Why AARP Texas is Fighting For Older Texans on Housing Issues

Americans are living longer than ever, and most hope to remain in their homes and communities for as long as possible. And yet, in Texas and elsewhere, there is a severe housing affordability crisis with rising housing costs, insufficient supply of smaller homes, and growing income inequality.

If left unaddressed, more people will struggle to afford rent or a mortgage, live in substandard housing, or reside in homes that have physical barriers that keep them isolated because they cannot find appropriate homes in their budget.

Older Texans are significantly impacted, with over 765,000 struggling to cover housing costs due to the combination of rising housing costs, fixed incomes, and the shortage of housing options. This year, AARP Texas is putting renewed focus on housing affordability by, among other things, fighting for legislative reforms that aim to ease housing costs and give consumers more power to be able to live where they choose to do so.

Kathy Green, AARP Texas’s state-federal strategy director, is leading the association’s legislative effort on housing affordability issues at the Texas Capitol. She recently shared details about the advocacy on Episode 74 of the Texas Housers “A Little Louder” podcast with Michael Depland. Texas Housers is a policy and advocacy group focused on ensuring low-income Texans have access to affordable housing and fair treatment.

“If people don’t have stable housing, that affects the other parts of their life,” Green said. “They don’t have adequate access to healthcare. And all those things kind of co-exist in these households.”

About 12 percent of older adults live at or below the federal poverty level, Green said, and roughly one-third of all needs-based federal housing assistance goes to households headed by an older adult.

“We want people to age in place, but we know that that is one of their biggest worries,” Green said during the podcast. “We hear a lot from our membership that they’re not going to be able to age in place and keep a roof over their heads.”

Today, nearly 9 in 10 Americans age 65 or older are collecting Social Security. Those payments account for at least half the income of close to 23 million older adults. In other words, about 40 percent of them rely on Social Security for the majority of their income. And for an estimated 12 percent of men and 15 percent of women, nearly all of the cash they need to keep a roof over their heads comes from Social Security.

“They are really living paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes not even that,” Green said.

To support older Texans needing housing assistance, AARP Texas is working on a handful of housing-related bills. Green highlighted three of them during the “A Little Louder” podcast.

• Senate Bill 337 addresses homelessness and housing instability through the establishment of the Texas Tenant Readiness and Landlord Incentive Pilot Program. The program would help recipients of Housing Choice Vouchers (also known as Section 8 vouchers) find a place to live.
  
• House Bill 411 focuses on housing protections for individuals receiving the housing vouchers. It aims to prevent discrimination against voucher recipients and allow cities to enact ordinances that protect them. Specifically, the bill seeks to remove a state-level prohibition that prevents municipalities from regulating housing accommodations, potentially allowing them to implement protections for voucher holders.
  
• AARP Texas is currently opposed to Senate Bill 38 and House Bill 32, which both intend to speed up the process of evicting persons from their property. AARP Texas and other opponents contend it will remove due process rights and limit legal representation, creating burdens particularly for older persons and others who would have difficulty contesting their eviction.

Green explained why she and others at AARP Texas are passionate about housing issues.

“Everyone deserves a safe and affordable place to live,” she said. “Whether you own your own home or a tenant, the cost of housing has just gone through the roof, and that affects people in the lower-income sector the hardest. They are often paying more of a percentage of their household income for housing than anyone else.”

Kathy Green can be reached at kgreen@aarp.org or 512-657-7407. Mark Hollis can be reached at mhollis@aarp.org or 512-574-3739.