As the Population Ages, Boards Need to Think of Safety First

Carpets. Slip-and-fall accidents are among the most dangerous, even for robust 60-year-olds, and slip-and-fall lawsuits are among the most common that boards face. They don’t just occur on the ice, either. “Area rugs are the worst things for a senior, because they slip on them or trip over them,” says Bonnie Honya, a board member at Queens’ Clearview Gardens, a co-op with 1,788 garden apartments.

So avoid plush carpets and heavy carpet-padding in your common areas. Use feathered floor coverings, meaning ones that go from a higher surface to a lower surface gradually with a rubber border. And prevent a carpet, mat, or runner from curling by taping it down with special carpet tape (and not regular double-stick tape, which leaves a sticky residue on the floor).

Ramps. Although many younger residents may resent a ramp because it spells wheelchairs and old age, many boards get requests for ramps. Buildings with front-door steps can install a ramp for those using wheelchairs, walkers, or canes.

It’s a common misconception that the federal Americans with Disabilities Act applies to the common areas of residential co-ops and condos. It does not – unless there’s a place of public accommodation, such as a doctor’s office, accessible through the lobby. The act applies to your retail spaces, of course. There’s a New York City statute (Local Law 58) that applies during certain renovations, plus city and state human-rights laws that in one case forced Co-op City in the Bronx to install automatic front doors for residents in wheelchairs. You can get ahead of all that by installing a code-compliant ramp proactively, integrating it with the building design and installing good lighting, a canopy, and other features.

Strobe lights. Many people, not just the elderly, suffer from hearing loss, so it’s becoming increasingly common for buildings to install strobe-light fire alarms in addition to standard aural alarms. Boards also can let seniors and their families know about medical alert necklaces and bracelets, such as those from Life Alert, Mindme, or Safe Link, and even personal GPS trackers from companies like PocketFinder and GPS Shoe.

Gas shutoffs. A major concern, according to Allison Day, a co-op board president in Brooklyn, “is seniors leaving the gas on, which is extremely frightening to all of us, especially given recent [gas explosions] in the city.” In response to an incident with one resident that required Con Ed intervention, Day’s co-op board turned to a little-known technology: electronic automatic shutoffs that can protect buildings from anyone who leaves a stove unattended.

“Because this is a rent-controlled tenant, we are legally obligated to provide a stove if they request one,” says Day. After some discussion, the board purchased both a stove and an electronic device positioned above the stove, basically a motion sensor. If the stove is on and there isn’t motion in the kitchen within a prescribed amount of time, it will turn the stove off.

Devices such as the Absolute Automation’s CookStop Automatic Stove Shut Off ($359) or iGuard’s iGuardStove ($599) feature just such an adjustable motion sensor that can turn off a stove if it detects no one in the cooking area, with other features including e-mail/text notifications when a stove is in use. A board can’t mandate such a device for shareholders/unit-owners, though any board, family-member, or concerned neighbor seeing potential stove-related danger can seek court intervention through New York State’s Kendra’s Law, which provides for court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment.