The U.S. housing crisis is especially acute in Massachusetts, where housing costs are among the highest in the nation. Seniors, especially those on fixed incomes, bear the greatest burden of these high costs, resulting in limited access to health care, nutrition, transit, and social connections.
Data only begins to provide a picture of local cost burdened seniors: the percentage living below the Federal Poverty Limit (FPL) ranges from 11% in Newburyport, to 21% in Salisbury. Even those with incomes well above poverty level simply cannot afford local rents. One would need to earn $88,000 to be able to afford the median rent for a one-bedroom in Salisbury ($2,200). Yet the median income of renter households in Newburyport and Salisbury was less than $54,000 in 2020.
Making the situation worse is the depletion of our rental stock — Newburyport lost 20% of its rentals between 2000-2016. Anecdotally, there are stories of many local seniors evicted due to condo conversions. Also, the growing number of elders is projected to reach 30% of Newburyport’s and Salisbury’s populations by 2050. Pettengill House’s social work team provided over 700 housing related interventions to area seniors over 60 years old during the past year.
But data doesn’t really tell the story.
It is often a quiet story of seniors leaving the communities where they have raised their families, of losing their essential support networks in search of housing they can afford. It is a story of seniors temporarily staying with friends and relatives here and there — literally couch-surfing — which is a common form of homelessness. This article is the first of two about elders and housing challenges.
Joan (a fictitious name) was 69 when, following her husband’s business going bankrupt, had to take on a second mortgage. They later divorced and she made the hard decision to sell the Ipswich home she had raised her family in.
Starting “from scratch,” Joan found a rental cottage on Plum Island with a monthly rent of $1,250. She could afford it by living very modestly. She retired at 72, hoping to live on her yearly income of $36,000 by drawing on her social security, her small profit from the house, plus a small 401k.
“I am a regular person who worked hard my whole life, leaving the workforce for only two years to raise a young child.”
Objectively, Joan’s retirement plan seemed quite reasonable. But after five years, the cottage was sold, and she was given a 60-day notice to move.
Joan could afford $1,000 monthly rent, according to the formulas used by rental agents and advocates. Even her skills as a retired housing specialist weren’t enough to give her an advantage in the competitive housing market. Though she had already been on wait lists for public affordable housing across the North Shore, she didn’t have time to wait. Ultimately, Joan found a home by moving much closer to Boston, away from her long-term community, into a cottage that her children had inherited and had made livable by using much of the savings they all had. Without the care of her children, she believes she may well have become homeless.
Joan believes that no one should enter old age in this country worrying about having a roof over their head. If you agree with Joan, please join the Greater Newburyport Housing Choice Coalition to support the change we need.
Pam Wool lives in Newbury and is a member of the YWCA Greater Newburyport Housing Choice Coalition. The coalition seeks to increase housing options in Amesbury, Newbury, Newburyport, Salisbury, and West Newbury. To learn more about the issues, visit www.ywcanewburyport.org/housing-choice-coalition/and get in touch at jmeers@ywcanewburyport.org. The coalition meet the third Thursday of every month.
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