With the baby boomer generation reaching retirement age, older adults now make up an increasingly large share of the US population. In 2020, 55.8 million people—roughly 1 in 6—were 65 or older.
But as the US population has gotten older, the housing market has struggled to meet the needs of seniors, especially those with low incomes. And only a fraction of seniors who need housing assistance can access it.
Recent estimates find that just under 6 million senior households with very low incomes (PDF) are eligible for rental assistance. However, in 2024, only about 1.9 million senior households received housing assistance from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Today, senior households make up 42 percent of all households in HUD-assisted housing—up from 33 percent in 2014.
The Trump administration’s proposals to reduce HUD staffing by half, close agency field offices, and reduce funding for HUD programs will likely have an outsize effect on older adults at a time when need is growing. Though it’s not yet clear how the cuts will affect specific housing assistance programs, they will likely make it more difficult to administer housing programs effectively.
Ultimately, these cuts could weaken supports that help people age in place, putting more older adults at risk of institutionalization, homelessness, illness, and mortality. To ensure older and disabled people have enough affordable and accessible housing to meet their needs, local and state policymakers will likely need to increase their role in providing services.
Older adults make up an increasingly larger share of those who receive assistance from HUD
Several HUD programs serve notable numbers of households headed by older adults, including the following:
- housing choice vouchers, which provide about 800,000 senior households a subsidy to rent a home in the private market
- project-based vouchers, which provide rental assistance for a specific building or unit to about 650,000 senior households
- public housing, which offers affordable rental housing to about 650,000 senior households
- the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program, which offers housing to about 120,000 households, representing 6.3 percent of senior households who receive HUD assistance
Other programs, such as the Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities Program, are smaller. In 2024, about 9,900 of the 31,000 households in this program were elderly.
Recently, HUD has supported innovations in its major housing assistance programs to better serve older residents. HUD’s Moving to Work program provides public housing agencies (PHAs) funding flexibility and has enabled participating agencies to implement policy innovations. Many PHAs have used these funds to implement activities targeted to older households.
Other PHAs participating in HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) have improved residents’ financial stability and living conditions. RAD allows agencies to convert public housing properties into properties with project-based vouchers that have alternative ownership and management structures. PHAs participating in RAD have renovated properties and funded service provision for older residents.
Cuts to housing units and services will be felt throughout the US
In four states, senior households make up half or more of the overall population who receives HUD assistance (Rhode Island, California, New Hampshire, and New Jersey). In 27 states, they make up between 40 percent and 50 percent of people who receive HUD assistance.
But the need for supports goes beyond simply accessing a housing unit. About half of senior households (48 percent) in HUD-assisted housing include a household member with a disability. HUD provides for these households through its Service Coordinator Program, which assists seniors and people with disabilities.
Without HUD funding for support services and coordination (PDF), more providers or property managers could find residents discharged from the hospital with no food and no care. This would increase the strain on an already-overburdened—and costly—emergency response system. If older adults and people with disabilities can’t access the services they need in their communities, their risk of institutionalization and worse health outcomes increase.
How some local agencies are working to better support the housing needs of older residents
Some PHAs have done creative work to support their older residents. The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (PDF), which participates in HUD’s Moving to Work program, has properties that offer assisted living services, including some with memory care, through partnerships with service providers that receive Medicaid funding. The PHA also has used RAD to finance conversions for all its senior properties to make them more suitable for aging in place.
In Maine, the Westbrook Housing Authority (PDF) has used its RAD funding to convert properties into assisted living communities. In addition to having space for on-site programming and health care, the agency offers meals and personal care services to residents. It also has a relationship with the University of New England for on-site health services and connections to telehealth and off-site providers.
With the potential loss of federal supports, local and state governments could increasingly be on the frontline responding to the housing crisis, whether they have the resources or not.
To support their communities’ housing, localities and states could look to innovations in programming and financing like efforts in Minneapolis and Westbrook. They could identify ways to support more-direct state involvement and how to use—and expand—existing flexibilities, such as those provided through Moving to Work, to support partnerships and innovative practices even in the current challenging environment.
Older Americans with low incomes will be disproportionately affected by cuts at HUD and other federal agencies
The proposed reductions in funding and staff at HUD take place within a broader ecosystem of service providers that is already under stress.
Other federal programs that support seniors with low incomes, such as those operated by the Administration for Community Living (ACL) at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), have been cut. There, most staff have been laid off, and HHS leadership says it intends to end some grants to states. The ACL funds senior centers and distributes meals to older and disabled people through programs like Meals on Wheels. With the loss of staff, these support are at risk.
Even before the current uncertainty at federal agencies, seniors and people with disabilities faced significant challenges accessing the housing and services they needed to thrive.
With the HUD cuts looming, local and state policymakers will likely need to be creative and increase their role in providing services to ensure older and disabled people have enough affordable and accessible housing to meet their needs.
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