D. Imelda Padilla-Frausto is a Center research scientist and co-author of a fact sheet on rent burden shouldered by low-income seniors in California. In this brief interview, Padilla-Frausto discusses the concept of rent burden and poverty, regional rent and senior budgets, and the image of “worry-free” retirement living.
Q: Your study says that more than three-quarters of low-income senior renters are rent burdened (pay 30 percent or more of their income on rent). How did this happen?
Many low-income older Californians live on a fixed income year after year. But rental housing costs in California rise dramatically every year, creating an ever-growing gap between older adults’ income and rental housing costs. As this gap widens, more adults become rent burdened. Housing tends to be the biggest expense in older adults’ budget as documented by the California Elder Economic Security ™ Index (Elder Index), and low-income, older Californian renters are the most vulnerable.
In fact, California ranks third in the nation for having one of the largest gaps between renters’ wages and the cost of rental housing. This large gap is for wage earners so we can assume it is much worse for those on fixed-incomes like older adults.
Q: How can the rent burden for seniors be higher in Sacramento than in San Francisco? And what can be done about it?
This difference is most likely due to rent-control policies that exist in San Francisco but not in Sacramento. For this data, rent burden is calculated using current spending on rent. So, while the cost to a new renter for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is more than twice that for a comparable unit in Sacramento, the long tenure of older renters in San Francisco’s rent-controlled units likely reduces the actual rents paid by most seniors.
There are a few things that can be done to decrease the number of rent-burdened older adults, such as adopting more local rent-control policies for older adults in particular and building more affordable housing for seniors. Another unique approach would be to subsidize low-income older renters like the pilot project in Santa Monica called Preserve Our Diversity. This program provides rental assistance to their long-term residents over the age of 65 who would otherwise be displaced from the city due to their inability to pay their rent. The Santa Monica Housing Council used the Elder Index for Los Angeles City to identify the income an older adult needs to pay for basic living expenses.
Q: There's a general image that older adults retire and live comfortably in senior communities. What is the reality?
For some fortunate older adults, this may be true, but for many older adults, the happily-ever-after ending of the “golden years” is complete fiction. Recent data from the Elder Index shows over one-quarter of older adults do not have enough income to cover basic living expenses, and there are particular groups of older adults who are disproportionally impacted.
For instance, older renters fare the worst compared to those who own their homes, regardless if they have a mortgage or not. Older Latinos, blacks and Asians are more likely to be economically insecure than their white counterparts. Older women are more likely to have less income to meet their basic living expenses than older men, but there is still one-quarter of older men who are economically insecure. Similarly, older Californians age 75 and over tend to be more vulnerable to economic insecurity than those age 65 through 74, but still one-quarter of the younger age group face economic challenges.