Is your home ready for you to ‘age in place’? Here’s what it takes (2024)

Washington isn’t getting any younger.

Across the state, afast-growing cohortofolder adults is facing a key question: Where do they want to spend their next decades? Many don’t want to go far. Instead, they hope to stay in their homes and“age in place.”

The problem: Many of those homes are not ready.

To stay in their houses and apartments as they grow older, people often need adjustments. Ramps instead of stairs. Grab bars in the bathroom. Brighter lighting to avoid trip hazards. But nationwide, more than half of American homes are not aging-ready. Making home modifications can be costly, and so are the alternatives in the Seattle area — trying to downsize in a hot housing market or transition to an assisted-living community.

“At this age, we don’t want to pack up and move” to more affordable but farther-out suburbs, said Ruby Holland, a Central District homeowner who has rebuffed developer offers to buy her home and advocated for homeowners in the historically Black Seattle neighborhood to hold on to their properties. “We just want to age in place … just relax and enjoy our homes.”

Several Seattle-area nonprofits help homeowners with low incomes ready their living spaces, but inconsistent demand for their programs in recent years left some scrambling to meet rising needs while others try to get the word out about their services.

Nonprofits and homeowners alike are facing a common problem: Rising costs. Just like everything else in one of the most expensive places to live in the country, the cost of making even minor home improvements is on the rise in the Seattle area.

Average repair costs have doubled since before the pandemic for Rebuilding Together South Sound, a Tacoma-based nonprofit that offers no-cost repairs to homeowners with low incomes. Projects range from small fixes, like installing a grab bar, to significant repairs on porches and roofs.

The increase in costs comes at the same time the organization is seeing many people in need, said program director Rachel Lehr. Applications surged in 2021 and have dropped off since then, but the organization still receives more applications than it can fund: About 250 to 300 people apply for help each year, twice as many as the group can afford to help.

Federal pandemic aid poured new funds into the organization temporarily, but construction costs shot up, too. Rebuilding Together South Sound‘s average project climbed from $3,000 or $4,000 pre-pandemic to “probably double that,” Lehr said. (Overall Seattle-area construction costs have stabilized in the last year, but remain 40% higher than pre-pandemic.)

The time people in need spend on the waitlist has also doubled since the pandemic began, from about six months to a year — and Lehr expects that could grow as more people age and apply for help. Without more funding, Lehr said the organization may have to close new applications for a time.

When homeowners wait longer, “repairs are going to be harder to complete because the condition of the home is going to continue to deteriorate before we can get there to do anything about it,” she said.

Dropping demand

Some organizations are facing a different, and rare, problem: not enough people applying for help with home modifications.

It is unclear what’s behind the lagging rate of applications for some home repair programs, but multiple factors could be at play. Soaring housing costs have driven many people with lower incomes out of Seattle and into surrounding communities. Nonprofits can struggle to reach people with limited internet use, and older adults are sometimes reluctant to seek help.

Rebuilding Together Seattle, which serves homeowners in the city and nearby suburbs, completes about half as many repair projects each year as before the pandemic, said Executive Director Caleb Marshall.

“The people are still there. The challenge is connecting and identifying [them] and getting information out,” Marshall said.

Holland moved back to her family’s Central District home in 2015 after retiring from her photography business in Atlanta. The house needed help: Rebuilding Together Seattle and its volunteers took on an array of kitchen repairs, added grab bars and cleared out generations’ worth of clutter from the home left by Holland’s late mother and aunt. The organization later replaced a bedroom window to help her get fresh air in the room.

“I was retired, so I didn’t have that kind of money to be making repairs,” Holland said.

Elsewhere, a King County program that installs grab bars and other fall-prevention features for people 50 or older who have fallen and called 911 in the last six months has seen a dip in enrollment.

After launching in 2003, the program saw an increase in interest before activity dropped off in 2020 as senior centers and other places that connected people to assistance closed temporarily, said Public Health – Seattle & King County spokesperson Kate Cole. Enrollment levels are still lagging, with 231 people enrolling last year, roughly half the peak level in 2016, according to county data.

A novel program known as Community Aging in Place — Advancing Better Living for Elders, or CAPABLE, is seeking more applicants, too. Developed at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, the program pairs South King County homeowners with a nurse, occupational therapist and handyworker to assess an older homeowner’s needs at home, make repairs and help the resident strategize on ways to stay safer and healthier in their home.

Nine people have participated in about two years. The program has funding for 60 participants over the next two years, said Jessica Schell, repair project manager at Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King & Kittitas Counties, which helps administer the program and others in the region.

Habitat has seen costs of all kinds increase, particularly construction labor, leaving the organization to triage applicants’ repair needs to prioritize the most urgent. “Even though the materials may be cheap … the person to install it is sometimes 50% to 75% of the project cost,” Schell said.

Long-term benefits

Most repair programs in the region focus on homeowners because of government funding rules. Renters can sometimes receive help if they live in subsidized housing, said Mary Pat O’Leary, a nurse and senior planner in Seattle’s Human Services Department focusing on aging and disability services.

But tenants typically need landlord permission before nonprofits can add a ramp or other upgrade, complicating the process, O’Leary said. Landlords are legally required to allow modifications for people with disabilities.

O’Leary and others advocate home repairs because they can help people avoid the much higher costs of assisted living. That type of care “is very, very cost-prohibitive for most of the low-income older adults,” O’Leary said. “You can run through savings very, very quickly.”

Allowing more people to age at home could also reduce competition for scarce affordable senior housing and help fight isolation among older people by helping them stay near friends or family in their community.

For homeowners, it also means avoiding the current housing market. As home prices continue to climb across the Seattle area, older adults who own their homes are increasingly aware that “they have a very powerful asset,” Lehr said. Downsizing is difficult in a market where even smaller homes and condos carry price tags north of a half-million dollars and affordable housing is scarce.

“Most people don’t want to leave because they know that they can’t afford to and there’s not really another place for them to go,” Lehr said.

Holland feels lucky she can access most everything she needs on a single story of her house and stay put as she grows older. But she knows others who need far more help, particularly those with multistory homes.

She hears from some homeowners who wonder if it would just be easier to sell. But Holland worries people who bought their homes decades ago may not grasp just how expensive rents and home prices have become.

As costs of all sorts climb, “it’s a mistake to think that just because you got a house, you’re doing very, very well,” Holland said, “because [the] time that you retire is also the same time that you usually need a lot of repairs done on your house.”

Where to find help with home repairs

Rebuilding Together South Sound: No-cost repairs for homeowners in Pierce County, Federal Way and Auburn with incomes at or below 50% of area median income in Pierce County, or about $40,500 for a single person. A resident of the home must be a person over 60, a person with a disability or a child under 18. Find more information at rebuildingtogetherss.org or 253-238-0977.

Rebuilding Together Seattle: No-cost repairs for low-income homeowners. Income requirements vary by type of homeowner: For most homeowners, incomes must be at or below 50% of area median income for the Seattle metro area, or $52,700 for a single person. For military members and their spouses, incomes can reach 80% of area median income, or $77,700 for a single person. Homeowners must live in the organization’s coverage area along the I-5 corridor from South Everett to north Des Moines and plan to stay in their homes for the next three years. Find more information at rtseattle.org or 206-682-1231.

Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King & Kittitas Counties: Free or low-cost home repairs and deferred loans for homeowners making 80% of area median income or less, or $77,700 for a single person in King County and $55,400 in Kittitas. Find more information at habitatskc.org, 206-895-1320 for King County, or 509- 818-1974 for Kittitas County.

One Step Ahead Fall Prevention Program: Free home visit with a fall prevention health educator to address potential fall hazards for residents of King County, excluding Seattle, who are 50 or older. Residents must be able to walk with or without assistive devices, not living in assisted-living or nursing homes, and have fallen and called 911 within the past six months. Homeowners and renters of all incomes are eligible. Find more information at bit.ly/onestepfall or 206-263-8544.

City of Seattle Home Repair Loans and Grants: Zero-interest loans starting at $3,000 for accessibility modifications, electrical upgrades, hot water heater repair and other qualifying work that helps address “immediate health, safety and structural deficiencies.” Applicants must own property within Seattle city limits and have income below 80% of area median income, or about $77,700 for a single person. Grants are also available to homeowners with lower incomes. Find more information at seattle.gov/housing/homeowners or 206-684-0244.

Sound Generations Minor Home Repair Program: No-cost repairs and modifications for homeowners who have disabilities or low incomes or are older adults. Homeowners must live in Seattle, Bellevue, Shoreline, Black Diamond, Maple Valley, Enumclaw, Pacific, Algona, Normandy Park or unincorporated South King County and earn 80% area median income or less, about $77,700 for a single person. Find more information at soundgenerations.org or 206-448-5751.