Newsmakers, July 28, 2016

Air Date:
Heard On Newsmakers
Gale Bruessel, Patrick Dienger and Todd Mandel
Gale Bruessel, Patrick Dienger and Todd Mandel Hope Kirwan/WPR

Senior Housing Needs-

A crisis may be looming as the population ages and the need for subsidized senior housing increases in the United States.

In fact, between waiting lists that exist for subsidized senior housing and the poor conditions of many homes that seniors live in, that crisis may have already arrived in the Coulee Region.

La Crosse County has nearly 60 people right now on a waiting list for just 140 senior disabled apartments in six communities from French Island to Mindoro. Each year about 20 people get off the list, and the wait can be more than a year to get off according to La Crosse County Housing Authority Executive Director Patrick Dienger.

CouleeCap helps build smaller subsidized senior apartments in rural communities in southwestern Wisconsin. Much of the agency’s work in recent years has involved helping seniors with housing rehabilitation projects, things like new plumbing or a new roof. There are about $10 million in housing rehab projects on the agency’s waiting list now, and about half are for low income seniors.

“We find ourselves having to have conversations with seniors about ‘is this the best housing choice for you?’” CouleeCap Community Development Director Todd Mandel said. “‘We understand this is where you’ve lived most of your life, but do you have the income to maintain this asset?’”

Mandel said the cost of building needed housing for seniors is astronomical. He said a 20 unit senior apartment easily costs $4-6 million, and while seniors who can afford private senior housing are pretty well taken care of, those seniors living in poverty could increasingly be left to fend for themselves as the population continues to get older.

“Somewhere along the line, we as a nation in the ’60s decided seniors in poverty was something we didn’t want to see,” Mandel said. “Social Security was that process. Medicare was that process and public housing was part of that process. We see rollbacks in all of those areas, perhaps none more so than in housing. I think its because housing is somewhat invisible. If a senior is in a house, we consider them housed. Whether that house is about to fall down around them is not a question we ask because we’re not in that house.”

La Crosse County hasn’t built any new subsidized housing since 1991, when it built 50 apartments for $3.5 million. In the last decade, the federal government which pays for most subsidized housing has gotten out of the business of helping people with housing, in fact there’s no such thing as subsidized senior housing anymore, as seniors are being asked to live with any group of people that qualifies for subsidized housing.

– John Davis

Episode Credits

  • Hope Kirwan Host
  • John Davis Producer
  • Todd Mandel Guest
  • Patrick Dienger Guest
  • Gale Bruessel Guest