Mark Hunter CEO of Living Solutions, Afton, Wyoming, premiered the “Portable Assisted Living Environment” to industry leaders, venture capitalists, and leading entrepreneurs in the longevity market at the 16th Annual Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit held in Berkeley, California June 5-6, 2019. The Portable Assisted Living Environment was recognized as a “What’s Next” innovation for its disruptive business model in addressing a crisis for caregivers and older adults who wish to age in place.

The market is facing a crisis in the availability of assisted living beds as baby boomers age. With 1.7 million licensed beds in the United States and more than 100 million older adults, assisted living communities will not be able to meet market demand. The current inventory of licensed will be reserved for seniors with highly complex medical issues, leaving tens of millions of seniors will be cared for at home. There are currently 44 million unpaid caregivers in the United States and the numbers continue to rise.

Hunter’s portable assisted living environment is a scalable solution designed to address a number of issues facing the market:

• Providing for personal and health care at home, regardless of a home’s suitability for an older adult.
• Creating support and safety for the family members providing care.
• Integrating tools and solutions for caregivers to provide a high quality of care in the home.
• Scalability to meet the growing need for assisted level services.
• Affordability for older adults at all income levels.

The portable assisted living environment is unique dwelling delivered to the caregiver when they need to move their older loved one into an assisted environment. The unit is leased for as long as it is needed, with nothing to buy or build. The solution is designed for seniors to thrive at home safely and affordably.

“We monitor trends and unmet needs in the longevity economy regularly, searching for the kind of companies who are working hard to both differentiate their offering and serve the needs of the market,” said Mary Furlong, Executive Producer of the Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit. “This recognition is a testament to the skill, ingenuity, and vision of the innovators and creators.”

The ppod by Living Solutions of Afton, Wyoming, received the prestigious Edison Innovation Gold Award in the Living, Working, & Learning Environments Category. The portable, leased, home-use assisted living structure provides a solution for the looming crisis in senior care.

“After a thorough review, the Edison Awards Judges recognize ppod as a game-changing innovation standing out among the best new products and services launched in their category,” said Edison Awards Executive Director Frank Bonafilia.

Living Solutions founder Mark Hunter, a longtime entrepreneur, set out four years ago to solve his own aging parents’ challenges and devised an affordable system with application to the 50 million seniors who will need assisted care in the coming decades. Living Solutions was named a “What’s Next Company” at the 16th Annual Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit in Berkeley, Calif., last year.

“We must better care, shield, protect, and not judge this forgotten generation,” Hunter said. “We must assist our aged with dignity as their own strengths diminish and respectfully enable them to meet what they cannot ward off. At Living Solutions, we will help families disrupt aging one client at a time.”

The ppod temporary housing includes a robotic personal assistant, a telehealth portal, an ADA-equipped kitchenette and bath, and medical monitoring and dispensing in a comfortable, private living space. Its single-person approach removes the challenges of high-population residential centers made vivid by the coronavirus pandemic while allowing easy social interaction and proximity to caregivers.

The solution is available to rural and suburban areas as well as cities, so seniors can remain in their communities and receive high-quality care for significantly less cost than beds in assisted-living centers or nursing homes.