The Home: New Lease on Life

THE HOME

First, there was the "retirement community" — invented six years ago when the Federal Housing Administration first offered special financing for housing projects designed for the elderly.

The developers' idea was that the old wanted a place in the sun, and large tracts of desert and seaside bloomed with the new "villages." The sign on the gate said, "No children, no dogs"; there were shuffleboard courts, hobby shops, a bingo game every evening, and to many an oldster, it seemed as close to heaven as they cared to get. But there were...