer.  That category scored 99.64% satisfied, a .01% improvement over 2009.  20 of the 23 comments were positive.  The three concerns related to staff not being friendly at all times.  The clearest example was the comment that "some staff look the other way when I encounter them in the hallway."  These comments will be used as customer service examples in employee training and new employee orientation.

Question 16 relates to the timeliness and quality of communication between administration and residents. This question scored 98.55%, a .85% increase in satisfaction over 2009.  Ten of the nineteen comments were positive.  Of the nine concerns, some related to HVTV (Channel 95), one related to timeliness of notices, and one stated that long term goals are not clear.  Channel 95 improvements are ongoing and the timeliness of notices and long term goal issues will be examined for ways to improve both.

This level of detail is applied to all comments so that we can continue to improve the quality of our services and better fulfill our mission!

Satisfaction - a Homestead Village Tradition!

Our biannual satisfaction survey was conducted in Spring 2011 and the results once again prove that Homestead Village residents are very happy with their community and their decision to make Homestead their home.

Fickes House Dining Room is a reflection
of Homestead quality.

Of the 22 aspects of quality of life surveyed, 13 scored above 98%, 17, above 95% and 2 scored 100% satisfaction.  That compares to the 2009 survey in which 9 areas scored above 98% and 15 above 95%.

The two services that scored 100% satisfaction were Transportation and Snow Removal.  Of special note is our Environmental Services Department goal to remove all snow from each resident's path - including the snow between resident cars parked outside and even the snow ON each resident's car!

As important as the high scores are in measuring satisfaction, we especially treasure the comments.  Our residents' countless ideas and feedback will serve us well in continuing to make Homestead Village the best place to live and to work.

Why Homestead Village Needs To Grow

Townstead is the exciting new 60 apartment edition to Homestead Village.  Some residents have asked, is it really necessary to build 60 more apartments.  They like Homestead Village just the way it is and do not want it to grow any bigger.  Their question is, "Why do we need to build more apartments?"  Here's the answer.

What is too big?
Often existing residents don't like the idea of new living units because it means more people and more crowds.  In reality Townstead will be beneficial in this area.  The sixty apartments will further improve our financial position and reduce each resident's individual portion of the administrative overhead.  Most of the first floor renovations and additions and part of the second floor will be  dedicated to wonderful new common space.  In reality, the new Homestead Village will feature improved activity and dining space as well as a much larger library, chapel and other meeting rooms.

Even though we are blessed with more than sixty acres in the best location in Lancaster, Homestead Village will never grow too big...Future growth at our Rohrerstown location will be limited to incremental increases, meaning Homestead Village will always be a medium sized senior living community.


New Apartments bring Needed New Amenities
Common space costs plenty.  Many communities spend tens of millions of dollars to add important amenities. It is not financially prudent to invest millions in non-revenue producing amenities without adding some additional revenue producing living units.  Townstead gives us the best of both worlds.

Growth meets a Need
Homestead Village has grown many times over the past 25 years.  The addition of seventy additional apartments in 1989, the completion of the cottages in the late eighties, the development of Villa Court in the nineties followed by the completion of The Mews in the last decade has given hundreds of seniors the opportunity to live at Homestead Village who otherwise would not have had that opportunity.  Today, our priority list stakeholders who want to live in a two bedroom apartment are unable to make Homestead Village their home, due to the acute shortage.  Townstead will add fifty additional two bedroom apartments, alleviating the long wait.

Townstead is the best and brightest future for Homestead Village!