Opinion: Helping Formerly Unhoused Older New Yorkers Age With Dignity – City Limits

“Supportive housing has given me so much. I take comfort in knowing that if I have a problem, there’s someone I can go to right away. Every senior deserves the safety and security that my building provides, along with the privacy to receive care in our own homes.”

When I was in my 50s, I faced a challenge undoubtedly familiar to many New Yorkers around that age: my father got very sick and needed full-time care.  

I was working as a home health aide at the time and had both the skills and the will to help him. I didn’t want him to go into a nursing home, so I broke my lease and moved into his apartment in a public housing project. We started the process of getting my name on his lease, but he died in 2010 with just one final document left unsigned.  

Suddenly, I was homeless. For the next four years, I lived in the shelter system. It was a terrible time. I had no privacy and very little control over my life. I often felt unsafe, overlooked, or thrown away.  

In 2013, I learned through a caseworker about a new supportive housing building being developed by Lantern Community Services in Harlem. I had to wait two years, but luckily, I landed a studio apartment there. I moved in 10 years ago and have been here ever since.  

It is not an overstatement to say that supportive housing, which combines deeply affordable housing with on-site services such as case management and mental health and substance use counseling, saved my life.  

I am now 66 years old and have a home health aide of my own after undergoing multiple surgeries. I have privacy, beautiful neighbors, 24-hour security, and staff who check on me regularly to make sure I have everything I need.  

As the city and state work to address the ongoing affordability and homelessness crises, they must not overlook the unique needs of older adults. Buildings like mine need sufficient funds to stay afloat, pay staff a living wage, and maintain 24-hour security—a critical service many buildings can’t afford. And we need to convert Single Room Occupancy (SROs) to studios, so seniors like me can age in place with dignity and privacy.  

The Supportive Housing Network of New York (the Network) is asking the city to invest $65 million in the Fiscal Year 2027 budget—$44 million in capital and $21 million in expenses—as part of the NYC 15/15 proposal to enable the preservation of 325 supportive housing units this year.  

This money is desperately needed. New York is on the cusp of a senior homelessness crisis. A 2024 study found that the number of single adults age 65 and older in the city’s main shelter system more than doubled between 2014 and 2022, rising almost three times as fast as younger single individuals. 

Adults age 65 and older are facing housing instability at an increasingly rapid rate. In 2023, the state comptroller’s office found that just under 62 percent of the city’s 65-plus households were rent burdened, much higher than the citywide rate of 51.9 percent.  

The Network’s 2025 State of Supportive Housing report reveals that 56 percent of supportive housing tenants in the city are age 55 or older. The 65-plus population is the city’s fastest-growing demographic, jumping by 53 percent from 2000 to 2023—17 times faster than the overall population growth, according to the state comptroller’s office, and the vast majority of the increase occurred in Black and brown communities.  

The faster that seniors are pushed into homelessness, the faster they will age. Studies have shown that unhoused individuals in their 50s experience premature aging known as “weathering,” exhibiting signs of cognitive and physical decline more often seen in people who are 10 or even 20 years older.  

It’s clear that more New Yorkers are at risk of finding themselves where I was over a decade ago: one significant life experience—a job loss, a health crisis, a rent increase—away from living on the streets, in the subways, or in the shelter system.  

Supportive housing has given me so much. I take comfort in knowing that if I have a problem, there’s someone I can go to right away. Every senior deserves the safety and security that my building provides, along with the privacy to receive care in our own homes. At my age, I am long past wanting to share space with a roommate.  

As the affordability crisis mounts, the state and city must redouble efforts to ensure seniors have the financial support and resources they need to remain stably housed in their own apartments and homes. In an ever more expensive city, supportive housing is the key to ensuring that older adults can live out their golden years in dignity.  

Doreen Burton is a client of Lantern Community Services.