“As you sit in this room among your fellow cooperators, would each of you please look around the room and catch the eye of someone at another table.”
Dennis Johnson, Board Chair of the Senior Cooperative Foundation, paused. He looked around the room at the nearly 450 senior housing co-op members, managers, developers, and advocates, inviting everyone to reflect on the legacy of senior cooperative leader Terry McKinley. “Think about it: you are all living the vision of Terry. That is what he was all about.”
This marked the welcome of the 23rd annual Senior Housing Co-op Conference, hosted in Bloomington, MN, by Cooperative Development Services (CDS) and the Senior Cooperative Foundation (SCF). The conference drew record attendance, bringing together co-op board members, property managers, and other professionals working in the sector.
Attendees joined in-person and virtually from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, California, and Texas. “It’s great to see continued growth in multiple states and the ability for those further away to participate in the conference over Zoom,” said Bob Murphy, Vice Chair of the CDS Senior Housing Co-op Council, CDS Board Member, and Board President of the Applewood Pointe Cooperative of Roseville at Langton Lake.
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The conference atmosphere pulsed with excitement and joyful reunions. “It feels like we’ve finally reached pre-pandemic energy,” said Vicky Chaput, CDS Office & Program Manager and key conference organizer. “We’ve seen such incredible engagement from both long-time supporters and newcomers. New co-ops, new states, new people — not just attending the conference but getting involved with the planning process, too.”
Standard sessions remained favorites, including “Replacement Reserves,” “Best Practices in Maintenance,” the “Discussion with HUD,” and the “Current Insurance Landscape.” Co-op members fastidiously took notes throughout the sessions, pausing only to raise their hands with thoughtful questions, of which there were no shortage. Many attendees especially enjoyed a new session on “AI in the Boardroom and Beyond,” which helped illuminate a technology that is becoming increasingly relevant in today’s world.
Results from the SCF 2025 survey revealed shifts in the community and sector. Overall, senior housing co-ops are finding their residents more highly educated, older, and more drawn to a need for community. Co-ops are seeing an increase in members over age 90 as well as a pattern of parents and their children living within the same co-op. Notably, more members are moving from other retirement communities to co-ops and highlight community as a key reason for their move.
“The message is starting to spread beyond the Midwest,” said Dennis Johnson, describing how senior housing co-ops are no longer just a phenomenon of the Upper Midwest and particularly the Twin Cities, where the movement has its roots. Across the country today, 164 co-ops house over 13,200 senior members in an expanding number of states, including Kansas, Colorado, Washington, and Texas. Fourteen prospective co-ops are underway in existing and new states including Montana, Wyoming, and Indiana. Johnson notes that co-ops are increasingly drawing members from much further away — such as Arizona, Florida, and California — who are moving back to where they grew up and to be closer to family.
Attendees also emphasized today’s changing economic landscape. This sentiment was reflected in the sessions on Reserves and Maintenance, for instance when members noted that furniture and building materials are not built to last anymore. “The cost of labor today is not what it was 5, 10, or 20 years ago,” said Leah Winter, Regional Manager with Ebenezer Management Services. Winter observed that current labor market dynamics and economic conditions differ from those of past eras, influencing workforce expectations and employment practices.
A strong sense of community is undeniably important to members today. Ellen Saul, who served as Board President at Kildahl Park Pointe Co-op of Northfield for five years and is now helping transition the incoming President into the role, emphasized how important community has been for her. “My husband and I moved in just before the pandemic began, which ended up being great for meeting others,” said Saul. “Co-ops really are about the community — seeing your neighbors in the hallway, running into someone when grabbing coffee.”
Saul was also not alone in enjoying the roundtable sessions for Board Officers, Committee members, and Managers on the second day of the conference. She and others noted the sense of community in connecting with others in the same leadership positions. “This conference has been a fantastic learning opportunity for our new Board President as well,” said Saul.
Even conference newcomers could feel the strong sense of community. Rose’s Daughters, a move management company that helps seniors and their families thoughtfully navigate the moving process, attended for the first time as a sponsor. Sharon Kadet, General Manager at Rose’s Daughters, busily spent the conference making new connections. “We’re so grateful to be included,” said Kadet. “We’re really looking forward to attending more community events held at senior housing co-ops.”
Amidst the buzzing of conversation and engaging sessions, there remained an undercurrent of gratitude and motivation: honoring Terry McKinley. Attendees carried conference notebooks with Terry’s smiling face on the cover as they stopped to admire a display showing Terry’s wide-reaching impact. Terry’s son, Thomas McKinley, created the display — two maps adorned with pins — to show his father’s impact across the Twin Cities and Minnesota. It was fixed upright on a brick from 7500 York, the first senior housing co-op that Terry helped form.
Terry dedicated his career of over 30 years to the development of the senior housing cooperative sector. He focused primarily on lending and financial services for senior housing co-ops, particularly in the beginning of his career, but did so much more in pursuing his vision for the sector. Terry networked with hundreds of developers across the Midwest and ultimately led fifteen of them to develop senior housing co-ops.
Terry strongly believed that peer learning within this community was of the utmost importance. This conviction led him to create this annual conference in 2001, the Senior Cooperative Housing council soon after, and the Senior Cooperative Foundation in 2002. He served as the SCF President for nine years. Under his leadership, the SCF built the only website devoted to senior housing cooperatives, developed member education programs, created leadership awards, established scholarships, and launched the Senior Cooperative Housing Purchasing Cooperative in 2010, which today serves 41 member co-ops.
This year’s conference reflected the culmination of Terry’s vision — an enduring commitment to senior housing co-op communities, in an ever-changing world, led by the very people who call these communities home.
