Poster #111 - Unequal Housing and Neighborhood Outcomes by Disability Status: ​Exploring Moderating Role of Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities

• In Event: Friday Poster Reception

Abstract

Stable housing and supportive community environments are vital for older adults, especially those facing both disability and poverty. Yet rising housing costs, shrinking public resources, and regional disparities limit their ability to age in place. Although naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) are expanding as an aging-in-place strategy, little is known about how they serve older adults with different types of disabilities. Our study examines the associations between disability status and housing and community outcomes, and explores how these relationships are moderated by residence in age-restricted communities. For this, we constructed a data set by integrating repeated cross-sectional data from the 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023 AHS and included only noninstitutional, occupied housing units and defined non-NORCs as non–age-restricted households where most neighbors were under 55. The unit of analysis was the elderly population aged 65 and older, and the final analysis included 28,731 housing unit-year observations from the 2015–2023 integrated AHS. We used a pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model with hierarchical modeling and interaction terms. Our findings suggest that disabilities are consistently associated with lower housing and neighborhood satisfaction, greater affordability burdens, poorer housing safety and decency, and more neighborhood problems compared to no disability. NORCs appear to offer selective and context-dependent protective effects on housing instability, safety issues, and neighborhood problems and satisfaction for those with combined physical and mental disabilities. It suggests NORCs may help mitigate housing and neighborhood disadvantages among older adults with combined disabilities.​

Authors

• Seongbo Son, The University of Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Philip M Garboden, The University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Co-Author