Within the midst of L.A.’s housing disaster, one truth must be ringing alarm bells: Seniors are estimated to be the fastest-growing segment of California’s homeless population. The average monthly Social Security benefit of $1,907 doesn’t cowl the everyday monthly rent of a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles. As America’s population ages and the price of residing continues to rise, the challenges confronted by seniors on fastened incomes will seemingly worsen.
This situation hits near house for me. Professionally, I spend a lot of my time with seniors who worry dropping their properties. Personally, as I watch my very own mother and father and grandparents age, I fear about how we are going to handle their bills sooner or later. In Los Angeles, the median monthly cost of residing at an assisted living facility or nursing house exceeds $5,000 and $10,000, respectively. Seniors considering transferring into one in every of these amenities fear about draining financial savings they meant to make use of for medical prices or to go all the way down to members of the family. However for these vulnerable to falls or different well being emergencies, remaining alone of their properties might be harmful.
One resolution is shared housing packages that pair senior owners with appropriate roommates. Along with making vacant rooms in single-family properties accessible to these in search of inexpensive housing, such a system provides quite a lot of different advantages together with added revenue for owners and companionship to offset loneliness (which is associated with increased risk of dementia). In addition they permit seniors to keep up independence as they age.
The workforce I work with not too long ago matched a renter in her 70s who was coping with isolation due to restricted walkability in her neighborhood. She had mobility challenges and didn’t personal a automotive, so she couldn’t run errands on her personal. We related her with one other senior in her 70s, a house owner struggling to cowl residing bills. The match offered the tenant with inexpensive hire and introduced her nearer to important facilities, and it gave the house owner further revenue, a mutually useful association that helped every obtain housing stability and a few independence.
Policymakers engaged on the housing disaster ought to severely take into account rising funding within the shared housing mannequin. In Los Angeles, one attainable supply of funding is cash collected from Measure ULA, an actual property switch tax on properties valued at $5 million or extra that handed in 2022. This measure has generated more than $200 million since taking impact in April 2023, a few of which may very well be used for shared housing packages.
Through the use of Measure ULA funds, present shared housing packages may very well be expanded, and with extra employees, devoted groups might serve every Los Angeles council district, serving to determine extra accessible rooms and serving to match seniors in want. Moreover, these funds may very well be used to determine a senior rental subsidy program. Individuals would contribute a portion of their revenue towards hire, with a rental subsidy voucher masking the rest, to make sure landlords or owners obtain truthful market hire. This would offer fast aid for seniors collaborating, permitting them to bypass lengthy waiting lists for Section 8 vouchers.
Nonprofit organizations throughout California, together with Front Porch within the Bay Space and Homeless Intervention Services of Orange County, have proven that the shared housing mannequin works and may change lives. However for these packages to assist the rising variety of seniors going through housing insecurity, political leaders should step in with monetary assist. In Los Angeles, funds from Measure ULA is usually a start line, serving to residents keep away from housing stress throughout their golden years.
Avi Kapur manages the shared housing program on the Los Angeles nonprofit Reasonably priced Residing for the Getting older.
