New Senior Housing Program Will Allow Older Adults to Live with Caregivers or Family Members

NYC Senior Affordable Rental Apartments (SARA) program to include two-bedroom units to accommodate multigenerational households.

New York City will allow older adults to live with family members or caretakers in two-bedroom apartments as part of changes to an affordable-housing program can help address problems as varied as housing instability, loneliness and the caregiving crisis.

Under the Senior Affordable Rental Apartments (SARA) program - which previously only funded studio and one-bedroom apartments for low-income seniors - two-bedroom units will now be part of the housing mix to accommodate multigenerational households and allow for living with caregivers.

Developers will be required to build at least 20% two-bedroom units in SARA projects developed in areas with limited affordable housing. In other neighborhoods, two-bedroom units will be encouraged as part of more inclusive design efforts. The timing for the first units is not yet available.

"For too long, our city's housing policies have made it harder for older adults to live with aides, children or other family members," New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. "With these new rules, we'll build more senior housing with extra bedrooms and help more families find an affordable place to live together."

The expanded program comes as New York City and the nation as a whole face multiple challenges ranging from a housing crisis to a loneliness epidemic to a eldercare crisis. The program could be a small step toward answering many of those issues.

"No one silver bullet will solve all these crises. But this is one more version of an affordable-housing option that we're really excited about," Sarah Leitson, assistant commissioner for special-needs housing at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said in an interview with MarketWatch.

As many as 77% of adults age 50 and older want to stay in their homes as they age, but only 49% think that they will be able to do so, according to AARP. To accomplish aging in place, 70% of older adults will need some support, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

There is no national model for housing older adults and caregivers together. Instead, local municipalities and private developers have created ad-hoc responses to the crises, noted Lisa McCracken, head of research and analytics for the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care.

"Given the significant demographic wave of the baby-boomer generation, and the needs they will have for housing and supportive services, we will continue to need a variety of models to meet this growing demand," McCracken said.

There have been smaller development projects being explored that promote intergenerational living and caregiver housing - with one example being the Carehaus development in Baltimore, McCracken said.

"Many of these have been one-off developments. We have not seen wide-scale initiatives to promote this type of co-housing," McCracken added.

One in three older New Yorkers lives with adult children, according to a report by New York City's Center for Research on Housing Opportunity, Mobility and Equity.

The majority of these families moved into their current home together. Typically, when older adults move later in life, it is even more common for them to seek housing with family members - highlighting the need for more flexible models that help families remain together, the report said.

The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which oversees the SARA program, did not have an estimate for how many housing units the expanded program would produce. From 2000 to 2023, the New York City population age 65 and older grew by 53% - 17 times faster than the total population's growth, according to a report by the New York State Comptroller.