Rising prices, fixed incomes: Senior housing is the silent tsunami of need | Opinion
What happens when the fastest growing demographic meets the slowest growing inventory of affordable housing?
Comfortably housed senior citizens may tell you “no problem here!” They’re part of the 70% who aren’t “cost-burdened,’” meaning they pay less than 30% of their income on housing, with most preferring to “age in place” and stay in the homes they’ve known for years.
However, if you ask the other 30% who are cost-burdened, they’re at risk of losing their homes because they can’t afford to stay. And if you ask senior service providers, they will tell you it means a lot of heartbreaking calls from older residents who’ve been priced out of their apartments, who can’t keep up with their property taxes, or whose mobile parks have been sold out from under them.
In short, they face homelessness.
First, I asked Donna Feddern, the community supports manager at the Area Agency on Aging, about the impact of rent increases on older tenants. Feddern told me about a woman whose rent had been increased by $300 per month. This woman got three months of help paying the increase, but could not find another affordable rental home. Her landlord just raised her rent another $200 a month.
At 88 years of age, where should this woman go?
Then I asked Rebecca Hutchinson, Home Share Program Manager for Senior Services of South Sound, about the seniors she hears from who are fortunate to own their own homes but cannot keep up with their mortgage, property taxes and general upkeep.
Hutchinson told me, “We hear from a wide range of seniors, including people who can’t afford to stay in their own homes. After decades of tending their gardens and watching the birds out their kitchen windows, they are at risk of displacement.”
Hutchinson said her program is dedicated to matching housed seniors like these with at-risk seniors who could move in to share housing expenses, essentially keeping two seniors stabilized with minimal public funding. But it takes time to make those matches.
Last, I asked Tumwater City Council member Leatta Dahlhoff about seniors in mobile parks, typically 70% of the residents of those parks. Dahlhoff told me, “It’s ironic you ask. I’m literally preparing to meet with residents whose manufactured homes are at risk.”
She then forwarded me an email from Kyle Taylor Lucas, who wrote to the City Council ”out of sheer fear and desperation because our senior mobile home park was sold out from under us to out-of-state investors. (The new owners) have raised the rents on current lots 18% and on new lot rents 57.89%, the latter a whopping $330 increase to $900 which essentially makes us prisoners now as it will be extremely difficult to sell our homes when potential buyers balk at $900 per month lot rent!”
Taylor Lucas went on to clarify the financial situation for her neighbors. “Most tenants are barely scraping by on $1,000 to $1,100 Social Security. This $100-per-month rent increase is something these elders cannot afford. They came to me with tears and fear in their eyes, saying they fear homelessness.”
Let’s look at the math for seniors.
According to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the 2023 average Social Security award is $1,827 per month. Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC) reports the local average rent is $1,484 per month, leaving only $343 a month for food, utilities and medical.
The National Institute of Retirement Security reports that 40% of seniors rely solely on their Social Security income. This means that 40%, or 21,133 seniors, in our county rely solely on Social Security, averaging $1,827 while searching for rents lower than the average of $1,484. That’s nearly the population of Tumwater.
Do we look away? Castigate them when they fall into homelessness? Local governments have taken notice. And non-profits like the Housing Authority of Thurston County and South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity are responding with affordable senior housing projects.
But given the number of at-risk seniors, we need to do more to preserve mobile parks, find rental assistance and stabilize homeowners to keep our seniors housed.
Anna Schlecht is retired from the City of Olympia where she worked on housing and homeless issues for several decades. This column is part of “No Place Like Home,” a yearlong exploration of housing issues in our region.
