Never Retire - Making Housing Affordable For An Aging Population

One of the things we cover most in the Never Retire newsletter is housing.

Particularly the need to keep your housing payment—whether you rent or own—as low as possible. Because the last thing you need is a massive monthly obligation hounding you into relative old age and beyond.

However, at age 47, I can only speak to how things look for me and how I’d like them to look in the future. This is one reason why I made a call for guest posts late last year. To get perspectives from readers and fellow authors on subject matter I can’t directly and immediately relate to.

So, the first guest post from that effort comes via Moira MacLean, who has just launched the Turn By Turn newsletter. Moira’s Substack deals specifically with restoring America's social contract so that everyone can thrive well into old age. Of course, housing is as big as any part of this contract.

William Shatner’s Ride on Blue Origin Changed His Life. Can It Change Ours?

My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral,” he wrote, “It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness.

So says Shatner in his autobiography, Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder, (Atria, 2022).

According to psychologists, this is a phenomenon called the overview effect, where someone is suddenly stricken by a transcendent sense of awe while observing something visually stimulating. “I hope I never recover from this," a deeply emotional Shatner said. (Interview with Ryan Grenoble, HuffPost, 10-13-21).

Few of us have the unique opportunity to circle the earth in a spaceship as he has. At 90, he also met the experience with the seasoned perspective of an already long life nearing its end. What made his view of home so comforting?

At his stage in life, it’s easy to understand why his interpretation of what he saw involved wanting to keep on living, avoiding the darkness he feared was death. But I think it would be arrogant of the rest of us if we stopped there. His longing to hold tightly to the warmth and comfort of Earth implies a need for us to steward our gifts wisely, lest we bring the cold, dark emptiness of that other reality he saw down on ourselves. Metaphorically, a failure to establish and practice shared civic values, treat each other with respect, and provide for the common good brings darkness.

It’s no secret that Shatner and others in his station in life enjoy privileges that ordinary people don’t. The perennial question remains, how do we design a framework that enables a decent lifestyle for the rest.

In my Substack newsletter Turn By Turn , I’m looking for answers.

While there are a variety of things to look at in determining whether a society is living up to its potential, one of the most pressing needs is for safe, affordable housing. The need affects all of us, but it’s especially acute for vulnerable people such as elders.

The rest of this post introduces you to some ways people are putting new life and energy into forming communities. All of them can be appropriately designed for the elder population.

The Community Land Trust

This is a device community groups often use to gain access to a plot of land that would otherwise be commercially developed for market-rate sales. The trust obtains financing from a CDFI- a bank whose primary mission is to help communities that are traditionally left out of banking and investing options. The trust purchases the land and builds on it. Buyers of the new units are then given a 99-year ground lease, lowering the cost of the purchased property because they are paying only for the unit itself and not the land it sits on. In return, the new owner promises to limit any future increase in the sale price to a certain pre-determined ceiling, set at the time of purchase. In this way, the land trust can ensure that the homes remain affordable for generations, no matter what the market may do.

A land trust can also enact restrictive covenants on the kinds of tenants that may rent units. For example, a multi-unit property may limit tenancy to certain kinds of commercial tenants that benefit the property owners as a whole community, such as a food co-op, a daycare center, a clinic, etc. For further reading on community land trusts, check out these resources.

Community Land Trusts | Grounded Solutions Network

Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons - Shareable

Cohousing

According to the Federation for Intentional Community, there are currently 778 active intentional communities in the United States, and more in the pipeline. Many if not most of these are cohousing communities.

The idea combines the privacy of individually owned homes with carefully planned design and access to central community facilities. Usually there is a main gathering hall where community meals, meetings and other activities happen. There are often other amenities such as a community garden. The most common governing structure is that of a condominium, but that isn’t legally required.

Homes in a cohousing community are sold at market rate, so the concept stands in sharp contrast to the community land trust if affordability is the only criteria. Nevertheless, I have included it here because those who can pay may have needs in other areas. They may be without family or close friends. They may have mobility issues and be looking for ways to get around and deal with daily chores. Thus, it’s up to the individual buyer whether the investment will be worth it in the long run.

In the formative stage, it can take as much as five years to get off the ground. Often there is a lengthy selection and orientation period to join established communities. This is plenty of time to assess whether the community is a good fit.

More resources on cohousing and other forms of intentional community are available at the Foundation for Intentional Community.

Co-op Conversion of Mobile Home Communities

The two concepts above are both adaptable to either an urban or a rural setting and aren’t dominated by a particular age group. The final one I’m highlighting here is almost never urban because of zoning regulations; namely, the mobile home park. Most residents of such communities are over 55.

There are some trends affecting the mobile home industry that make the concept worth a look.

First, over the last few years regulations concerning construction standards have dramatically altered the quality of the average manufactured home, while prices have remained favorable compared to conventional houses. Predictably, this has made them a growing choice for first time homebuyers and for others with little money for a down payment. Zoning regulations make it easiest to locate within an established community, where the new residents pay rent for the space where they put the home.

Aware that more than 10,000 people turn 65 every day in the U.S., corporate investors have caught on to the trend among some retiring Boomers to settle in such communities. These companies are buying up the communities and increasing the lot rents, often with little notice to residents. Since many who live there are on limited or fixed incomes, they suddenly find themselves in desperate straits, facing possible eviction.

A creative solution to this problem was born in 2008 with the founding of Resident Owned Communities, or ROC, based in Concord, NH. ROC shows community residents how to form a cooperative and obtain financing so that they can purchase the park and run it themselves. A total of 304 ROC coops are in nearly every state in the union as of this writing- remarkable growth in 14 years. They also make financing available through their own CDFI. Residents learn the skills needed to run the business of a housing cooperative for the benefit of the members and can make their own decisions. More about ROC here.

Conclusion

These, then, are some of the ways Americans are dealing with a very difficult housing issue. It’s been my professional focus for a while and a long-term personal interest as well, particularly since I have been thinking about how to structure a healthy and enjoyable lifestyle now that I no longer work full time. If you’re reading this as my guest post in Rocco Pendola’s Substack newsletter Never Retire, then you already know what a great help his thinking can be in forming a common-sense approach to your life financial plan. If not, then I suggest you sample it. It’s engaging and worthwhile reading.

Imagine that someone you know is alone and struggling to pay rent with only a Social Security check. Now imagine further that you are far above Earth aboard Blue Origin. Do your thoughts of home shift from there?

©2023 Moira MacLean