How Long Do We Have to Wait?: Why New York Needs to Prioritize Equity for Older New Yorkers in Housing Development

All New Yorkers deserve safe and affordable housing as they age. Secure housing is the key to our well-being later in life. It is a major driver of the social determinants of health and fuels our ability to thrive in our communities.

Unfortunately, much of New York’s housing stock was not built or planned to support aging in place. New York City’s budgets and programs are not producing enough new senior housing to keep up with increasing demand. Our research shows that more older New Yorkers than ever are languishing on waiting lists for affordable senior housing for years, and the budgets and development of affordable senior housing are failing to reflect the growing needs.

The cost of ignoring this issue is enormous. We can and must solve this issue, through the preservation and increased development of affordable housing units for older people. The solutions to older adult homelessness and the affordable senior housing crisis are solvable, but we need City, State, and Federal support to make those solutions a reality. This report provides policy recommendations to address this issue.

LiveOn and the network of nonprofits that develop, preserve, and manage affordable senior housing stand ready to work with the government to move our city forward on this critical issue.

 

Key Findings Include

  1. Applications for affordable senior housing units are over 520,000 and growing daily, including 300,000 people on waitlists for HUD 202 apartments & 220,000 applications for affordable senior apartments on the Housing Connect Lottery.

  2. Older adults in need of affordable housing typically have lower incomes, higher rates of disability, and belong to smaller households than non-senior households.

  3. Rates of homelessness among older New Yorkers have never been higher.


HELP US AMPLIFY

  1. Follow and Tag Us On Social Media!

    • X: @liveonny

  2. Sample Tweets for Stakeholders

    • Excited to be supporting @liveonny and the incredible work done in their 2023 Senior Housing Report. This report exposed the harsh realities faced by New York’s older adults. Join me in telling @NYCMayor to invest in aging now!

    • New York’s older adults deserve safe, accessible, and affordable housing. The report released by @liveonny shows that throughout our state, older adults are struggling to find housing - the demand is going up without investment by @NYCMayor. This is unacceptable.

    • A report by @liveonny reveals the harsh reality of housing for many older adults. This report finds that there are over 300,000 older NYers on waiting lists for housing. @NYCMayor must invest in long-term, affordable housing solutions for us as we age. 

  3. Sample Tweets for Electeds

    • @liveonny just released a new report that shows the severity of our homelessness crisis among older adults. Older adults are struggling to find housing - the demand is going up. I’m ready to work with @NYCMayor to do better for older adults. 

    • We need affordable housing solutions for our city’s older adults. Period. @liveonny released a report showing the severity of this crisis. We have reached a record number of unhoused older adults. We cannot allow this to continue. 

To learn more information or have questions about the housing report, please contact Director of Public Policy, Kevin Kiprovski, at kkiprovski@liveon-ny.org.