Related article highlights affordable housing, transportation
as continuing challenges for Florida’s seniors.
A recent report and subsequent news coverage have highlighted the lack of affordable senior housing in Broward County, an issue that is all too real for low-income seniors living in southeast Florida and throughout the state. The report points out that Florida has the highest concentration of older residents in the country (today, approximately one in five Floridians is age 60 years or older), and questions whether our state’s systems and infrastructure are prepared for expected growth in the aging population in the coming years.
Titled The Silver Tsunami: Is Broward Ready?, the report is a wake-up call, and underscores the great deal of work to be done to ensure that Florida seniors have access to safe, affordable housing.
As Florida’s only association representing the entire continuum of care for older adults, LeadingAge Florida is working with partners, advocates and officials at all levels to address the development and preservation of affordable housing for our state’s seniors. Additionally, we are working to streamline and improve other programs that help to support low-income seniors.
Nearly 430,000 low-income seniors living in Florida are served by federal housing programs, with more than 70 percent of them qualifying as “extremely low income.” For those seniors, the average time spent on a waiting list to find affordable housing was three-and-a-half years. In South Florida, seniors wait as long as eight years for decent, affordable housing.
Florida is very fortunate to have the Sadowski Trust Funds—a dedicated funding mechanism for the provision of affordable housing in our state. LeadingAge Florida has and will continue to fight for full appropriation of Sadowski funds to affordable housing to help ensure our seniors can get the housing they so desperately need and deserve.
Established in 1963 as a Florida not-for-profit corporation, LeadingAge Florida is committed to assisting its members in achieving excellence as providers, businesses and employers. The Association provides up-to-date regulatory information, a wide variety of educational opportunities, representation before the Legislature and government agencies, group purchasing services, and opportunities for networking with peers.
