Older adults, including homeowners, increasingly face housing insecurity. Contributing factors to this phenomenon are housing shortages, inflation, and an aging population. Some homeowners told BI they live in fear of losing their property.
Homeownership has long been a pillar of the American dream, but for many older homeowners, homeownership no longer provides the retirement security it once did.
Many baby boomers are struggling with rising home repair costs, insurance premiums, and property taxes, while also facing a lack of affordable retirement housing options. And working a lifetime is not enough to prevent more and more older people from becoming homeless.
Rising rents and home prices, driven largely by housing shortages and other rising costs of living, are hitting older people especially hard. The overall number of homeless people soared to record levels last year, according to the federal government’s latest count, conducted in January 2024. Moreover, the proportion of elderly people among those who have lost their homes is increasing. The proportion of homeless single adults aged 50 and older is estimated. It has grown from about 10% to 50% over the past 30 years.
“Frankly, the cost of housing and everything is getting higher and higher,” Marcy Thompson, vice president of programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, told Business Insider. “And this is especially true for seniors on fixed incomes.”
Homeowners at risk of homelessness
Valerie Miller, 67, has owned a mobile home in San Bernardino, Calif., for nearly 35 years, but is still struggling to pay the rent on the property it stands on and make necessary repairs. There is no room for maintenance.
Miller, who has never married or had children, plans to collect Social Security benefits until she’s 70, but she’s already begun dipping into her meager retirement benefits and worries she won’t be able to leave her job at a truck permitting company. There is. Miller has considered selling her home, but isn’t sure where she’ll find more affordable housing.
“Sometimes I lie awake at night and I’m so worried,” she said. “I don’t want to use up all my savings, but what should I do? Do I live on credit cards, or do I live with homeless people?”
The increase in homelessness among older Americans is the result of both the demographic changes of aging baby boomers and rising housing and other costs. The number of older homeowners and renters who spend more than 30% of their income on housing has increased rapidly in recent years.
Alison Nickerson, executive director of Live on New York, a nonprofit organization focused on improving living conditions for seniors, argued that Americans tend to underestimate the number of seniors suffering. One in five Americans over age 50 has no retirement savings.
“There’s a sense that baby boomers and older people are pretty comfortable,” she says. “But when you look at the number of people who are actually suffering, when you look at the rising cost of living, when you look at rising inflation, people are just being left behind.”
Artist Barbara Willing, 69, who has worked intermittently at Walmart and Lowe’s, has struggled to earn a steady income in recent years because she suffers from an autoimmune disease. She bought a house in Victor, Montana (a small town 55 miles south of Missoula) more than 20 years ago and is still paying off the mortgage.
Noting that her home has electrical and plumbing problems, Willing said, “It would be very expensive to move, so we have to stay where we are, even if it’s inadequate in many ways.” ” he said. She said the fear of losing her home “continues to eat at my conscience and nerves.”
Mr. Willing has been unemployed since July and is looking for another sales job, but if he finds a job in Missoula, his aging car won’t last long due to the nearly two-hour round trip commute to Missoula. I’m worried that it won’t. He said he has no savings for retirement and relies primarily on small Social Security checks, local food banks, SNAP and disability benefits to make ends meet.
“I overcame the pain and humiliation of having to go to a food bank,” she said. “I actually like going there and telling them how great they are doing.”
