Maryanne Forgen can’t even begin to count the number of times she hears from senior citizens that they can’t afford to move.

As regional director of operations for High Desert Assisted Living in Bend, Forgen said she often runs into clients in need of more care than they can receive at home, and who are also in a financial bind.

”They stay in a situation that is not necessarily safe for their needs,” Forgen said.

Most seniors live on fixed incomes made up of retirement savings and Social Security payments. The idea of moving into a facility that charges between $2,000 and $3,000 a month for rent, food, health care and housekeeping can seem daunting.

To make the transition easier, High Desert Assisted Living recently began a home-buying program that offers seniors discounted rates for the first six months they live in the assisted-living facility or until they are able to sell their own home. Once the home is sold, Forgen said, the seniors pay back the difference owed for the first few months of their tenancy.

”A lot of times, our seniors fall into two groups. There are the hoarders and the savers. And there is the other part of the population that has maybe already depleted a good portion of their funds because of illness or other injury or other things that come up,” Forgen said. ”They don’t have any real substantial savings left. The big bulk of their resources is tied up in their home.”

The home-buying program is similar to one in place at Aspen Ridge Retirement Communities, said Cheryl Karcher, a spokeswoman for Aspen Ridge. There, rent is typically reduced to $500 a month until residents have a chance to sell their homes and begin paying the full cost of between $2,000 and $3,000 a month.

”Medical necessity doesn’t always go hand-in-hand with the real estate market,” Karcher said. ”Some of the people that move here, that move to our communities, are following their children here. A lot of the homes being sold are not being sold in Bend. Almost 50 percent are not from Bend.”

The real estate markets in other places can be slower than in Bend, Karcher said. And, she said, often low- or fixed-income seniors are already living in mobile homes that can take longer to sell.

Not knowing how they’ll pay the bills often prohibits seniors from taking the necessary step of moving into an assisted-living or nursing facility, said Diana Manser of the Central Oregon Council on Aging.

”It keeps them from moving initially, because it’s overwhelming for them to sell their home,” Manser said. ”They need the help and when they need it, they need it now. Quite often, we can’t put enough services in for someone to keep them safe at home.”

For those seniors who do not own homes and are concerned about paying the high price of assisted-living care, Frank Martynowicz, an owner and administrator of Harmony Healthcare in Bend, which is a combined nursing, independent and assisted-living facility, said there are government assistance programs available. Medicare and the Oregon Health Plan both help seniors and low-income disabled people cover the costs, and veterans qualify for assistance as well.

At High Desert Assisted Living, Forgen said, the home-buying program is just one way the facility can meet its goals of serving seniors to the best of its ability.

”Our mission to be able to provide affordable health-care services in a comfortable environment,” she said.