‘Worrying Trend’: Number of Housing Cost-Burdened Seniors At All-Time High

According to a recent report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, nearly 11.2 million U.S. adults aged 65 and older spent more than 30 percent of their household income on housing costs. The figure is up from 9.7 million in 2016 and 8.8 million in 2011 and represents an all-time high. It’s a trend Peter Lawrence, director of public policy and government relations at Novogradac, calls “worrying” in a recent post on the national professional services organization’s blog.

Rising housing costs put seniors, many of whom live on fixed incomes, at greater risk of homelessness and make it more difficult for them to afford healthcare and food. Between the fact that the number of households headed by someone in their eighties set to double to around 17 million by 2040 and the reality that current federal housing assistance programs only support 37 percent eligible households, it’s little wonder that Lawrence and other housing and aging experts are concerned and calling for action.

The blog post discusses proposed solutions, particularly those that combine housing and healthcare, like Programs for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) and the California Advancing and Innovating in Medi-Cal (CalAIM) program.

“Programs such as PACE and CalAIM that work to combine health and housing services serve as a model to make housing for older adults more affordable and appropriate,” Lawrence writes.