Aging in America is transforming housing demands, yet policies and infrastructure remain stuck in assumptions about younger populations. By 2030, one in five Americans will be over 65, creating an urgent need for new approaches to where and how older adults live. Current systems, however, still prioritize younger residents, leaving millions of seniors with few viable options.
A recent webinar convened by Shelterforce brought together four specialists to examine this gap. Delores Bailey, who leads EMPOWERment Inc. in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, described how her nonprofit assists families overcoming barriers to affordable housing as they age. The organization owns 73 rental units and recently completed Peach Apartments, a 10-unit building designed to address the shortage of accessible, low-cost housing in a region where long-term homeownership is increasingly unattainable for seniors. “In a town like Chapel Hill, in a community like Orange County, finding affordable housing for families who have aging people in their home is difficult. It is difficult also when you’ve owned a home, you start to age, and [are] trying to figure out where you will go from there,” Bailey said. EMPOWERment helps assist people around those kinds of aging problems.
Redefining Aging: Place vs. Community
The discussion centered on two related but distinct concepts: aging in place and aging in community. The first focuses on remaining in one’s home with necessary modifications, while the second emphasizes broader social and physical connections. Tamara Knox, CEO of Frolic Community in Seattle, distinguished between a house and a home. “To me, one of the challenges with aging in place as a concept has been it always has focused on staying in this particular home,” she explained. “But then when you start to bring in this aging of community concept, you’re thinking about what is your day-to-day like and what are your human connections.” Knox cited Corvidae, one of Frolic’s projects, where an older resident informally cares for a younger child in the building, creating spontaneous intergenerational bonds.
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Stacy Torres, a sociologist at the University of California, San Francisco, supported this perspective through her research on naturally occurring retirement communities. She found that older adults in urban areas—particularly those she studied in New York City—often face isolation not only due to mobility challenges but also because familiar landmarks disappear. A closed bakery or altered bus route can disrupt social ties as suddenly as physical barriers.
Rodney Harrell, AARP’s vice president for family, home, and community, emphasized the scale of the challenge. By 2030, the U.S. will require millions of additional housing units tailored to older adults, according to AARP research. While three-quarters of Americans over 50 wish to stay in their homes, nearly half fear they cannot. The barrier isn’t just physical accessibility but the lack of flexible options. Harrell observed that multi-generational housing, once common in immigrant communities, is now gaining attention as a potential solution.
Systemic Barriers Stifle Senior Housing Solutions
Yet deeper systemic issues persist. Many older adults lack family support, and those who do often rely on overburdened caregivers—primarily millennials balancing childcare, mortgages, and elderly relatives with insufficient resources. Torres highlighted the strain on the “sandwich generation,” where younger adults are expected to provide both emotional and financial support without adequate systemic assistance. Housing policies have historically favored single-family homes in suburban sprawls, assuming residents would drive everywhere. An aging population, however, requires walkable, mixed-income communities with nearby services. Harrell’s work with the AARP Livability Index assesses neighborhoods across seven factors, housing, transportation, health, and community engagement, to identify gaps. Even minor improvements, such as better sidewalks or accessible transit, can transform options for older residents.
Bailey advocates for reviving older models of multi-generational living.
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Frolic Community’s Seattle projects offer an alternative by focusing on proactive land use. Knox’s organization collaborates with homeowners to redevelop underutilized lots, often single-family properties, into smaller, mixed-income units or shared housing. One project, Corvidae, transformed a vacant lot into tiny homes with common spaces, including a community garden and shared kitchen. The design avoids traditional “aging in place” assumptions by creating spaces where residents of all ages interact naturally. Knox stressed that community input drives success, with residents shaping features like shared laundry rooms or outdoor seating areas tailored to their needs.
Financial Hurdles Lock Seniors Out of Options
Financial barriers remain significant. A 2026 report by Habitat for Humanity found that nearly half of older homeowners with substantial equity lack liquid assets to modify homes for accessibility or afford downsized housing. Many depend on reverse mortgages, which deplete savings quickly, or on family support, often from millennials already burdened by student debt and childcare costs.
Zoning laws further complicate solutions. The National Zoning Atlas documents how restrictive regulations in many cities prohibit converting single-family homes into duplexes or accessory dwelling units (ADUs), limiting options for intergenerational living.
