Housing Focus Area - AARP Foundation What We Do

Housing Challenge

Making Homes Safer and More Affordable

19 million low-income older adult households live in housing that is unaffordable, inadequate or unsafe, which often keeps them isolated and unable to access supportive services. AARP Foundation encourages innovations that help increase the stock of affordable housing and ensure that existing housing can adapt to the challenges we face as we age. Older people are less likely to move than other age groups and are more likely to own their homes than rent. Of all the households headed by older persons in 2009, 80 percent were owners and 20 percent were renters. As people age, their incomes tend to get smaller and their physical needs to increase. Although the majority of older people have expressed a desire to "age in place" at home, disabilities and the costs involved in modifying homes for full accessibility make it harder for struggling seniors to continue living at home. For example, a 2005 survey found that almost 37 percent of older persons reported a severe disability; 16 percent reported they needed some type of assistance as a result. As one might expect, disability increases with age: 56 percent of seniors age 80 and above reported a severe disability and 29 percent of them said they needed assistance as a result. Senior-owned homes are on average older and worth less than those owned by homeowners of all ages. In 2007, the average year of construction for a home owned by a senior homeowner was 1970 compared with 1974 for homeowners of all ages. The average value of a home owned by a senior in 2009 was $150,000, compared with $170,500 for homes owned by homeowners of all ages. The foundation encourages innovative solutions to provide a greater supply of affordable housing and to ensure that the existing housing stock can adapt to these new design challenges.

More About the AARP Foundation Prize

Get Involved

Find Help

Cancel You are leaving AARP.org and going to the website of our trusted provider. The provider’s terms, conditions and policies apply. Please return to AARP.org to learn more about other benefits. Your email address is now confirmed. You'll start receiving the latest news, benefits, events, and programs related to AARP's mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age. You can also by updating your account at anytime. You will be asked to register or log in. Cancel Offer Details Disclosures

Close In the next 24 hours, you will receive an email to confirm your subscription to receive emails related to AARP volunteering. Once you confirm that subscription, you will regularly receive communications related to AARP volunteering. In the meantime, please feel free to search for ways to make a difference in your community at Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again.