(2) Projects to enable cities and counties to coordinate their planning for older people and to provide essential facilities and services.

(3) Setting up pilot, communitywide information, counseling, and referral services.

(4) The development of senior activity centers.

(5) Devising methods of training and employing older people in voluntary community service and particularly in providing services to shut-in and homebound aged persons.

(6) Determining the need for and provide services to older and aged persons in rural areas.

Research grants

Research grants would be made for such purposes as:

(1) Obtaining more knowledge of the interests, problems, and capacities of aging and older people.

(2) Studying attitudes and relationships between adults and their aged parents in order to discover the factors that make for mutual respect and helpfulness between generations.

(3) Discovering the activities that interest older people, with particular reference to activities that enable them to contribute to family and community life. (4) Learning how various types of housing, especially designed apartments, clusters of row housing, retirement hotels, and retirement villages, affect the health, activities, and attitudes of elder persons.

(5) Getting increased knowledge of employment, sources of income, and expenditure patterns of older persons.

(6) Evaluating the effectiveness of facilities, programs, and services estab lished for older people.

Training grants

Training grants would be made in order to increase the supply of professional personnel qualified to work with older people by:

(1) Encouraging the development of university institutes of gerontology, university extension programs, short courses, and inservice training.

(2) Developing programs and training personnel for managing senior housing projects, homes for the aged, boarding and nursing homes.

(3) Training university and professional school faculty members for teaching and directing research in gerontology.

(4) Providing career training for college and university students in the scientific aspects of aging and in community planning and program development in aging.

(5) Preparing instructional materials for use in secondary schools, colleges, universities, and professional schools.

(6) Supporting programs to train older persons as volunteers and as aids to teachers, nurses, recreation leaders, and others.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE PROGRAM

The Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare would make the final decision as to grants to be awarded. In setting policies and regulations and in arriving at his decisions, the Secretary would have the guidance and assistance of (1) the President's Council on Aging, (2) the Advisory Committee on Aging, (3) study panels, and (4) the Special Staff on Aging.

President's Council on Aging

The President's Council on Aging was established by Executive Order No. 11022 on May 15, 1962, with the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare as Chairman. The Council would be invited to make recommendations with regard to areas of needed training, research, and demonstration based on its knowledge of what is being done by other governmental agencies, what needs to be done, and the kinds of projects which would be most helpful to these agencies. Advisory Committee on Aging

This Committee, which would be created by the administration bills, H.R. 11752 and S. 3324, would also be invited to make recommendations to the Secretary concerning the types of demonstrations, training, and research needed to assist the States, organizations, and communities in accelerating the development of effective programs for meeting the needs of their older people.

Study panels

One or two study panels, composed of nongovernment persons, would be established to review applications for project grants and to recommend to the Secretary action to be taken on them. (If two panels are created, each would consist of from 5 to 10 members. One panel would be called the Demonstration and Research Study Panel and the other the Training Projects Study Panel.) Members of the Panel or Panels would be experts in one or more aspects of aging and would be appointed by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare for 4-year staggered terms.

Special Staff on Aging

Within the Research and Training Division of the Special Staff on Aging, a Grants Administration Branch would be responsible for the operation of the program. The Chief of the Branch, assisted by two program specialists and an administrative assistant, would receive and handle the applications (decide whether they are acceptable under the act, designate the study panel to which each application would be sent for action, maintain records and control of the applications, etc.); supervise arrangements for consultative services as necessary; collect and prepare special educational or informational materials; coordinate with the grant programs in cooperative educational research, the Social Security Administration research program, Public Health Service research, training, and demonstration grant programs, and the grant programs of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation; and perform various services in connection with the program. The program specialists (one for research and development projects, and one for training projects) would act as executive secretaries for the appropriate study panels.

Steps in processing applications

The steps involved in processing applications for grants would be as follows: (1) Applications for grants received by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare would be sent through the Director of the Special Staff on Aging to the Grants Administration Branch.

(2) The Grants Administration Branch, after preliminary examination, routine processing, and coordination with other grant programs, would refer each application to the appropriate study panel for review and preparation of a recommendation to the Secretary.

(3) The members of the study panels, individually, would provide technical review. When convened as a group, at specified intervals, each study panel would arrive at a group decision expressed in the form of a recommendation for approval or disapproval. The study panels would forward their recommendations to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare via the Grants Administration Branch and the Director of the Special Staff on Aging.

(4) The Secretary would have the final authority for accepting or rejecting the recommendations of the study panels.

Financial participation by grantee

The Secretary, with the advice of the President's Council on Aging and the Advisory Committee on Aging would determine the amount of contributions required from (a) public agencies and (b) voluntary organizations for carrying out the project for which grants are requested. Such contributions would be specified in one or more terms of money, facilities, or services and, in the case of continuing grants, could be required in increasing proportions of total project cost.

Geographical distribution of grants

It is recognized that aging has nationwide impact and that there are variations from one locality to another. Therefore, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare will give attention to spreading the grants throughout the United States. Through its regional representatives on aging-one on the staff of each of the regional offices-the Department already has an effective mechanism for encouraging and stimulating the nationwide submission of project applications.

Mr. BAILEY. The subcommittee will stand in recess, subject to call of the Chair.

(Whereupon, at 12:07 p.m. the subcommittee was recessed, subject to the call of the Chair.)

The following material was submitted for the record.)

STATEMENT BY SIDNEY SPECTOR, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR, OFFICE OF HOUSING FOR SENIOR CITIZENS, HOUSING AND HOME FINANCE AGENCY

BACKGROUND

Aging should be one of the great social achievements of the 20th century. Most people now survive well beyond retirement and continue their contribution to their communities and to the Nation. Research indicates the likelihood of further gains both in longevity and in the capacity to enjoy full and active lives. However, our aged have unique social and economic problems which hamper the realization of this achievement. Crucial among these is the need for good housing adapted to the physical, psychological and economic changes which take place with age. This need calls for housing which is designed to sustain independence even when disability occurs; which nurtures and promotes dignity, self-respect and usefulness in the later years; and which older persons can afford.

Twenty-one million people are now 62 or over and by 1980 we expect at least 30 million people in this age group. Perhaps even more thought provoking than the numbers involved, is the fact that already 1 out of 3 persons reaching the age of 60 has a parent or close relative over 80. In 40 years, this ratio will rise to 2 out of 3. Then, our society will have the unique challenge of meeting the housing needs of not one, but two generations of senior citizens. As an indication of how fast our senior citizen population is growing, it may be noted that while the general population increased only 19 percent from 1950 to 1960, the older population rose 35 percent and the age group 85 and over increased just over 60 percent.

It is true that most older people are mobile and are able to care for themselves with a minimum of help even when disabled. However, 8 out of 10 do have 1 or more chronic illnesses and older people do spend twice as many days in hospitals as those under 65. Thus, access to medical facilities is an important consideration in planning housing for the elderly, and the design of housing for them should receive special attention to help offset their disabilities.

While not a homogenous income group, the aged tend to be in the low or moderate categories, with their median money incomes almost half of those under 65. About half of our aged families have incomes of less than $3,000 per year and a third less than $2,000. Single aged persons are in the most desperate straits, with half having income of less than $1,050 per year. Housing for senior citizens must relate particularly to their income levels and to the relative inflexibility of their income potentials.

With the cessation of regular employment and the end of years occupied by raising and educating a family and associated activities, many older people find themselves lacking in clear purpose. Yet on the average, they face 14 years of life expectancy after retirement and need new activities to fill their days. It is in this period when children have left home and when the death of a spouse so often occurs that serious social and emotional vacuums are created. Almost half the aged are either widowed, separated, divorced or single; a total of about 8 million people thus live alone. They are subject to social isolation, lowered incomes, and unsuitable living arrangements.

For the widowed and the single elderly, housing can play a fundamental part in providing badly needed sources of personal and social relationship. For the aged in general, housing can and does fill an expanded role as the focal point of their daily lives. It thus will foster either creative, productive activity or passive parasitism.

Studies vary on the exact dimensions of the housing needs of America's senior citizens. Much additional data are required to identify their needs more clearly. A major portion will be provided by special tabulations now being processed by the U.S. Bureau of Census and for the first time we will have detailed data on the kinds of housing older people occupy, the cost, room size, and quality of their housing, their incomes, and their status of dependence or independence.

With the aged population increasing at a net rate of over 400,000 each year, and with the seemingly irreversible trend toward earlier retirement, the volume of need and its urgency are large and intense. Our national policy on housing for senior citizens should recognize that the progress of science, technology, and living conditions encourage the feeling that a better life should be available for everyone. These rising expectations are evident not only for the working years, but also for those spent in retirement and old age. In the years to come, senior citizens will be increasingly insistent on decent, independent living facilities and our housing programs should be prepared to meet their legitimate needs.

TYPES OF PROGRAMS

With the passage of the Housing Act of 1961, the Housing and Home Finance Agency has a basic set of programs which seek to meet the varied housing needs of America's senior citizens primarily by providing several methods of financial assistance, each appropriate to the objectives of the particular program in which it is used. These programs include mortgage insurance for individually owned and for rental housing, direct loans at low rates of interest, low-rent housing with Federal contributions and mortgage insurance for proprietary nursing homes.

The mortgage insurance program is administered by the Federal Housing Administration and is available under section 231 to assist both profit and nonprofit groups in the construction or rehabilitation of rental housing for senior citizens. The sales housing program (sec. 203) is also administered by the Federal Housing Administration and provides assistance to those elderly persons who can afford and want to buy their own homes. The nursing home program (sec. 232) is also administered through the Federal Housing Administration; nursing homes serve other than just elderly patients of course, but older people make up the greatest proportion of their patients.

The Federal National Mortgage Association, a constituent agency of HHFA, through its special assistance functions, is authorized to make advance commitments to buy FHA section 231 mortgages covering nonprofit projects. These advance commitments provide assurance of permanent financing to sponsors of FHA-insured projects and thereby facilitate their ability to arrange interim construction financing from private sources. It also may purchase mortgages under its secondary market operations.

The Community Facilities Administration administers the section 202 program of direct loans from the Federal Government to nonprofit groups, consumer cooperatives and qualified public agencies to assist them in sponsoring rental housing for older families and persons whose incomes are just above the public housing limit, but below the amount needed to pay rentals for suitable housing otherwise available.

The Public Housing Administration administers the low-rent housing program for the elderly and provides Federal financial and technical assistance to local housing authorities in this field. Annual contributions are made by PHA to cover any deficit in the debt service charges for bonds sold by the local housing authorities to obtain their permanent financing. By virtue of these contributions, a local housing authority can make suitable housing available to the elderly at very low rentals.

Early in 1961, the Office of Housing for Senior Citizens was created by the Administrator to assist in coordinating the policies and standards of these senior citizen housing programs. Actual administration and operation, however, continue as the responsibility of the operating agencies: the FHA, CFA, and PHA.

Senior citizens housing activity in 1961

Stimulated by the important amendments and new provisions contained in the Housing Act of 1961, the HHFA programs providing financial assistance for housing for senior citizens made rapid strides during 1961. With the administration giving major emphasis to accelerating activity and with momentum building up, the volume of applications accepted and programed for rental units in 1961 totaled 44,353, almost equal to the previous 5-year total of 44,602. Perhaps even more significant is the fact that in 1961 commitments of 22,483 units in the three rental programs more than doubled the 10,623 total for 1960. Commitments in 1961 alone were equal to about 80 percent of the 1956–60 total. The 4,644 units completed among the three programs in 1961 were almost 22 times the 1,924 completed in 1960. This 1961 total was also greater than 4,299 completed in the preceding 5-year period.