Article: "Trapped in the Affordable Housing Gap"

At least this issue is being looked at but it's frustrating, almost all the proposed solutions in the article are out of the question for various reasons; for example, the article mentions "...suggested that builders start meeting the demand for middle-income senior housing by:

- Finding reasonably priced land near public services and shopping
- Working with municipalities to speed the processes for obtaining all necessary permits and inspections for this type of housing
- Discovering ways to bring construction costs down..."

Well, around here, there is no available land (reasonably priced or otherwise) near public services and shopping; and the next 2: I don't know if our local municipality is worse than other places or not when it comes to permits but they're pretty bad, and how in the world would you even bring construction costs down?! Lumber, etc. costs what it costs, right?

And the article also says, "Molinsky suggests other alternatives, such as finding like-minded roommates through a home-sharing service or building an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) on a family member's property." Welp, first I checked out the home-sharing site (spareroom.com) they suggested and there was ONE room available in this whole city and it's within walking distance of NOTHING. And as to the ADU, what if you don't have any family members with property they're willing/able/allowed to put an ADU on? There are more and more of us who never had kids so that narrows it down a lot. And especially since a realtor told me--I think I've shared this here on SF already--that development companies are reluctant to build housing of any sort for the elderly, even high-price housing, since they're too hard to re-sell; the realtor shared that it happens to her all the time, if she's driving any prospective buyer middle-aged or younger to look at a house and they see one head of gray or white hair in the neighborhood, frown and say, "Are there a lot of old people around here? Because if so, forget this house and let's look at the next house on the list; I don't want to live in a neighborhood with a bunch of grumpy old people who'll be complaining how loud my kids are and I myself don't want to hear ambulance sirens all the time because some darned old person's having chest pains!" The realtor says she hears that all the time.

So I'm not optimistic about the outlook for any kind of senior housing, be it affordable or not.
 
Some of the things in that article sounded familiar, officerripley. I must have read it at some point. My neighborhood is a working class neighborhood and most of the houses have families but there is a good sprinkling of elderly too. My neighbors are the best. I'm glad they don't mind my old gray head. šŸ˜

When the wind blew my fence down the young guy next door called his dad and the two of them propped it up, two sides of it. It was bad wind. Then in the summer he rebuilt the fence for me. Of course, I paid him for it but it was so nice to have it done by someone close to home.

Back to the senior housing, I hate to sound like Debbie Downer but I don't think there will be any kind of housing built for those in the gap. Land is so expensive, mortgage rates are going up and cities aren't handing out incentives to companies to do that or if they are I think they will stop as the economy worsens.

What is being built here for the elderly is CCRC senior living, senior apartments for low income that are subsidized by government programs and there is one new market rate senior apartment house. They all leave out people in the gap.

The homeless are visible on the streets and until that problem is solved I doubt anything will be done for seniors. There are more of us now than ever but there are more homeless than ever too.
 
Myrtle said:
Back to the senior housing, I hate to sound like Debbie Downer but I don't think there will be any kind of housing built for those in the gap. Land is so expensive, mortgage rates are going up and cities aren't handing out incentives to companies to do that or if they are I think they will stop as the economy worsens.
Click to expand...
I'm afraid you're right. It's really sad and worrisome.
 
officerripley said:
At least this issue is being looked at but it's frustrating, almost all the proposed solutions in the article are out of the question for various reasons; for example, the article mentions "...suggested that builders start meeting the demand for middle-income senior housing by:

- Finding reasonably priced land near public services and shopping
- Working with municipalities to speed the processes for obtaining all necessary permits and inspections for this type of housing
- Discovering ways to bring construction costs down..."

Well, around here, there is no available land (reasonably priced or otherwise) near public services and shopping; and the next 2: I don't know if our local municipality is worse than other places or not when it comes to permits but they're pretty bad, and how in the world would you even bring construction costs down?! Lumber, etc. costs what it costs, right?

And the article also says, "Molinsky suggests other alternatives, such as finding like-minded roommates through a home-sharing service or building an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) on a family member's property." Welp, first I checked out the home-sharing site (spareroom.com) they suggested and there was ONE room available in this whole city and it's within walking distance of NOTHING. And as to the ADU, what if you don't have any family members with property they're willing/able/allowed to put an ADU on? There are more and more of us who never had kids so that narrows it down a lot. And especially since a realtor told me--I think I've shared this here on SF already--that development companies are reluctant to build housing of any sort for the elderly, even high-price housing, since they're too hard to re-sell; the realtor shared that it happens to her all the time, if she's driving any prospective buyer middle-aged or younger to look at a house and they see one head of gray or white hair in the neighborhood, frown and say, "Are there a lot of old people around here? Because if so, forget this house and let's look at the next house on the list; I don't want to live in a neighborhood with a bunch of grumpy old people who'll be complaining how loud my kids are and I myself don't want to hear ambulance sirens all the time because some darned old person's having chest pains!" The realtor says she hears that all the time.

So I'm not optimistic about the outlook for any kind of senior housing, be it affordable or not.
Click to expand...
I agree. My mother was fortunate enough to sell her house in her "over 55" community, and it almost exactly paid for her assisted living for several years until she passed away. Her assisted living facility was top-notch, but it cost a ridiculous amount.

There is not much land available here in Dallas and builders will use what is available to build super-expensive houses so they can make a big profit. Way back in 2006 when we moved to Dallas, we toured a home with a realtor and we loved the finish-out but didn't need a house that big. We met with the builder and he said he wouldn't build anything smaller because lots are too scarce. That doesn't bode well for middle-income seniors or for first-time home buyers.
 
I will say though, young or old it seems you'd better be healthy. Near the "Safe Park" is a huge apartment complex and another is being built now across from it.

BUT they're all three floor walk ups. No elevator is installed. As my charity case guy who got housing, have the same thing, three stories up, all walk ups.

He's missing a limb, so he's on ground floor. But I have seen a couple older people going up the stairs..... Not happening with me though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top