WI24-02: Housing Cost Burdens and Shared Households among Older Adults

Twenty-two percent of older adults live in shared households (including any adult besides the householder and householder’s romantic partner), and these arrangements may reduce or exacerbate their housing affordability challenges. This project asks: 1) What share of hosts (who share their housing with others) and guests (who live in someone else’s home) would be cost burdened by mortgage/rent and utility payments if not in shared households, and how does this impact disparities in cost burdens? 2) What are the characteristics of older adults who provide or receive housing through shared households? 3) For whom do older adults provide housing and from whom do they receive housing? 4) How does sharing housing with SSA beneficiaries affect the economic security of non-beneficiaries? Findings will reveal how the private housing safety net impacts the economic security of older adults and their household members and how it may obscure and/or exacerbate racial/ethnic and gender disparities.