Some of my neighbors are struggling to stay in their homes as property taxes and utility costs rise, leaving them no money for basic home maintenance or small upgrades. Some are being forced out as neighbors complain about unmoved lawns and peeling paint.
The city condemns houses, leaving people in their 70s and 80s with no place to go as their home sits boarded up rotting away.
People aged 65 and older are the fastest-growing group of people who are homeless and their ranks will peak by 2030. This is a reminder to us that there are many people who are not wealthy and who will not be spending their golden years traveling and enjoying life.
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Older people who live in homeless shelters, encampments or without traditional housing are 3.5 times more likely to die prematurely compared with those who have a roof over their heads, reports an August 2022 study from the University of California, San Francisco.
There isn’t much in the way of affordable housing for anyone. There is a kind of attitude that once a person gets to be a certain are they are supposed to move to some kind of senior housing. Yet there aren’t any affordable options for most.
Community organizations, building inspectors and real estate agents seem to share a vision of elderly homeowners selling so that someone young can fix up the house and go about the business of raising children in it.
We are in danger of losing more housing as some seniors struggle to keep it neat and tidy and in good repair.
There are programs that can help seniors. The programs I have discovered are local. Some can be accessed to help with mortgage payments. There are programs that will pay property taxes. There are “fix-up” funds that are low or no-interest loans.
Get up to speed on programs in your community. Some of the resources for seniors are hard to access. Most everything needed to apply for assistance can be found in a real estate office or at association offices.
One federal program comes from the United States Department of Agriculture and offers home repair grants. Here’s the key guideline for the purposes of this discussion:
USDA Home Repair Grants, however, are intended to be used primarily to eliminate health and safety risks for older residents (such as winterizing a drafty house or repairing faulty electrical wiring). Grants can also be applied toward improving accessibility for residents with disabilities (e.g., installing a wheelchair ramp). Grants cannot be used to modernize or make cosmetic upgrades to a home.
Realtors who want to “help” seniors often focus on moving seniors out of their homes and into an apartment or a care facility. Some Realtors even help seniors “transition” out of their homes, which is fine if that is what the homeowner wants to do.
Real estate agents sell real estate but may not be qualified to help seniors into long-term care, especially when it isn’t needed. Moving isn’t always in the homeowner’s best interest, and even when it is, real estate professionals are not qualified to make that call. Sometimes, the best and most affordable housing option is the home they already own in the neighborhood where they have lived for decades.
Most of us do not spend a lot of time helping people stay in their homes, but we should because they are our neighbors, and it is the right thing to do. We have valuable experience and knowledge and should know about resources for seniors. In fact, real estate agents may be uniquely qualified to help people age in place.
At the very least, a Realtor should know how to get a grab bar or railing installed and be able to help a neighbor with that. Such a simple thing can help so much.
Many of us who work in real estate do know how to get rid of stuff. We know how to recycle it, sell it or donate it to the appropriate charity. If all else fails, there are services that will come and haul away unwanted items for a reasonable fee.
It would be nice if our elderly neighbors could talk to us about housing-related issues without anyone trying to talk them into selling their house or moving.
We all have the opportunity to give back by using our knowledge and skills to help the most vulnerable homeowners in our communities. Our help is needed, and helping might be the right thing to do.
Teresa Boardman is a Realtor and broker-owner of Boardman Realty in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is also the founder of StPaulRealEstateBlog.com.
