Vera Prosper
New York State Office for the Aging

A significant proportion of people age 60 or older are living, and aging in place, in age-integrated multifamily housing developments. Multifamily housing is a major but largely unacknowledged and unexplored retirement housing choice of older people. Findings from a descriptive, exploratory study of one segment of multifamily housing are reported on (1) the extent of aging in place in multifamily housing, as measured by the number and proportion of householders age 60 or older, and (2) the level of environmental support for aging in place in these developments, as measured by the presence of 58 indicators of a development’s capacity to enable elderly tenants to age in place successfully.

A mail survey of site managers collected data on 300 multifamily developments in New York state, representing 3 types of subsidized multifamily housing, 3 geographic settings, and 3 major government supervising agencies. Of the questionnaire’s 130 items, 58 (a=.8237) collected data on environmental elements that can affect the well-being of elderly tenants and their ability to successfully age in place. Factor analysis sorted the 58 indicators into 4 groups, which were used to score each development’s level of environmental support. Associations are drawn between level of environmental support and five independent variables.

The results of the study show that aging in place is occurring at the same rate across all areas of the state and that the number of households headed by an elderly person varies widely. The results also show that the level of environmental support is low and varies widely within individual developments.

Aging in Place in Multifamily Housing