For Seniors, an Indiana Home Is...

• Safe
• Adaptive to age-specific needs
• Energy-efficient
• Affordable

Nearly 800,000 Hoosiers are 65 or older; by 2025, that number will reach 1.25 million (or one in every five people living in the state).

In fact, seniors (65 years or older) are the state's only age-defined population that's growing.

But as we age, we have increasingly specialized (and expensive) needs, including health care and transportation costs. Add to those skyrocketing heating and cooling costs and it's easy to see why affordable housing for the elderly is so important.

And Yet...

• The national median income for women age 65 and over in 2000 was $10,899; for men it was $19,168.
• 55,000 elderly households in Indiana have higher mortgage payments than they can afford.
• 44,000 elderly households in Indiana pay more rent than they can afford.
• 47 percent of all Hoosiers 65 or older have a disability.
• According to a 2002 report, the cost of an assisted living facility in Indiana averaged $3,000 a month.

So the state's population of seniors is growing--fast. And unless they can find more affordable homes in the kind of decent neighborhoods and communities they deserve, they'll be forced to make some very difficult decisions. Like choosing between medicine, food, housing, heat or assisted living facilities neither they--nor their children--can readily afford.

Click here to find housing resources for seniors.