Century Lives: The Home Stretch
By 2030, every Baby Boomer will be over 65 or older. Many of these older adults will live alone and on limited incomes, and many will have mobility and other health challenges. This so-called “silver tsunami” is here to stay, and the math is ominous. The nation already has a housing shortage—and a senior-care shortage. On the plus side, many of these older folks will be healthier and more active, engaged, and tech-savvy than their peers in prior generations. But since their housing needs and desires will likewise be different from those of their predecessors, new questions and challenges will arise. On Century Lives: The Home Stretch, we explore signs of hope and inspiration in communities where housing innovations for older adults are already afoot.
Episodes
Episode 4: Over the Rainbow
Older adults are the fastest-growing age group falling into homelessness: The population of unhoused older adults is expected to triple from 2017 to 2030. We discuss its roots in the shortage of housing in the U.S. and visit San Diego to learn about some solutions to the growing crisis of senior homelessness.
Episode 3: Beyond Four Walls
There is nowhere near enough housing available in the U.S. for low-income older adults. Even people who qualify for government subsidies often cannot find a place to move (and what there is - is frequently grim). But an organization called 2Life Communities in Boston has been developing low-income housing for older adults for decades. Their buildings, as well as the services and activities they provide, are considered a model for what attractive, safe, engaging, and even joyous living could and should look like for our aging population. We travel to Boston to find out how they do it.
Episode 2: The Forgotten Middle
The forgotten middle—seniors with too much money to qualify for the government-subsidized housing offered to low-income folks, and too little to afford market-rate housing accessible to the wealthy—is a growing population. In this episode, we travel to Minnesota to explore housing solutions for the forgotten middle. Can we make housing affordable to this group of older adults—or will they have to figure out creative solutions for themselves?
Episode 1: 5 O’Clock Somewhere
Age segregation in housing is a relatively new phenomenon in human history. Until very recently, people aged with their families in intergenerational communities. Today, we visit two very different places: the age-restricted community Latitude Margaritaville in Florida and Gorham House in Maine, a retirement and assisted living facility built around the concept of different ages living together.
Episodes 1-4 out now!
Click the link below to listen & subscribe: