Housing America’s Older Adults
by Louis Tenenbaum
The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies’ most recent report warns of an impending crisis when baby-boomers reach their 80’s in homes that are not designed to meet their needs.
“State and local governments, as well as the private and nonprofit sectors, all have roles to play in developing more affordable and suitable housing for older households. Families and individuals also have a responsibility to plan for the future and to advocate for more age-friendly housing and communities. But given the current and growing scale of need, addressing the challenges of housing America’s older adults must also be a federal priority.”
Crises require bold strategies. HomesRenewed Coalition has a BOLD, multi-pronged strategy for incentives that will grow the number of homes to address the crisis:
The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies’ most recent report warns of an impending crisis when baby-boomers reach their 80’s in homes that are not designed to meet their needs.
“State and local governments, as well as the private and nonprofit sectors, all have roles to play in developing more affordable and suitable housing for older households. Families and individuals also have a responsibility to plan for the future and to advocate for more age-friendly housing and communities. But given the current and growing scale of need, addressing the challenges of housing America’s older adults must also be a federal priority.”
Crises require bold strategies. HomesRenewed Coalition has a BOLD, multi-pronged strategy for incentives that will grow the number of homes to address the crisis:
- Support state and local home update initiatives. These are laboratories for best practices and show the scale of interest.
- Push private incentives from health and long-term care insurers similar to discounts for not smoking and driving well. Private programs are often the proof cases for policy that follows.
- Drive Federal legislation in the new Congress by building on last year’s HR 1780.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Download Full Report: The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies
