Retirement village planning pushes ahead

Community consultation has begun in the first stage of planning for a new GLBT retirement village in Sydney which could be up and running within two years, project developer Craig Wright said.

Wright will be holding a second round of focus groups later this month to consolidate community views on what people would like to see in the purpose-built GLBT-friendly retirement home or village.

Having attended ACON’s Ageing Forum earlier in the year, Wright became keen to see a solution developed to the ever growing problem of an ageing GLBT community with specialist needs.

The ACON Ageing Forum was a really amazing night for me. It was obvious from that night that there was a need for this and that we were on the right path, he told Sydney Star Observer.

We’re in the process of developing the business case right now and if all goes accordingly and we manage to find financial backing relatively quickly, we could see this project up and running in the next two years.

We had a focus group around six months ago and between then and now we’ve been doing some research online and getting some feedback from the community on what a project like this might look like.

What we would like to do is take that research and drill it a bit deeper so that we can come up with what the model should be. Should it be a residential development? Or just a retirement home?

Mostly what has come back is that people would like a typical residential development that has an alliance with a health care provider or has a small on-site health centre -” so that might even be like Taylor Square clinic or Holdsworth House.

I think what I’m keen to do is just create something which gives back to the community and provides a place where I would ultimately like to live.

info: To have your views on a GLBT retirement village known head to www.arkgroup.com.au