Affordable senior housing residents’ physical, mental and social health generally improve with the help of community health workers, according to a new case study from the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston.
A draft bill in the House of Representatives includes LeadingAge’s request for $2.5 billion for new affordable senior housing.
The House Financial Services Committee considered a draft bill Wednesday that would provide $2.5 billion for the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program. The funding also would be able to be used to provide residents with access to high-speed internet.
The Biden administration is poised to reinstate two federal rules, terminated under the previous administration, that it says are key to enforcing fair housing laws barring discrimination.
A $9 billion increase in federal funding to increase the supply and improve energy efficiency in affordable senior housing as well as to end homelessness are part of a White House discretionary funding request for fiscal year 2022 made Friday. HUD noted that the request also includes $180 million to support 2,000 units of new housing for the elderly and people with disabilities.
Last week, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), chairwoman of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, began circulating a sign-on letter to her House colleagues in support of strong rental assistance funding levels for several Department of Housing and Urban Development programs, including those that provide assistance to older adults.
Successful aging requires a range of support services and housing options. But the system is rigged toward nursing homes, with many older adults spending their later years in those institutions because regulations, payment systems and outdated models of care make options difficult to provide.
The federal government is providing almost $100 million in grants to states and territories to increase COVID-19 vaccinations among older adults in independent living communities, affordable senior housing units, individual homes and other settings.
The federal government is more than doubling its funding for “deeply affordable housing” in announcing an almost $700 million allocation for the national Housing Trust Fund.
Modernizing aging buildings, increasing affordable senior housing stock, investing in workforce recruitment and retention, and financing are key factors in a blueprint for building the national aging infrastructure unveiled Thursday by LeadingAge.
