Housing quality among the elderly: a decade of changes

Little research has been conducted on housing quality among the elderly. The fault lies partly with the lack of reliable data. Studies on elderly housing quality are spotty, anecdotal, and unsystematic. Many rely on decennial census data which provide a limited and unsatisfactory portrait of special housing needs of elders in general. This article seeks to fill this void by reporting a comprehensive study of elderly housing quality. For all units, logistic regression revealed that region and race are the most important predictors of housing inadequacy; tenure and the gender of the person living alone are moderately powerful influences upon inadequacy. Housing inadequacy is greater among blacks, in the South, for males living alone, and for renters.