The United States cannot meet the housing needs of the booming aging population, warns a new study by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies and the AARP Foundation.
According to Housing America’s Older Adults – Meeting the Needs of an Aging Population, the number of adults in the United States aged 50 and older will grow to 133 million by 2030, an increase of more than 70 percent since 2000.
However, there will not be enough housing that is affordable, physically accessible, well located, and with support and services available for this aging population, the report says.
Currently, high housing costs force 33 percent of Americans 50 and older, and 37 percent of those 80 and older, to pay more than 30 percent of their income on housing, forcing them to cut back on essentials such as food, health-care and retirement savings, according to the Harvard center and AARP. The Harvard center works to advance knowledge on housing issues and inform public policy. The AARP Foundation is AARP's affiliated charity and provides education on older Americans' issues.
Much of the housing that is available is in rural or suburban areas where driving is required to get to basic services. The housing also is not accessible to wheelchairs or handicapped individuals, the study said.
"Of special concern as the older population in the U.S. continues to swell are the younger baby boomers who are now in their 50s," the two organizations say in a press release. "With lower incomes, wealth and homeownership rates and more debt than generations before them, members of this large age group may be unable to cover the costs of appropriate housing or long-term care in their retirement years."
Although this is a problem that is facing many nations, it is one that must be addressed in the United States because “we do not leave people to suffer in their most vulnerable years,” Henry Cisneros, former secretary to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said during a conference announcing the release of the report Tuesday. “This report is a wakeup call. [Making sure people have housing] is the compassionate and right thing to do.
“Our country must face some basic facts: we are aging, we are not ready and we are not preparing properly, but it does not have to be that way,” added Cisneros, who now heads CityView, an institutional investment firm focused on urban real estate.
According to the 1990 U.S. Census, most of the states and counties in the United States had relatively young populations. In most of the country and in particular on the East and West coasts, the number of people 50 and older in most counties were less than 30 percent or 40 percent of residents. Only a few counties, many in the Midwest, had at least 40 percent of residents who were 50 or over.
By contrast, 20 years later in 2010, in most counties the number of residents 50 or grew to more than 30 percent or 40 percent of the population. Pockets also existed throughout the country where older residents accounted for 50 percent or more of the population.