April 4, 2013

Today, we came across an interesting article on the Oregon Housing Blog that reports how older adults are struggling to afford their homes in retirement.

The report shows how renters aged 65 and older spend, on average, 46% of their income on housing. Many older adults living on fixed incomes just cannot compete against the housing market’s growing rents in the community.

The blog links to Robert Powell’s article “Housing, health-care costs are retirement killers,” which examines how the cost of housing for older adults is a major burden after retirement. Powell writes “the inescapable truth about retirement is that housing is year-in and year-out a budget buster.”

The Portland Housing Bureau’s top priority is to build and preserve affordable homes.  In 2008, we launched the 11x13 campaign when we identified 11 buildings that were at risk of losing their federal subsidies by the end of 2013. With our partners, we have preserved affordable homes for more than 650 vulnerable Portlanders. Many of the 11x13 properties secure affordable homes for older adults in our community.

Thanks to our partners for helping us ensure that everyone – including older adults in our community – has a safe and affordable home.

photo courtesy of Oregon Housing Blog