FIXED INCOME

Affordable housing becomes key to getting by for seniors

The vision of retirement may include a retirement fund, and a place to live that’s paid off, but that’s not the reality for many seniors.

One in four seniors rely on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their income, and for about half of seniors, it supplies about half of their income. The 2020 Community Needs Evaluation let us know that one in 10 seniors in Nashville live below the poverty line.

When seniors like Contributor vendors Vicky and Doyle become firmly out of the workforce, they rely on a monthly fixed income, and must stretch their dollars to support themselves.

Vicky says her experience with homelessness got her used to pinching pennies. Getting into affordable housing after seven months on a waitlist was a game-changer for her. It meant that her rent was on a sliding scale based on her income. With $749 in Social Security

income, plus $65 in child support she was owed for her now-grown sons, she pays $234 per month, always 30 percent of her income.

While she was waiting for her SSI to come in, she was paying the lowest amount possible, $25 per month. Getting that income was a process that took about two years, she says. Income from The Contributor, and the unemployment income during the pandemic, was keeping her afloat.

“You start writing everything down as far as everything that your money goes for. And, it just whittles away so quickly, and, and let's face it, I'm at an advantage right now because I got into affordable housing before SSI hit. I wasn't trying to find an apartment that I could afford. I was already in one that I could afford,” she says.

Gretchen Funk, executive director of FiftyForward, which provides services for older adults in Nashville, including financial counseling, sees affordable housing as a major key to financial stability for seniors.

“A key to that is accessing either the Section 8 vouchers or the facility-based programs where you pay 30 percent of your income,” she says. “Really without that, people just cannot manage on the amount of income that they have. Because otherwise, if you're having a $700 income, in Nashville, more and more, there are few options left.”

The federal government recently announced that baseline SNAP benefits would go up a bit overall (about 21 percent) — the biggest increase in the program’s 45 years. At the same time, extra benefits as a result of the pandemic are set to come to an end. For Vicky, that means a cut down to $58 from the inflated pandemic amount of $294 per month.

Those extra SNAP dollars during the pandemic gave her a chance to stock up on some essentials and eat healthier. For example, she stocked up on Glucerna shakes that help control her diabetes.

“I really wish that they would increase [SNAP] benefits for those on SSI, and Social Security and such. Because we can eat so much healthier, and we can improve our health,” Vicky says.

But lots of seniors don’t bother with enrolling in SNAP at all. Outside of the pandemic boost, SSI and SSDI income can slide those benefits down to the lowest threshold of $14 a month. The program is moreso designed for families, which represent 71 percent of those enrolled in Tennessee.

Bigger households get more money from SNAP. But having a bigger household disqualifies a senior from utilizing the public senior housing, like the spot where Vicky lives. Having one of her sons live with her there would be enough to get her evicted.

Contributor vendor Doyle’s monthly expenses play out much differently. With the help of his son offsetting initial costs, he found an apartment in Lebanon where he can afford the rent each month, but it’s not on a sliding scale. Like Vicky, he prefers wide open spaces outside of the urban core, but without the choice of public housing, it’s harder to afford.

Having public housing seems like a no-brainer for someone like Doyle, 60, but he’s been on a waitlist for months, and his name is yet to come up to the top. He’s also not quite old enough to qualify for specific senior housing, which happens at 62. It would still be a tough decision, moving closer to downtown, and away from his son.

“After him putting up so much, I’d hate to leave,” he says.

Being out of the workforce is an adjustment for Doyle, as he’s used to making $60,000 to $70,000 a year in the auto electric field while delivering pizzas on the side. Beginning eight years ago, health issues sidelined him. The amount Doyle receives from Social Security per month is about normal at $1,450 per month. As of December 2020, the average amount a Social Security recipient was getting per month was $1,544.

“That’s why I have to sell papers. The car, car insurance, and all that adds up.”

“I couldn’t make it without it,” he says.

Including rent, insurance, electric, a car payment and a loan payment, Doyle’s static monthly costs add up to $1,150 per month, and that’s before he buys food or gas, or any car repairs that come up. It costs, with how much driving he does — 50 miles each way to his selling spot in McMinnville from The Contributor’s downtown office.

In the past, he was denied SNAP for being over the income threshold, and never applied again. An informal SNAP benefit calculator shows that, based on his income and costs, he would be eligible for just $20 per month.

Vicky had the chance to get a car with the stimulus check, but opted to save some money and buy some items in bulk — she saves by buying a monthly bus pass instead. She’d like to live outside the city too, in Hermitage preferably, but there aren’t sliding scale options or anywhere she can afford the ticket price there. She’s hooked up with the Nashville Financial Empowerment Center to set up her budget.

“It's definitely a learning process, but you can make it. You just have to watch your bills,” she says.

Even still, FiftyForward sees a lot of seniors without the necessary resources to make ends meet. The organization tries to fill in the gaps with their food box program, helping seniors find affordable housing, and offering scholarships for other enrichment programs they offer. It really gets dangerous when people start to ration their medications, Funk says.

“Something that we often face with folks is that choice between things like rent, food, your medications,” she says. “I think people think this is uncommon and people just, you know, want to pull on your heartstrings about this, but we often encounter seniors who don't take their medication as prescribed because they are trying to make it last longer.”

These decisions affect health outcomes, as does buying cheaper and less nutritious foods with a limited grocery budget.

“All those kinds of things result in costs to society that you just wish people had a calculus for that. Because providing someone with better income so that they can take their medications as prescribed and have a healthy diet is going to prevent earlier hospitalization and a need for institutional care sooner,” Funk says.

When it comes to advising seniors on where to most effectively spend their money, it can feel unfair.

“It’s so hard to even have those conversations, because people should have some luxury or something that brings that quality of life, not just that sustenance,” Funk says.