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Direct Long-Term, Low-Interest Loans

*Deficient units include those which are classified by the U.S. Bureau of the Census as dilapidated, deteriorated, or sound but lacking some or all plumbing facilities.

Source:

United States Census of Housing, 1960, "Housing of Senior Citizens," Volume 7, Table A-5, Page 10.

Chart 8

One FHA-insured rental housing project completed in 1962 is a good example of housing for somewhat higher income elderly who can afford private market costs. Located in the Northwest, it is a 12-story building, with 342 units. Residents may cook meals in their units or eat in a central dining room. The project provides recreation and commercial facilities, lounges on each floor, parking spaces, a barber shop, a beauty parlor, a 300-seat auditorium, hobby and craft shops, maid service, a library, a laundry room, and a 10-bed infirmary.

• Direct long-term, low-interest loans are made by the Community Facilities Administration to local private nonprofit groups, consumer cooperatives, and qualified public agencies to assist them in financing rental housing for moderate-income older families and individuals.

An example of new nonprofit housing projects specially designed for elderly persons of moderate income was built in Louisiana, financed by a Community Facilities Administration direct loan.

The buildings are so arranged that the 62 dwelling units open onto two separate courts on either side of a landscaped 60-car central parking area, with special croquet courts, a small putting green, and other nearby recreational facilities. Located on 22 acres across from a beautiful municipal park, the project includes a lounge, a library, two

Low-Rent Housing Program

Housing Projects Other
Than Federal

private parlors, a crafts room, a central office, a kitchen and a dining room for special entertaining, and a laundry.

• A low-rent housing program for older persons is administered by the Public Housing Administration. PHA also provides Federal financial and technical assistance to local housing authorities in this field.

A good example of a new public housing project entirely for the elderly was constructed in 1961 in the Midwest at a cost of less than $600,000 for 50 units. This low-rent project serves both single elderly persons and elderly families whose admission annual income limits are fixed at $2,100 $2,900. Rents range from $30 to $45 a month. The average age of tenants is 78. The project is part of a complex that includes a denominational hospital and a county nursing home.

By the end of 1962, applications received and units programmed amounted to almost 133,000 specially designed housing units for older people in these three HHFA programs. They had a potential investment value of $1.6 billion.

Most of the activity under these programs has occurred since 1960. Since then, applications received and units programmed have amounted to 88,000 units, compared with 44,000 for the previous 5 years.

Actual commitments under all three programs at the end of 1962 totaled 76,000, worth $950 million, of which 48,000, worth $620 million, were commitments since 1960.

The units completed at the end of 1962 totaled 18,000, worth $227 million. Up to 1961, only 4,300 units with a dollar investment value of $53 million had been completed.

In addition, each of the programs had a backlog of applications and reservations in process at the end of 1962 totaling almost 33,000 units.

The mortgage-insurance program for nursing homes has made rapid progress since getting underway in 1960. By the end of 1962, the program had commitments to insure mortgages for new or rehabilitated nursing homes providing 13,000 beds.

Besides the HHFA housing programs, the Congress set up in 1962 housing programs administered by the Farmers Home Administration for older people living in rural areas. The programs provide lowinterest, long-term loans and loan insurance to help rural residents 62 or over, on farms or in small towns, to build or rent new homes or modernize old ones.

In addition to the Federal programs, a number of State housing agencies notably in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Yorkhave assisted communities with the building and operation of public housing units for older people at low rents.

Private developers and religious and labor groups have built retirement villages, mainly with housing purchased by the occupants and mainly in warmer parts of the country. Religious groups have stepped up the building of residential facilities for the aged and have introduced the residence club or large apartment-type building.

In some areas, retirement hotels have been established by private owners. These have usually been older hotels taken over for the purpose of providing housing for the elderly at a flat monthly fee for room and board.

The amount of private housing which has been made available to older people without the aid of Federal funds is unknown, but the number of units is small in relation to the need.

While the progress has been rapid-for housing built with the aid of both the Federal Government and the States-the actual number of units built is only a small contribution to the need.

But, the basic effort toward improving the housing of older people is underway. Expansion of the efforts will require continued thought, energy, and capital by all levels of government and by private industry. For only when both private and public interest have been focused on the problem will real progress be made toward satisfying the need for adequate housing for older Americans.

RETIREMENT PLANNING AND COUNSELING

The adjustments many older Americans face when they retire are as drastic as any they have ever faced in their lives.

Consider, for a moment, the adjustments an older person would need to make if:

• His income was cut at least in half.

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He no longer had his work to occupy his mind.

Many of today's older people have successfully made the adjustments associated with retirement. Many others have not.

Recognizing the difficulties in getting used to retirement, some of the Nation's employers, unions, and civic and government leaders have set up retirement planning and counseling programs in recent years.

The programs have generally had two purposes:

To tell the people nearing retirement about the adjustments they will have to make and to help change their attitudes about retirement; and

• To give them factual information about social security, health, housing, social welfare, investments, recreation, civic activities, legal matters, community resources, and other matters with which they may have had no previous experience.

How extensive retirement planning and counseling are among employers and unions is difficult to measure. But it has been estimated that about one-third of the large employers have some type of program. Two of the Nation's biggest unions have a full-time staff working on such programs. Local school systems, recreation departments, and libraries have offered assistance.

Several of the Federal Government's agencies have retirement preparation programs and others are considering them.

The development of retirement preparation has been led by a dozen or so universities, which have been influential in getting employers and unions interested.

The results are hard to measure because the programs have been in operation only a short time and because they vary considerably in quality. But there is no doubt these efforts have been helpful in many cases and should be expanded.

In addition to these efforts to help older Americans with their retirement adjustments, more and more communities are providing counseling services for them when they have retired.

Many older people need personalized counseling when they are confronted with such decisions as: what to do next; how to change their living arrangements; how to deal with upset family relationships. Some encounter deep emotional problems. Many need help in determining what to do about serious health problems. How to manage on shrunken income is a major problem in itself.

If such counseling is available, it is usually part of a general community service for persons of all ages. But in a few large cities special agencies have been set up for older people.

Unfortunately, this useful service often is not available. All too frequently, the money, personnel, and inspiration to establish it in communities, either within existing agencies or as a separate function, do not exist.

Employers, unions, community leaders, and others have an important role in helping people with their retirement adjustments and difficulties. A tiny beachhead has been won, but it needs to be greatly enlarged.

Most of all, those nearing retirement should be encouraged to look ahead and plan for the adjustments they will need to make.

A Place in the Community

For many retired people, nothing is quite so difficult-or quite so important as maintaining a useful and congenial place in the community around them.

As noted earlier, the Older American retires from his job to face reduced income, loss of regular contact with his work companions, rupture of a pattern of life built up over decades-and free time. Perhaps for the first time since childhood, there are extra hours— hours with no demands, perhaps hours in which he can find nothing to do.

This is retirement. This is a sudden new way of life for the Older American. He has a different role in society and in his family relations. His self-image is bound to change in some fashion. At the worst, it erodes to a state that has been called "retirement shock." For some, on the other hand, retirement may prove to be the most fruitful period of their lives.

Persons retiring 5, 10, or more years from now will be accustomed to more free time in their active, earning years than are most older Americans today. Shorter hours of work per day, shorter work weeks, longer yearly vacations, earlier retirement for all will help prepare tomorrow's Older American for active later years. Retirement will more often be anticipated as an opportunity to embark on a second career, a chance to grow in new interests, find new avenues of creativity, continue to live fully, adventurously, and generously, with the knowledge that activity itself is an essential ingredient of successful living in the later years.

But today's picture, all too frequently, is one of disillusioned persons suddenly being forced into a completely strange period of inactivity, with no place to go, nothing to do, no purpose. It is not surprising that many normal men and women react badly to these circumstances. Inertia, boredom, and tentative withdrawal can quickly lead to isolation. And isolation deprives human beings emotionally, spiritually, and socially. Isolation leads to disillusionment and bitterness. It should not-must not-be tolerated in a country that places as high a value as our country does on the worth of each man.

Our communities have the primary responsibility. The small villages are no less responsible for the well-being of all their citizens than are the metropolitan areas. Wherever there are people who have retired, who are older, whose lives are no longer full or meaningful or satisfying, there is need for some kind of community action that will give them opportunities for useful, rewarding participation.

In 838 communities today there are organized councils on the aging. This is a healthy beginning-but only a beginning. Many more organized programs are needed, and many of those that have been started need to be expanded.

Where there are organized councils or service clubs, church groups, or other public and private organizations-constant reappraisal is still needed to determine the overall dimensions and scope of the job to be done. Surveys of need are not enough. Research projects alone are not enough. New and expanded programs going programs—

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