If there is one thing that everyone can agree on, it’s that New York is facing an affordable housing crisis. New York City rents grew seven times faster than wages last year and home prices are skyrocketing. Housing vacancies are at an all-time low. People want to live here but are struggling with the costs.
While this crisis impacts all ages, older New Yorkers are acutely feeling the effects of the high cost of housing and fear they’ll be priced out of the communities they’ve lived in for years. A recent AARP survey found that more than half of older New Yorkers were concerned about affordable housing, a percentage far surpassing other concerns.
The impact on older New Yorkers expands beyond housing, it can also impact their ability to access a support network close to home. In neighborhoods with higher-priced homes on larger lots, adequate affordable housing options are not readily available to older New Yorkers, their families, and their caregivers. Many worry that without an increase in affordable housing options, the caregivers — whose help is crucial to allow them to age in place — won’t be able to find housing nearby.
According to a report from the Center for an Urban Future, New York City’s 65-and-over population grew by 36% — or more than 363,000 people between 2011 and 2021. As the older adult population rapidly increases, the need for more economical and accessible housing choices will soar.
We need to embrace solutions that will empower older New Yorkers to age in the city they love, and the communities they’ve helped to build.
One way we can help older New Yorkers age in their communities is by empowering homeowners to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on their properties. ADUs are smaller, independent residential dwelling units located on the same lot as a stand-alone home. An ADU can be a small, cottage-like structure or an addition to the existing home like a garage, basement, or attic apartment.
Housing options like ADUs provide older New Yorkers the freedom to downsize, or live near their loved ones. These living quarters can also help boost the homeowner’s income or provide flexible living arrangements for a family member or a trusted caregiver, who might not otherwise be able to afford to live nearby. Providing caregivers with safe, comfortable, convenient housing is crucial to allowing New Yorkers to age in place.
New York is well on its way with Mayor Adams’ City of Yes for Housing Opportunity initiative. Last year, the mayor launched a pilot program that will help construct up to 100,000 units of new housing by providing homeowners with grants to build ADUs on their properties, and the state Legislature recently passed a pilot program that would legalize basement and cellar apartments in select city neighborhoods. This is a great start.
Adams has underlined his commitment to helping older New Yorkers remain in the communities they’ve built by making ADUs a key component of his plan to make it possible to build a little more housing in every neighborhood. It’s a common-sense idea that Community Boards and elected officials throughout the city should strongly support.
From Bayside to Bay Ridge, Norwood to New Dorp, and everywhere in between, older adults are being squeezed out of neighborhoods they’ve helped build. Many of these older adults purchased row houses or other homes in the 1970s or 1980s, but cannot afford to stay because they’re retired and on a fixed income.
But with modest investment from the city, we can help them add a basement or attic apartment to their property, which they can then rent out to an adult child, grandchild, or another trusted caregiver. In exchange for picking up groceries, prescriptions and other help around the house, the caregiver gets a good deal on rent.
It’s a win for the caregiver who gets an affordable place to live, and the homeowner who gets the help and supplemental income they need to stay in their home and age in place.
Older adults play a vital role as a driving force in our economy, cultural life, and volunteer base. And they overwhelmingly want to live independently and stay in their homes and communities. We owe it to them to help them do so.
We need to embrace housing alternatives like ADUs that will allow older New Yorkers to age in place and continue to make New York City great.
Finkel is the state director of AARP NY.
