sh.itjust.works

A few decades ago, Leslie McIntire thought she was doing everything right for a comfortable life. She was a tax accountant in Washington, D.C., and co-owned a not-for-profit bookstore. "I had good savings," she says. "I was quite happy, quite frankly, and I was preparing to go back to school."

Then a car accident dislocated her hip and jaw, left her psychologically rattled and derailed her career.

McIntire held on in her rent-controlled apartment for a while, even after she was forced to go on disability and started burning through savings. She eventually realized she needed more help, but then had to endure a three-year wait to get into the federally subsidized senior housing where she now lives.

"And by the time I got in here, I was seriously considering going into a shelter," she says. "I paid my rent, my utilities. I had SNAP benefits for food. And I had $25 left over. And you just can't live on that in the long run."

McIntire is 69, part of the baby boomer generation that is entering older age amid a historic affordable housing shortage and rising wealth inequality in the U.S.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/8715846

Much more in the linked article (NPR), worth a read if the topic concerns you.

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McIntire is 69, part of the baby boomer generation that is entering older age amid a historic affordable housing shortage and rising wealth inequality in the U.S.

She wishes she'd known earlier how difficult things could get.

"I think that's the main thing people need to know," she says, "that they need to be prepared beforehand for what's coming down the road."

A newly released report from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies sounds a loud warning about what's ahead as the country ages rapidly, and how unprepared the U.S. is as boomers start to turn 80 within the next decade.

Nearly a third of households headed by seniors are considered cost burdened, which means they pay more than 30% of their income for housing. Half of that group pays more than 50%. And as the boomers have aged, households in this group reached an all-time high of 11.2 million in 2021.

That's likely to grow further as the number of households headed by someone aged 80 and over doubles by 2040.

"Their purchasing power is going down, at a time when rents are rising and other costs are rising, food and health care and all of that," says Jennifer Molinsky, project director of Harvard's Housing and Aging Society program.

Even for many moderate income seniors, Molinsky says the dual burden of housing costs and caregiving needs will be too much.

Much more in the linked article (NPR), worth a read if the topic concerns you.

McIntire is 69, part of the baby boomer generation that is entering older age amid a historic affordable housing shortage and rising wealth inequality in the U.S.

She wishes she'd known earlier how difficult things could get.

"I think that's the main thing people need to know," she says, "that they need to be prepared beforehand for what's coming down the road."

A newly released report from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies sounds a loud warning about what's ahead as the country ages rapidly, and how unprepared the U.S. is as boomers start to turn 80 within the next decade.

Nearly a third of households headed by seniors are considered cost burdened, which means they pay more than 30% of their income for housing. Half of that group pays more than 50%. And as the boomers have aged, households in this group reached an all-time high of 11.2 million in 2021.

That's likely to grow further as the number of households headed by someone aged 80 and over doubles by 2040.

"Their purchasing power is going down, at a time when rents are rising and other costs are rising, food and health care and all of that," says Jennifer Molinsky, project director of Harvard's Housing and Aging Society program.

Even for many moderate income seniors, Molinsky says the dual burden of housing costs and caregiving needs will be too much.