FAQs

Homestead Village is a Life Plan Community, formerly known as a Continuing Care Retirement Community, or CCRC.

A Life Plan Community offers many advantages, including an active, maintenance free, independent lifestyle; countless cultural and recreational opportunities; and the security of future care, should it ever be needed. Additionally, living in a Life Plan Community can be more affordable than staying in your home, without any of the chores and upkeep.

Yes! Although Homestead Village is far from the hustle and bustle on a 90-acre, tree-lined campus, it’s only three miles from the shopping, dining and cultural opportunities of historic downtown Lancaster. Homestead Village is also centrally located near airports and highways, giving you easy access to major cities, such as Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, and Harrisburg.

Homestead Village offers a complimentary on-campus shuttle to our residents between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM, Monday through Friday. Complimentary transportation to medical appointments is provided within a five-mile radius of the main campus between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM, Monday through Friday as well.

Off-campus transportation (excluding medical appointments) to local destinations, such as grocery stores, Central Market, Fulton Theatre, and the mall, are limited to one trip per week to allow fair use for all residents.

If transportation is needed for a personal reason—or to a destination farther away, such as an airport or vacation home — specially scheduled arrangements may be made for a fee.

Homestead Village offers transportation to local banks for our residences' convenience. At this time, there is no pharmacy on campus; however, several local pharmacies deliver to our campus, and our transportation team is also available to pick up prescriptions. Homestead Village also offers a notary, gift shop, and convenience grocery items in the café.

You may dine your way in our beautiful dining room, which offers a wide variety of fresh, healthy, choices — from farm-to-table to vegetarian to gluten-free. Homestead Village's culinary team also takes great pride in meeting our resident needs and delighting them with delicious creation in our Plow and Pineapple Café, Pineapple Room Restaurant, and Stauffer Spring House Café. We also offer take-out and delivery, and we always have our healthy choice menu.

All residents participate in a flexible “Dining Dollar” program, and special dietary needs are carefully accommodated. “Dining Dollars” can be used however you choose — for breakfast, lunch, dinner, eat-in, take-out, guest meals or even delivery at a nominal charge. Your “Dining Dollars” will roll over from month to month if you do not use all of your dollars in one month’s time, and can also be waived if a resident is traveling for an extended period.

Meals range from $6-8 for breakfast, $7-11 for lunch, and $9-16 for dinner.

Residents can also host events in their own homes or in one of the community areas and leave the serving, cooking and cleanup to our dining services department (this is not included in the “Dining Dollars” program).

Yes!

Yes, there is an East Hempfield Township ordinance mandating that loud noises or music be quieted after 10 p.m.

UGI is the gas supplier (The Farmstead and The Mews use gas). PPL is the electric supplier (the cottages and villas use electric). Based on resident feedback, the cost of gas averages $30–90/month, and the cost of electric averages $30–90/month.

Yes, Homestead Village welcomes pets — with some restrictions. Check with our marketing department for guidelines.

Homestead Village offers both a 60% refund plan and a 0% refund plan — both have various advantages. The plan you choose may depend on your health, age, finances, and tolerance for risk. The main difference is that the 60% refund plan has a 30% higher entrance fee than the 0% refund plan.

Of note: Even the 0% plan offers some refund: Only 2% per month is deducted during the first 50 months you live at Homestead so that should you need to leave for any reason, the remaining amount will be returned to you.

Type B means "Modified Fee for Service." Like a type C or fee-for-service community, we do have a standard entrance fee and monthly maintenance fee; however, we also offer 15 days of nursing care, per resident, per year included in the monthly fee, which classifies us as a type B community. For example, if a resident went in for a hospital procedure and needed care afterwards, he or she could receive care in our Apostles Center for 15 days at no cost to him or her. The resident could also use those days in our infirmary, which is more like an overnight accommodation with nursing attention.

The down payment is 10% of the entrance fee.

Once you reserve a home, you have three months to complete the final payment and move in. Most of our residents find that this is a perfect amount of time for a smooth transition. In some instances, Homestead Village may be able to work with you to arrange an extension.

Our literature states that a person who is on our waitlist at “ready status,” should be ready to accept an opportunity to move when one is presented. However, he or she does have two chances to decline the opportunity. If after two opportunities, a person continues to not be ready, we will not call him or her for a year. This does not change the person’s position on the list, though. People can also be on our wait list at “general status,” which indicates to us that they are not yet ready to receive phone calls or opportunities. They can be confident that they are on the list but will not be called until they upgrade to “ready status.”

Yes, as a Farmstead resident, you’ll become part of the Homestead Village family, enjoying its wealth of services, amenities, dining, and life enrichment programs, as well as a full continuum of care, if ever needed.

The fee covers property taxes, 24-hour security, interior and exterior maintenance, appliance repair and replacement, landscaping and lawn care, transportation to shopping, outings, and medical appointments, snow and trash removal, water and sewer, and use of the dining room, health club, pool, library, craft room, wood shop, lounges, and the salon.

You can choose from a range of charming, maintenance-free living spaces, including:

• Villa Court: Contemporary, bright two-bedroom, two-bath duplex and triplex villas
• The Mews: Villas with unique rooflines, two-car garages and 1,420 to 2,348 square feet of living space
• Apartments: Stylish homes convenient to services and amenities
• Cottages: Comfortable two-bedroom, two-bath cottages situated around the pickleball court
• The Farmstead: Our elegant new carriage home neighborhood adjacent to historic Lime Spring Farm

There are no fees to transition to an apartment if the reason is to be closer to services or the dining room. The monthly fee will change, however, depending on the type of home. (Apartment fees are typically higher because they include extra services such as a larger Dining Dollar program amount, housekeeping, linen service, utilities, etc.) There is a renovation surcharge for internal transfers to renovated apartments.

This depends on the condition of the home that is being renovated, but paint and carpet are generally always replaced, and appliances, lighting fixtures, bathroom vanities, kitchen cabinets, and countertops are often replaced. When new updates are installed, the incoming resident will be able to make his or her own selections.

Upgrades are available for appliances, flooring, cabinets, countertops, and lighting.

Homestead Village will maintain and replace all appliances that come with your home. If you purchase your own appliances, we may not be able to service them, so we don’t encourage this practice. You can choose standard appliances or upgrades such as stainless steel finishes, icemakers, French doors, and double ovens.

Homestead Village does allow some furnishing installations, such as closet upgrades or built-in shelving, but asks that you work through the environmental services director to get the installation approved, obtain quotes, and have the work done. This helps us ensure the quality of the work and the safety of current and future residents. Window treatments may be installed at your expense by a company of your choice.

Homestead Village asks that residents carry a renter’s insurance policy to cover the cost of personal belongings.

All depositors are provided with samples of contract paperwork to review, prior to the time they will need to sign it. Depositors are also provided with the community's financial disclosure statement. Homestead Village wants all depositors to be confident in Homestead Village's transparency and health as an organization.

Yes! Homestead Village has a personal care program that’s unique to the area: All of our apartments are licensed for personal care. Therefore, if you ever need additional assistance, we’ll simply send a staff person to your apartment to provide services, rather than making you move to another location. This is also a beneficial arrangement for couples because, when one spouse needs additional services, but the other does not, the couple can continue to live together in their apartment. We also offer home care services that can provide assistance in our other residences outside of the apartments. Services are available in three tiers.

Yes, at Homestead Village, nurses are available on-site 24 hours a day, and they can be reached by our emergency call button system. Our skilled care center also has an in-house medical director. However, residents of our residential neighborhoods can continue to see their primary care physician and specialists. Our location is also very convenient to the Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health campus, two major hospitals and numerous doctors’ offices and specialists. We provide our residents with a complimentary shuttle service to all doctors’ appointments within a five-mile radius.

Skilled nursing care is provided on-site in the Apostles Center for Care, a fully accredited, Medicare- and Medicaid-approved nursing care center. Personal care is available in your apartment or at the Gelhard House, a beautifully appointed home featuring private rooms with private bathrooms. Memory support programs are available at the Gelhard House, Harvest House, or the Apostles Center for Care, depending on the resident's needs.

“Model” refers to the type and size of room available in our personal care and memory support residences at Gelhard House and Harvest House.

Yes, Homestead Village welcomes members of the greater community, as well as permanent residents, to our short-term rehab program, which provides advanced physical, occupational, and speech therapy, and other treatments to help guests recover as quickly as possible from injuries, illnesses, or operations.

Yes, Homestead Village offers a wide range of home care services to assist people in maintaining independence in their homes in Lancaster, whether they’re recuperating from illness or surgery and need non-medical services, or whether long-term or respite services are needed. We provide these home care services both on campus and outside of campus.

Homestead Village has a nurse and social worker dedicated to serving our residential living population. We also offer minor care services through our infirmary—although small charges may be incurred for services. Fifteen days of skilled nursing care are included per resident, per year, and may also be used in the infirmary.