A Virginia-based senior housing owner and operator said Monday that voter registration services are part of the company’s wellness offerings, giving residents a sense of purpose and empowerment knowing that they are making a difference in processes that can affect their lives.
“Wellness is just not health initiatives around chronic disease; also having the opportunity to vote and exercise your right actually reduces stress and reduces anxiety,” Beacon Communities Director of Program Development and Implementation Gregory Ford said during a National Low Income Housing Coalition panel discussion on resident civic engagement.
Beacon Communities identified local colleges and universities with elder law programs to provide on-site, pro bono programming, including helping residents register to vote. Ford said that the law students talk with residents about their rights and take them through the voter registration process to address any literacy issues, intimidation fears or misconceptions.
The service is free to Beacon Communities, and law students earn school credit and real world experience while providing a community service. Some communities host weekly wellness law clinics, whereas others host a law day once a semester.
“Academia and universities are relatively receptive to being a presence on your site, where they can get to know residents and build that trust and rapport,” Ford said. “When you establish those relationships with community stakeholders, they are in it for the well-being of the resident.”
Ford said that one law clinic applied for a grant to supply 83 tablets to enable residents to look up voting precincts, watch videos about voting and read voter education materials.
Beacon Communities launched the law clinics in its Richmond, VA, communities and replicated them in its Pennsylvania and New England communities. Ford said the law clinic grew out of a program addressing living wills, powers of attorney and simple estate planning.
Jonathan Rose Companies Associate Director of Development Andrew Foley also was a panelist and said the New York-based affordable housing owner / operator saw voter registration as one of its fundamental responsibilities, to remove barriers to voting for its low-income households.
During the pandemic in 2020, he said, Jonathan Rose Companies closed some of the polling locations it hosted, to protect its older adult residents. Those closures led the company to double down on its vote-from-home efforts that provide information to residents to help them navigate the changing rules around voting safely from home.
“The pandemic brought opportunities to expand on that work and resources to make it easier to vote,” Foley said, adding that incorporating voter registration applications into the resident move-in process can improve voter turnout among residents.
