Developing Affordable and Accessible Community-Based Housing for Vulnerable Adults Proceedings of a Workshop (2017) / Chapter Skim
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3 Affordability of Housing That Supports Health and Independence for Vulnerable Older Adults and Individuals with Disabilities
3 Affordability of Housing That Supports Health and Independence for Vulnerable Older Adults and Individuals with Disabilities
Pages 17-30
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From page 17... ...
FINANCIAL SECURITY AND HOUSING FOR ADULTS WITH DISABILITIES Purvi Sevak Senior Researcher, Mathematica Policy Research Professor of Economics, Hunter College of the City University of New York Disability, said Purvi Sevak of Mathematica Policy Research and Hunter College of the City University of New York, is a function of both health and the environment. Disability is not a yes-or-no concept in that environmental factors, including housing, can affect functioning and thus 17
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From page 18... ...
Some 10.5 percent of all adults ages 18 to 64 -- 20 million nonelderly individuals in the United States -- have disabilities, with the prevalence of disability higher among vulnerable populations. For example, Sevak said, 20 percent of individuals living in poverty have a disability, as do 27 percent of individuals living in public housing, 34 percent of individuals with subsidized rent, and 40 percent of homeless individuals (Hoffman and Livermore, 2012; Houtenville et al., 2015)
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From page 19... ...
Sevak noted that many individuals with disabilities collect benefits through either the Social Security Disability Insurance program or the Supplemental Security Income program. Once individuals with disabilities reach age 65, their income is less than one-third of the income of their peers who do not have a disability ($24,900 versus $75,900)
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The first was the importance of disability awareness in policy and practice, especially when one is focusing on vulnerable populations. Considering the needs of individuals with disabilities is paramount when making housing-related policies, she said.
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population is aging rapidly, said Jen Molinsky of the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, and by 2035 there will be 79 million people ages 65 and older, compared with 48 million in 2016. This demographic shift led her and her colleagues to conduct a study to understand how the soaring population of older adults will affect the nation's housing needs over the next 20 years (Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2016)
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From page 22... ...
However, because the population of older Americans continues to grow, the number of people living in nursing homes may still grow even if that number decreases as a percentage of the older adult population. Estimations of Housing Accessibility To understand how the predicted increasing prevalence of disability in the population will affect housing specifically, Molinsky and her colleagues divided disability into three categories: mobility disability; disability that affects self-care, which includes activities of daily living such as eating, bathing, dressing, and toileting; and disability that affects household activities, which includes instrumental activities of daily living such as meal preparation, food shopping, using the telephone, taking medication, driving, managing money, and housework.
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Joint Center for Housing Studies, Projections & Implications for Housing a Growing Population: Older Households 2015-2035, 2016, www.jchs.hardvard.edu. All rights reserved.
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SOURCES: Molinsky presentation, December 12, 2016. Joint Center for Housing Studies, Projections & Implications for Housing a Growing Population: Older Households 2015-2035, 2016, www.jchs.hardvard.edu.
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One repercussion of having unaffordable housing is that individuals will spend less on other necessities, Molinsky said. For example, lowerincome older adults who are burdened by housing costs spend 67 percent less on transportation, 51 percent less on health care, and 37 percent less on food than lower-income adults who have affordable housing.
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From page 26... ...
Renters Home Equity Home Equity Homemaker Services 3,623 2 71 28 Home Health Aide 3,813 2 68 27 Adult Day Health Care 1,408 4 184 73 Assisted Living Facility 3,500 2 74 29 Nursing Home Care 6,448 1 40 16 SOURCES: Molinsky presentation, December 12, 2016. Adapted from Joint Center for Housing Studies, 2016.
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From page 27... ...
Assistance for meeting accessibility standards could be in the form of grants, tax credits, or policies that would help owners safely tap into their home equity. While some of these options already exist, there is a need to scale them up to reach more older adults in more places across the United States, Molinsky said.
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From page 28... ...
Molinsky replied that the Joint Center for Housing Studies is evaluating how pressure from neighborhood changes affects vulnerable people. Sevak said that in many cities, developers are constructing accessible multiunit structures, but many of them are luxury units and therefore are not affordable for middle-income and low-income individuals.
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From page 29... ...
In the same way, most surveys do not account for the fact that an individual can have multiple disabilities. "Just because a person has intellectual and developmental disabilities does not mean they do not have a hearing impairment or a vision impairment and vice versa," she said, adding that she thinks data exist that may be able to put various conditions together to look at different levels of need.
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From page 30... ...
"There is very little research on options in the community beyond some multifamily housing, a little bit of work on mobile home parks, a little bit on co-housing, but there is almost nothing in the literature around the future," said Stone, who called this a public health issue. Perhaps thinking of housing as a social determinant of health and a public health issue could lead to some different types of investments in housing for low-income older adults and individuals with disabilities, she suggested, adding that the data presented by Sevak and Molinsky demonstrate that there are going to be more lower-income older adults in the future who may not be able to remain in their homes.
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