UF Study: Families To Feel Burden As Older Boomers Priced Out Of Homes
July 3, 2002
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Tomorrow’s older baby boomers could find themselves out on the street if the nation doesn’t address a worsening affordable housing problem, according to a new nationwide study conducted by a University of Florida researcher.
Currently, more than 6 million low-income elderly are living in housing that is either too costly, inadequate or both, said Stephen Golant, a UF geography professor, whose research was presented recently to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., This includes 3.9 million homeowners and 2.2 million renters 65 and older.
Those numbers are expected to grow to a staggering 9.5 million households by the year 2020 as baby boomers swell America’s elderly population, he said.
“This is not just an older person’s problem,” said Golant, who also is affiliated with UF’s Institute on Aging. “Sons and daughters – the family members of the older population – are going to be asked to assume a much greater burden than they ever imagined in order to take care of their elderly parents.
“And as older people become increasingly frail, the burden of finding affordable accommodations for them will eventually be borne by state governments and passed on to the public at large in the form of higher taxes,” he said.
Golant said the situation could worsen as economic woes combine with rising health care costs and increasing taxes.
“Older people are going to have to make sacrifices,” Golant said. “Either they’re going to have to do without certain things, or they’re going to have to move from their current dwellings, which they don’t want to do because they have strong attachments to where they live, and they want to age in place.
“At the extreme, some will become homeless,” he said.
Golant found that more than a quarter – 27 percent – of today’s older homeowners are both house-poor and cash-poor. They have incomes less than half of the median income for their areas and occupy dwellings valued under $100,000. Almost a third live in properties worth less than $40,000.
Golant was the principal consultant hired to conduct research for the Commission on Affordable Housing and Health Facility Needs for Seniors in the 21stCentury, a 14-member bi-partisan panel. The nationwide study focusing on current housing needs as well as those in the year 2020 is based on his recent analysis of the American Housing Survey Database, a national sample of more than 58,000 households conducted by the U.S. Census.
“The original intent of the commission was to identify the seriousness of the problem in the future,” Golant said. “My results emphasized that the seriousness of the problem is here and now, and the problem will be becoming even more dramatic in the future.”
For example, for every available government subsidized rental apartment, there are nearly six other households of elderly residents experiencing difficulties paying for housing or living in deficient dwellings.
The situation has grown worse since 1999, the latest year for which housing data was available for the study, Golant said.
The declining stock market and interest rates on savings accounts have hit the elderly especially hard because they rely on these sources for income, while health-care and prescription costs have risen faster than the inflation rate during the last three years, he said.
Meanwhile, the housing market has remained strong since 1999, suggesting appreciation in housing values, which means higher property taxes, he said.
One solution to the problem is the government subsidized Section 202 housing program in which nonprofit groups such as religious organizations build elderly rental housing developments that charge below-market rates, Golant said. Typically, these housing projects have common space, such as central dining areas or clinics that provide various support services to older people, he said.
But the program – one of the most successful for the elderly – is producing units at historically low levels because of lack of commitment from the federal government, Golant said. In 2002, only about 5,800 units were produced compared to an average annual number of more than 15,000 in the early 1980s, he said.
“It’s a shame that a country as prosperous as the United States would let its older population live in poor-quality housing or experience all the challenges of trying to pay for their housing,” he said.