Multifamily owners and managers have adjusted to long-term life under COVID-19 by adapting how they offer amenities to residents.

Common areas remain silent at many apartment buildings—emptied out to avoid spreading the coronavirus. But residents still need services and amenities, especially as they spend more time on site than normal. That’s forcing innovation and adaptation on the part of apartment owners and managers.

Parents need activities for children home from school. People forced to work out of home need co-working space. Others would like a place to exercise other than their living room rugs.

Apartments companies have found ways to provide services while continuing to follow best practices and regulations to protect their residents from the coronavirus. Sometimes that means livestreaming content that in a pre-COVID-19 world was normally part of in-person programming. In other jurisdictions, residents have been allowed to return to common areas—at reduced levels of occupancy set by local health officials.

“People are craving feeling connected,” says Devin Wirt, CEO of TFLiving, a company based in Pawley, S.C., that arranges amenities and services at more than 180,000 rental apartments.