HUD Announces Awards to Test Aging-in-Place Approaches

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded $15 million to select owners of HUD-assisted senior housing to help their residents delay or avoid moving into a nursing home.

HUD will cover costs related to hiring a full-time enhanced service coordinator and a part-time wellness nurse to connect the elderly with the supportive services they need to maintain independent living and age in place.

“It is so important that we afford our seniors the opportunity to live independently,” said HUD Secretary Julián Castro. “These grants will help owners of HUD-assisted senior developments to offer the services that will allow seniors to remain in their homes for as long as they can.”

Funded through HUD’s Supportive Services Demonstration for Elderly Households in HUD-Assisted Multifamily Housing, these three-year grants seek to produce evidence about the effectiveness of this enhanced supportive services model for elderly households and to evaluate the value of enhanced service coordination paired with affordable housing for seniors.

The demonstration will be independently evaluated to determine the impact of the enhanced supportive services model on:

• aging in place in HUD-assisted senior developments;
  
• avoiding early transitions to institutional care, and;
  
• preventing unnecessary and often costly health-care utilization—such as some emergency room visits and hospitalizations—for residents in HUD-assisted senior developments.
  

The following senior housing developments will receive funding: