According to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies , service-enriched affordable housing has been shown to “increase independence and reduce healthcare costs but the need outstrips supply.” While housing affordability is an issue for all New Jersey residents, it is particularly challenging for older adults, many of whom rely on a fixed income to sustain their basic necessities. Moreover, low and middle-income older adults may struggle in managing increasing costs of taxes, medications, and healthcare. These challenges, coupled with a world where technological skills are required to pay bills, schedule an appointment or receive a Real ID, can seem overwhelming to some older people. Oftentimes, family members, due to distance or their own family responsibilities, cannot provide the support that their older loved one requires.
Supportive housing, with a social services component, often is the lynchpin to assist older adults with scheduling transportation and medical appointments, to serve as a liaison between the older adults and their healthcare provider or to assist them with accessing Managed Long-Term Services and Supports (MLTSS). The goal of supportive housing is not to usurp decision-making and control from the resident but to support them in achieving what matters to them.
Housing, combined with a supportive services component, can also be beneficial for residents who are non-English speaking. Culturally and linguistically appropriate services offered through social services can enhance the residents’ ability to navigate through a maze of healthcare and social service obstacles and barriers. Bilingual social service staff, whether social workers or Community Health Workers, can provide translation and interpretation services, accompany residents to medical appointments and bridge the language and comprehension gap between non-English speaking residents and their healthcare providers.
Housing with supportive services also opens the door for healthcare partnerships that can greatly benefit older adult residents. Research has noted that evidenced-based health interventions can produce positive health benefits for older adults. Onsite exercise and strength building activities from healthcare providers can teach older adults how to delay or mitigate physical decline. Partnerships with schools of nursing and university and college arts departments, for example, can make a positive impact on the physical, mental and emotional well-being of older adults. Partnerships between supportive housing sites and elementary and high schools can promote social interaction and reduce isolation and loneliness that is so prevalent among both youth and older people. Northgate II, a housing site in Camden for older adults and individuals with disabilities, developed a partnership with a skilled services provider to offer onsite physical and occupational therapy to residents. Along with the convenience of services offered where older adults reside, this partnership has resulted in improved residents’ mobility, reduced pain symptoms, and improved residents’ functioning.
The shortage of affordable housing options for older adults in New Jersey limits the state’s ability to meet the preferences of its older residents, which is to age in place in the communities they love and to avoid long-term care placement. Housing with supportive services provides older residents with stability and the opportunity to thrive in their community, with assistance, in order to maintain their independence for as long as possible. This opportunity is one that we all wish for as we age.