Close your eyes and picture your grandparents’ home. Picture what their house looked like. Picture your family photos covering all the walls. There might be clutter lovingly tucked in corners and tchotchkes on the walls. In my grandmother’s house there were old toys from when I was a child that were kept so eventually my own children could play with them. It’s a home. Lived in. Loved in. A place of safety and comfort.
In the Monadnock region, homeless seniors don’t always look like someone sleeping on a bench or in their cluttered pick up. More often, they are moving in with their children, their grandchildren, their friend’s house or just giving up the dream to live on their own altogether and going into various types of institutions.
Seniors on fixed incomes are being taxed out of the homes they have lived in for decades; losing the place they once thought they would retire in. These are our neighbors who have volunteered in our schools, sat next to us at church and helped build our beloved community to be what it is. Seniors deserve stability in their later years, not the fear of being uprooted.
Rental requirements have become increasingly unattainable. Many landlords require proof of three times the monthly rent in income. With local apartments often costing $1,500 or more, that means an applicant must show $4,500 in monthly income. For seniors relying on Social Security or modest pensions, and for workers earning local wages, that bar is impossible to clear. Families and retirees alike are being denied housing before they even have a chance.
In Peterborough and across the Monadnock region, affordable housing is scarce, and what little that does exist is snapped up immediately. The combination of high property taxes, stagnant wages and soaring rents is pushing both longtime homeowners and renters to the edge. Without shelters or enough senior housing options, those who fall through the cracks are left to quietly suffer with their failing physical health and extreme isolation.
If we truly want to preserve the character and heart of our community, we must act. That means pursuing meaningful property tax relief for seniors, so decades of hard work and community investment are not taxed out of their community by unaffordable tax bills. It also means increasing senior housing options — safe, affordable, accessible homes or apartments that allow older residents to remain rooted in the communities they love.
Until we commit to policies and investments that protect our seniors and expand affordable housing, too many of our neighbors will remain unseen, unheard and unsupported. Let’s not allow the people who built this community to be taxed out of it. They deserve to spend their later years with dignity, stability and a place to truly call home.
Mandy Carter is kinship navigator/community resource specialist and advocate at The River Center.