A 'hopeless' feeling: Struggling seniors face sky-high rents and few, if any, options

I canā€™t imagine trying to live off $100 a month after paying $1650 in rent. Who wouldnā€™t be depressed but he canā€™t even afford his prescription. I hope his reaching out helps him find some type of a solution. Maybe he can set up a Go Fund Me campaign where people can actually send money to him.

Then some poor guy with PTSD living in a shed. My heart is breaking for these poor people. One woman says sheā€™s so close to being homeless and feels like sheā€™ll be living in a tent in the warmer seasons and in the car in a Walmart parking lot in the colder seasons.

I thank my lucky stars for not having to pay rent. If I lived closer Iā€™d try and help. I wonder if thereā€™s a way that I can help the seniors where I live. What very sad stories.

How can we help GoneFishing? I tried emailing the editor but it unfortunately wonā€™t go through. My iPhone says itā€™s an invalid email address.
 

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One of the "facts of life" is that we all get older and will have to help finance our retirement. Keeping debt to a minimum, and saving a portion of our earnings, etc., is a Must during our working years. Any government programs, such as SS, barely keep a person from falling into poverty, and fewer companies offer any pensions.
 
Teacher Terry said:
Itā€™s incredibly sad. I knew when I got divorced if I wanted to stay in my local area I would need to buy a condo since rents are high and constantly rising.
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I suspect that Divorce is the single largest reason for seniors living at/near poverty....unless both spouses had a lifelong working career which allowed them to live independently. Maintaining 2 households, alimony, and child support, etc., makes it Very Hard for people to build up any decent retirement savings.
 
Nieve question: But where is all this money going? And to who? Corporate type investors. Are they the ones buying up all this property, renting and raising rates? Foreign investors?

This complex I live in was locally owned. I think the people owned two complexes. They made profit I'm sure and didn't raise the rents every . Now these new evil doer owners raise it. I don't know why the former people sold. I don't think they were young. They may have decided to cash out and completely retire. And I'm sure did very well for themselves without being horrible and greedy.

There will have to be something done or we will have nothing but rich and poor some day.
 
Effective solutions to prevent housing and rental inflation have been discussed for years but the problem is real estate corporations, REITs, Wall Street investment money, mortgage banks, their controlled puppet politicians and media for the sake of $$$$ are the ones making policy and laws. I've mentioned this many times on this board. The only thing one reads from the latter two are "we need to build more housing". And then what is built?... only expensive upper middle class housing that few can afford but people are forced to buy or rent because they have no choice.

They further monkeywrench any attempt to control our essentially open borders in order to let in myriad low income illegal aliens that forces our USA poor citizens into more expensive blue collar working class housing they can barely afford that in kind then forces our middle classes into higher priced housing they can barely afford, since there would otherwise not be enough in the wealthy upper middle class to otherwise buy those expensive McMansions they only want to build in order to generate maximum profits. A prime example of how unregulated capitalism can destroy a society. As long as we are flooded with such extra people, that puts excessive pressure on all our real estate due to the domino effect.

Worse, Wall Street, has been for 2 decades now, advertising to foreign wealthy investors to invest in their real estate corps and REITs because our working population are sitting ducks waiting to be plucked. That has greatly increased with the rise of the Internet because it now reaches the full globe. And the worst, are those buying up our mobile home parks used by the defenseless poor and seniors, because many such units despite the name have never been capable of moving elsewhere nor ever expected they would need to.

All this will only change by greatly reducing immigration and making it illegal for foreigners to buy our housing or invest in corporations that do. Canada belatedly figured that out a few years ago but it is still a shark's blood bath in the USA..
 
Remy said:
Nieve question: But where is all this money going? And to who? Corporate type investors. Are they the ones buying up all this property, renting and raising rates? Foreign investors?

This complex I live in was locally owned. I think the people owned two complexes. They made profit I'm sure and didn't raise the rents every . Now these new evil doer owners raise it. I don't know why the former people sold. I don't think they were young. They may have decided to cash out and completely retire. And I'm sure did very well for themselves without being horrible and greedy.

There will have to be something done or we will have nothing but rich and poor some day.
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According to my husband , our prime minister allows too many foreigners in who take up jobs, apartments and student positions over people who live here. Our government helps foreigners more than it helps its own people.
 
Don M. said:
One of the "facts of life" is that we all get older and will have to help finance our retirement. Keeping debt to a minimum, and saving a portion of our earnings, etc., is a Must during our working years. Any government programs, such as SS, barely keep a person from falling into poverty, and fewer companies offer any pensions.
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Now you tell me!
 
Pepper said:
I'm so grateful for my father buying this co-op in 1953 and my mom leaving it to me in her will. I wonder, might I be up that smelly creek without it? I guess I always felt cushioned by it and would have approached life differently.
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You and I are blessed in that respect, although I didn't inherit my co-op. My mother encouraged me to move here after she and my father moved here. At first I didn't want to because it's "downtown". Neither of us knew we were actually purchasing our units because of the way they were presented. They moved to a senior building after a few years. I still thank my mother who's been gone for 20 years, for getting me to move here. Paying what we pay definitely makes a big difference in our financial health. šŸ¤‘
 
This is a little off topic but I a bit obsessed with the Charlevoix Michigan bridge cam that opens to let the bigger and sail boats through. I like watching the boats and the people walking. However, some of these boats are like mini yachts. I don't know what qualifies as a yacht but these are very expensive boats. I don't think even a doctor or lawyer or average CEO could afford them.

It made me wonder, are these corporate investors, owning property, perhaps rentals. Living lavish while others struggle? I don't know. I don't know what income it takes to live that lifestyle. People are entitled to spend their money. But when absolute greed is giving them the money, that's an issue and I know it's happening.
 
Remy said:
Nieve question: But where is all this money going? And to who? Corporate type investors. Are they the ones buying up all this property, renting and raising rates? Foreign investors?

This complex I live in was locally owned. I think the people owned two complexes. They made profit I'm sure and didn't raise the rents every . Now these new evil doer owners raise it. I don't know why the former people sold. I don't think they were young. They may have decided to cash out and completely retire. And I'm sure did very well for themselves without being horrible and greedy.

There will have to be something done or we will have nothing but rich and poor some day.
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They're corporate investors buying up thousands of acres where I live and erecting what they call affordable housing which is akin to a maximum security prison but the rents are affordable. They are usually built in the most socio economically depressed areas so they get lots of takers It is an investment opportunity but a person would have to be comfortable with being heartless which I cannot be. There has to be another way.
 
chic said:
They're corporate investors buying up thousands of acres where I live and erecting what they call affordable housing which is akin to a maximum security prison but the rents are affordable. They are usually built in the most socio economically depressed areas so they get lots of takers It is an investment opportunity but a person would have to be comfortable with being heartless which I cannot be. There has to be another way.
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I so agree. And heartless is the word. One can make a good profit without being heartless and full of blind greed. My apartment complex is an example of that.

Also when I watched that one PBS show about mobile home parks (which I stopped watching because I was getting so angry), the one investment jerk said that most parks were started by mom and pop owners. Well, I'll bet mom and pop made some decent money but kept it affordable for mobile owners/tenants of the park.
 
Reading the post about the Canadian tends to focus on local. But as a problem it isn't

Mar 20, 2024
Lack of affordable housing worldwide is becoming a global crisis. An estimated 1.6 billion peopleā€”one-fifth of humanityā€”lack access to adequate housing and basic services, according to the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, and this number could rise to 3 billion by 2030.

In America the problem isn't new.
https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Sec1.03_Historical-Overview_2015.pdf

I offer no solution I just recognize that money is being spent to try to help but it isn't helping.
 
chic said:
They're corporate investors buying up thousands of acres where I live and erecting what they call affordable housing which is akin to a maximum security prison but the rents are affordable. They are usually built in the most socio economically depressed areas so they get lots of takers It is an investment opportunity but a person would have to be comfortable with being heartless which I cannot be. There has to be another way.
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Corporations are buying up individual houses in my neighborhood and I hear it is happening in other neighborhoods. They buy cheap from those going through a hard time, then repair and jack up the rent. If I answer the phone it is often someone wanting to buy my house. The second question is always do you have any other properties? No and no.
 
Alizerine said:
Corporations are buying up individual houses in my neighborhood and I hear it is happening in other neighborhoods. They buy cheap from those going through a hard time, then repair and jack up the rent. If I answer the phone it is often someone wanting to buy my house. The second question is always do you have any other properties? No and no.
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This needs to stop. There are condo complexes that require a certain owner occupied percent. I don't know how, but perhaps this could be regulated for investment buyers. I know the pro capitalist people could get on my case about such a statement.

I admit to being naive on this stuff, but clearly something is wrong when people can't afford to buy and are barely making rents.
 
Knight said:
I offer no solution I just recognize that money is being spent to try to help but it isn't helping.
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A few years ago, Californians voted Yes on a 2 billion dollar program (2.2, I think) to build homes for the homeless and people with low-income. Early this year, the state auditor could find no record of how the billions were spent, nor could he find the money. Nobody knows where it went.

Eight years ago, Californians voted Yes on a 2.6 billion dollar program to build homes for the homeless. That 2.6 billion was used to purchase and update 52 2-bedroom apartment units. 52 lousy units. If I read the calculator right, Calif taxpayers plunked down about $400K for each apartment....and they were bought used. Each unit got the cheapest efficiency refrigerators available, and cheap stoves, flooring, and cabinets, and the whole complex was probably re-roofed, but there's no way that came out to $400K per unit.

Except that the construction and roofing companies and appliance manufacturers (etc) that the state has a contract with overcharges for everything, including every nail and paintbrush. Even the landscapers fleece the state. So do the program coordinators, directors, brokers, and project inspectors....and so, the state fleeces the taxpayers, because they don't care. It isn't their money.

I would argue that nobody's trying to help anybody. Not with these housing programs....not if they're run by the state, that is.
 
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I've noticed a couple of trends in our area, in recent years. First, there seems to be little or no construction of single family houses. All the construction seems to be apartment complexes....which are probably financed by corporations as a means to increase their profits with exorbitant rental rates. Then, second, very few mobile home parks and dealers. Mobile homes used to be good "entry level" housing for those just starting out. or living on a limited income. There seems to be fewer options for affordable housing with every passing year. Increasing "demand" coupled with decreasing "supply" is making housing more unaffordable with each passing year.
 

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