Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) released a report, Housing for the Golden Years: Trends, Gaps, and Solutions for Older Americans, on April 1.

Senator Scott is the ranking member, or lead Republican, on the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

While the report acknowledges that “[h]ousing affordability is a growing concern for older Americans. Nearly a third of households age 65 and older are cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing” and “[a]ccessibility is also a critical factor for older Americans in their housing needs,” it calls for “[r]eforming and reducing federal intervention in the housing market” and says, “[s]pending more taxpayer dollars to further stoke demand in an already overheated housing market is a recipe for disaster.”

The report seems to acknowledge how important HUD’s Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program is to meet the housing and aging-in-community needs of older adults and praises the latest rounds of new Section 202 funds for their emphasis on leveraging non-federal resources, including with the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). “Private capital is now working to improve both the quality and quantity of affordable housing for older Americans,” the report says.

However, the report inaccurately faults the Section 202 program as providing duplicative funding, saying “Section 202 projects receive Section 8 HCVs [housing choice vouchers] for their tenants on top of their existing operating subsidies and development grants.” To be clear: no Section 202 unit with an existing operating subsidy (such as Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance or a Project Rental Assistance Contract) also has a housing choice voucher subsidy; this would be a gross waste of federal funds and is not allowed under program rules.

The report says there are federal roles toward solutions for affordable senior housing, but that funding is not one of them. “Spending more taxpayer dollars to further stoke demand in an already overheated housing market is a recipe for disaster. Reforming and reducing federal intervention in the housing market will better protect taxpayers against losses and allow the private sector to develop market- based solutions to expand U.S. housing supply and help make housing more accessible and affordable to seniors and vulnerable populations,” the report says.

LeadingAge’s top housing policy goal is to expand the supply of housing affordable to older adults. 

At a March 31 hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, “Preventing Tragedies and Promoting Safe, Accessible, and Affordable Homes,” Senator Scott said he would soon be introducing legislation to address what his report calls a national inventory of Public Housing that “fails to produce positive outcomes for its residents.”

“Unfortunately, Public Housing residents cannot leave their units in search of a better home. If they do, they lose their entire subsidy. As a result, many seniors and disabled persons are trapped in crumbling units that do not meet their specific needs,” the report said. Senator Scott’s bill will allow older adult residents of Public Housing to use a new housing choice voucher to lease a unit of their choice in the private market. “Such a reform would allow residents to retain needed financial support while finding homes that better meet their accessibility, health, budget, transportation, or family size needs,” the report says. About 36% of the nation’s 940,000 Public Housing apartment homes, owned and managed by local public housing agencies, are headed by an older adult.

The report also says the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program “could be serving more seniors by streamlining, better targeting, and increasing oversight” and notes the importance of Home and Community Based Services, which “enables aging-in-place,” the report says.

Read the report here.