Home Sweet Home?

Delaware County lacks affordable, accessible housing options for many older adults

When it comes to the health of its residents, Delaware County has been the healthiest county in Ohio for nine straight years.

But when it comes to having a healthy vacancy rate for available, unoccupied housing, Delaware County tells a different story.

“A healthy vacancy rate is 7 to 9%, and in the City of Delaware, we are at less than 1%,” said Kelsey Fox, director of community navigation for the United Way of Delaware County and head of the steering committee for the Delaware County Housing Alliance. “The rate varies across municipalities in the county, but none is within the healthy range.”

That translates to a huge challenge when it comes to finding accessible and affordable housing for many in Delaware County, including the county’s older adult population. Older adults ages 65 to 74 are the fastest-growing age group in Delaware County, going from 5.3% of the population in 2010 to 8.6% in 2020, according to a Delaware County Housing Strategy report. As the population grows, so does the housing challenge.

The 2023 Housing Strategy report was commissioned by the Delaware County Housing Alliance to “help decision-makers, stakeholders, and community members develop a meaningful sense of housing markets, an understanding of key housing issues, and identification of strategies to address the county’s housing needs, particularly for the low- and moderate-income households.”

According to Area Agencies on Aging (AAA), the top five housing challenges for older adults are a lack of affordable housing, a waitlist for subsidized housing or housing vouchers, increasing rent, a lack of accessible housing, and increased homelessness. Delaware County mirrors much of what AAA cites.

“Central Ohio has been growing at a rapid speed these past few decades and development is not keeping up,” said Michele Boni, who serves as lead for the Housing Alliance’s zoning group.

Rapid growth is one of five major themes cited in the Housing Strategy report; the others, all of which potentially impact older adults, are disproportionate access to housing, limited rental housing stock, lack of affordable housing, and restrictive zoning.

“What we are seeing with older adults particularly is the affordable housing options that currently exist—including some of the subsidized housing available—have long waiting lists,” said Fara Waugh, CEO of SourcePoint. “Those on the lower-income spectrum have a long wait before they can get into one of these. Another issue is we have older adults in homes where the properties are large and require a lot of upkeep, or they’re out in the county where they may not have transportation available.”

Waugh said that while SourcePoint isn’t in the housing business, its primary mission is to help Delaware County’s older adults age in place. Adequate housing is a component of that. Waugh said SourcePoint’s board of directors is considering what role the organization will take in the future to help expand the availability of affordable housing for older adults. In the meantime, SourcePoint will continue to offer aging-in-place home modifications—grab bars and handrails, wider doorways, removal of tripping hazards, to name a few—as part of its services.

“We’re looking at expanding those options,” Waugh said. “There is a lot of piecemealing to home modification and we anticipate increased requests for that assistance and are equipping ourselves financially. That becomes part of the solution along with building more housing.”

Waugh said many of Delaware County’s older adults have family here or other reasons to want to stay.

“As a community, we don’t want to lose the gifts that they contribute to our society,” she said. “We need a variety of housing types to keep that vibrancy in our community.”

That variety Waugh mentions includes housing that older adults —particularly those on a fixed income—can afford. In Delaware County, according to the Housing Strategy report, there are currently 23 income-restricted communities composed of 1,119 total units. Those represent approximately 8% of the total rental market.

By having rent and housing costs largely dictated by the pool of potential tenants and buyers, older adults may be left out of the equation while developers and landlords find others who can afford to pay higher housing costs. Older adults may not be able to afford Delaware County’s median sale price for a home ($440,000 in the first part of 2022, according to the Housing Strategy report) or the $1,000-plus monthly rent for a modest apartment, but someone else will.

The Delaware County Housing Alliance is working to address the issue. Fox said the larger group meets quarterly, with smaller committee meetings happening between the quarterly sessions to discuss goals, strategies, and outcomes in greater detail. It’s a challenge that can’t and won’t be solved overnight, but the ongoing discussion is essential as the county population grows, and one of the four countywide strategy recommendations in the Housing Strategy report is to “expand housing options for the growing senior population.”

The Housing Strategy report shows the county’s population is expected to rise to more than 269,000 people by 2040. Meeting that growth will require approximately 1,170 units of housing to be built each year until then.

“We need those units to be at all income levels,” Fox said. “A lot of families are also interested in intergenerational living right now; not necessarily having a mother-in-law suite but an accessory dwelling unit. But there has been restrictive zoning for something like that.”

The zoning challenges, Boni said, often stem from the “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) mindset that is common when it comes to community development.

“Our committee was meeting every other month, working to identify talking points to help change housing flexibility,” Boni said. “Zoning is the first issue; what are those starting points when it comes to conversations with our elected officials? We want to be able to give officials some smart growth strategies and get buy-in from them.”

Fox said creating more “yes in my backyard” mindsets can come through community education or from people having a more personal connection to a housing challenge.

“People understand the situation more when they see it firsthand with someone they know,” Fox said.

Fox said one new development that has generated some excitement is being planned for the former Salvation Army campsite at Greenwood Lake, off U.S. 42 on the east side of Delaware. She said the development will include attainable housing offered at a sliding scale that will target those who fall within 30 to 50% of the median income.

Ultimately, solving the county’s housing challenge means having numerous entities at the table and spreading the message throughout the community.

“Those talking points are developed in conjunction with our communications committee so we can speak to Chambers of Commerce, Rotary Clubs, and City Councils and make sure folks understand what we’re working toward and educate them on buzzwords like attainable and affordable,” Fox said. “And we have to keep transportation in mind, so we’re working with the Delaware Transit Authority to make sure people have access to the things they need.”

Waugh said SourcePoint has supported the Housing Alliance in the ongoing effort to address the housing challenge, adding that the Alliance has been successful in bringing other outside parties like legislators and local Realtors into the conversation.

“We’ve supported every effort for developing senior housing, including Franklin House behind the Kroger Marketplace in Lewis Center and Arthur Place on the west side of Delaware,” Waugh said. “The Housing Alliance and SourcePoint continue to look at this in a smart way to ensure that we don’t put these living quarters in areas where residents don’t have the services they need.”

Waugh said SourcePoint also continues to look at more short-term solutions, such as expanding in-home care services and Meals on Wheels to help more older adults age in place.

“This is a pressing need that is ongoing. We are aware of that, and the public can continue to count on SourcePoint working to address this need with our community partners as we have addressed other needs,” Waugh said. “People can contact SourcePoint for information on how to address their current situation as they await a potential solution to new housing. And if we can’t assist, we can point people in the right direction.”

The Delaware County Housing Strategy report contains numerous recommendations and action steps, including those that pertain specifically to older adults and senior housing. For more information or to learn more about the work of the Delaware County Housing Alliance, visit delcohousing4all.org.

Source: Jeff Robinson is the feature writer for My Communicator.