An increasing number of senior citizens are jeapordizing their retirement security by paying more than half of their income in rent, according to a new report.
While the senior population climbed 25 percent from 2005 to 2014, the number of the elderly spending most of their money for rent surged 35 percent, according to a report issued Monday by the advocacy group Make Room.
“Rising, unaffordable rents are jeopardizing older Americans’ retirement security, including the ability to stay in their homes and communities, and to afford health care and medicine,” said the organization’s managing director Angela Boyd.
About 57 percent of the seniors with a high rent burden have income from sources in addition to Social Security.
The Louisville, Ky., metro area saw the fastest increase in the number of seniors paying more than half of their income in rent in the nine-year stretch (10.5 percent), followed by New Orleans (9.8 percent) and Hartford, Conn. (9.6 percent).
The 1.1 million single women with a median age of 78 make up 58 percent of the 1.8 million senior renter households spending in excess of half of income on rent