Prevalence and Disparities of Very Low-Income Older Adult Renters in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Anthony Traver & Holly Dabelko-Schoeny

OSU College of Social Work

Conflict Disclosure

The authors have no conflicts to disclose.

Aims

  1. Explore the rates of housing assistance eligibility and access across the lifespan.

  2. Examine individual-level factors associated with rental assistance among older adult renters with very low incomes.

CPS March Annual Social and Economic Supplement

Conducted jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

CPS labor force data plus social variables.

Widely used by social scientists and policymakers.

Includes approximately 145,000 individuals in 90,000 households.

(U. S. Census Bureau 2023)

IPUMS CPS

Integrated and harmonized microdata.

Free publicly available extraction system.

Geography indicated for cases in high population areas.

(Flood et al. 2023)

IPUMS CPS

  • Income
  • Tenure status
  • Housing assistance
  • Geographic indicator
  • Demographic characteristics
  • Health and well being variables

HUD Eligibility

Percentage of the local median income.

HUD defines Area Median Income (AMI) for:

  • each metropolitan area
  • areas within some metro areas
  • non-metro countries

HUD Eligibility

Very Low Income (50% of AMI) is the general threshold for HUD assistance.

Family.Size Tampa Seattle
1 $30,040 $47,950
2 $34,800 $54,800
3 $39,150 $61,650
4 $43,450 $68,500

(Housing and Urban Development 2023)

Merging CPS and HUD

Match CPS cases with their local HUD VLI threshold

METRO Total % Co. FIPS % Co. or Metro FIPS
Metro Central City 118,938 58 99
Metro Outside Central City 190,909 51 99
Metro with City Status Unknown 79,889 44 74
Not in Metro 96,120 5 5
Unidentifiable 3,789 0 0

Defining VLI in CPS

  1. Extract metropolitan cases from CPS ASEC.

  2. Merge cases with HUD income limits by county FIPS.

  3. Merge the remaining cases by metro FIPS.

  4. Determine VLI status based on VLI threshold for family size.

  5. Older adult is age 62 - 85.

CPS Metro-Dwelling Cases (Unweighted)

Year Total VLI %
2000 88,532 19,063 22
2010 138,001 32,767 24
2023 99,824 21,054 21

CPS Metro-Dwelling Cases (Weighted)

Year Total VLI %
2000 193,798,054 39,911,398 21
2010 221,788,735 52,837,464 24
2023 251,169,087 53,033,336 21

Tenure and Income Across the Lifespan

Percent of U.S. Metro-Dwelling Adults that are Renters

Percent U.S. Metro-Dwelling Renters that are VLI

Age Structure of Metro-Dwelling VLI Renters

Percent of VLI Metro-Dwelling Renters Receiving Assistance

(Public Housing or Rental Subsidy)

Age Structure of Metro-Dwelling Unassisted VLI Renters

Population Growth Among Metro-Dwelling Adults (62-85)

Total U.S. Metro-Dwelling Adults 62-85

Percent Change in U.S. Metro-Dwelling Adults 62-85

Disparities Among Metro-Dwelling Adults (62-85)

Percent of Metro-Dwelling Adults (62-85) who are White

Percent of Metro-Dwelling Adults (62-85) with a Disability

Self Reported Health Status for Metro-Dwelling Adults (62-85)

Modeling Housing Assistance Among Eligible Adults (62-85)

Logistic Regression

Sample: Metro-dwelling older adult (62 - 85) renters with incomes < 50% of AMI.

Years: 2000, 2010, 2023

N: 4979 (unweighted) 10,348,006 (weighted)

Assistance: Public Housing or Rental Subsidy

\[ log(Assistance) = B_0Intercept +B_1Income\\ +B_2Race +B_3Age +B_4Disability +B_5Health\\ +B_6Family\ Size +B_7Year \]

Odds Ratios for Receipt of Housing Assistance

OR 2.5 % 97.5 %
Income Q2 1.54 1.28 1.87
Income Q3 1.08 0.89 1.32
Income Q4 0.56 0.46 0.70
Race Other/mixed 2.47 1.43 4.27
Race Native Amer 1.67 0.75 3.70
Race Black 1.49 1.27 1.74
Race Asian 1.67 1.29 2.16

Odds Ratios for Receipt of Housing Assistance

OR 2.5 % 97.5 %
Age 1.02 1.01 1.03
Disability 1.60 1.38 1.85
Health 0.82 0.76 0.87
Family Size 0.64 0.58 0.71
2010 1.09 0.91 1.30
2023 1.63 1.36 1.96

Conclusions

Summary of Findings

  • Rentership decreases with age, but is becoming more common in later life.
  • The prevalence of VLI among renters increases with age.
  • The total number of metro-dwelling HUD eligible older adults has doubled since 2000.
    • they are less white, more disabled, and in worst health than non-renting or non-VLI counterparts.

Summary of Findings

  • The rate of assistance among HUD eligible older adults has increased sightly to ~ 37% in 2023.
  • The likelihood of receiving assistance among eligible older adults is higher among:
    • low, but not lowest, incomes
    • racial minority
    • older age
    • a disability
    • worst health
    • smaller family size
    • recent year

Implications

Expansion of enduring housing assistance programs and Section 202 affordable housing for the elderly.

SSA reform to account for less housing wealth and higher housing costs in retirement.

Gerontological experience integrated into housing and homeless prevention service sectors.

Traver | AFIC OSU CSW | GSA 2023

Flood, Sarah, Mariam King, Renae Rodgers, Steven Ruggles, and J. Robert Warren. 2023. “Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Current Population Survey: Version 11.0 [Dataset].” Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.18128/D030.V11.0.
Housing, U. S. Department of, and Urban Development. 2023. “Income Limits [Database].” https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/il.html.
U. S. Census Bureau. 2023. “Current Population Survey 2023 Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement.” Washington. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/techdocs/cpsmar23.pdf.