CW: Poverty
Throughout the country, inflation continues to rise. In May, inflation jumped 2.6% over the previous year, as expected. More and more Americans are struggling to make ends meet.
Millions of people receive Social Security benefits. It can be incredibly challenging to make ends meet when you are on a fixed income. Unfortunately, the predicted Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) rate remains lower than in 2024.
The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), one of the country’s major nonpartisan senior citizen groups, has produced a new COLA projection for 2025, lower than their May prediction. According to a written statement, June’s projection was 2.57%, down from 2.66% in May. This is also lower than the average COLA increase of 2.6%.
Meanwhile, the cost of everyday necessities continues to rise. As of last month, weekly household expenditures for food at home averaged $131. The same food cost $123 in July 2023, according to a study released by Purdue University.
Housing costs are also rising. A study released by real estate company Redfin found that to afford a typical apartment in the US, renters must earn $66,120. Unfortunately, an average renter earns $11,000 less than that.
Homeownership costs are even higher. According to a Bankrate study, homeowners spend an average of $18,118 annually on home-related expenses. These include property taxes, insurance, maintenance, and energy.
Unsurprisingly, this also means that fewer Americans are buying homes. The Federal Reserve reported that the homeownership rate in 2022 was 66.1%, up slightly from 64.9% in 2021. This is three percentage points lower than the percentage of households that owned their homes in 2004.
Homeownership rates vary widely among age groups. Seniors aged 65 and over are significantly more likely to own their homes than their younger counterparts. Homeownership rates rise consistently with age. People under age 35 have the lowest rate of ownership.
For disabled people, it can be even more difficult to make ends meet. According to a 2015 NPR report, disabled Americans are twice as likely as nondisabled Americans to live in poverty.
Living with a disability is very expensive. According to the National Disability Institute, researchers estimate that U.S households containing an adult with a disability require, on average, 28 percent more income (or an additional $17,690 a year for a family at the median income level) to obtain the same standard of living as a comparable household without a member with a disability.
Many disabled people live in poverty and have trouble accessing basic needs. According to 2015 U.S. census data, families in the Chicago area with an adult member with a disability are approximately three times more likely to be food insecure than households with no adult members with disabilities.
Many disabled people have also experienced housing insecurity. According to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, 38.6% of sheltered, unhoused people in America are disabled. They are also more likely to experience chronic homelessness. In January 2017, 24% of people experiencing homelessness, or about 87,000 people, had a disability and were chronically homeless. Individuals experiencing chronic homelessness have been homeless for at least a year or have had at least four periods of homelessness, totaling twelve months in the previous three years.
Making things more complicated is the lack of accessible, affordable housing available for disabled people. There is nowhere in the country where an SSI beneficiary can reasonably afford an apartment, according to a report published by the Technical Assistance Collaborative.
Apartment List conducted a study in February 2020 utilizing data from the American Community Survey and the American Housing Survey. According to the report, only 9% of households with a disabled family member reside in an accessible home. Even though more than 15% of American households have a member who is physically disabled, just 6% of homes are accessible.
Some disabled people can qualify for Section 8. However, this can be a years-long process. Housing vouchers are limited each year.
According to a 2021 report released by The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, an examination of Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) data found that only two of the 50 largest housing agencies have average wait durations of less than a year for families who have made it off the waiting list. The longest have wait times of up to eight years. Families needing vouchers have waited on waitlists for over 2.5 years on average nationwide before receiving them.
Social Security beneficiaries should not have to worry about affording food, utilities, or housing. Everyone should be able to afford all of their basic expenses. Millions of Americans rely on Social Security benefits, which should provide a livable income.
Sources:
Acosta, Sonya, and Erik Gartland. “Families Wait Years for Housing Vouchers Due to Inadequate Funding.” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 22 July 2021, https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/families-wait-years-for-housing-vouchers-due-to-inadequate-funding
Balagtas, Joseph, and Elijah Bryant. “Consumer Food Insights.” Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability (CFDAS), The College of Agriculture at Purdue University , 11 June 2024, ag.purdue.edu/cfdas/data-resources/consumer-food-insights/.
Bieber, Christy. “You’ll Never Guess How Many Americans Own Their Own Homes.” The Motley Fool, The Ascent by The Motley Fool, 31 Dec. 2023, http://www.fool.com/the-ascent/mortgages/articles/youll-never-guess-how-many-americans-own-their-own-homes/.
Brucker, Debra L, and Derek Nord. “Food Insecurity Among Young Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in the United States: Evidence From the National Health Interview Survey.” American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities vol. 121,6 (2016): 520-532. doi:10.1352/1944-7558-121.6.520
Diament, Michelle. “SSI Recipients Can’t Afford Housing Anywhere in the US.” Disability Scoop, 5 Feb. 2024, http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2024/02/05/ssi-recipients-cant-afford-housing-anywhere-in-the-us/30731.
Fessler, Pam. “Why Disability and Poverty Still Go Hand in Hand 25 Years After Landmark Law.” NPR, NPR, 23 July 2015, http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/07/23/424990474/why-disability-and-poverty-still-go-hand-in-hand-25-years-after-landmark-law.
Gore, Leada. “How Much More Will Social Security Recipients Receive next Year? Cola Prediction Is Out.” AL.Com, Alabama Media Group, 24 June 2024, www.al.com/news/2024/06/how-much-more-will-social-security-recipients-receive-next-year-cola-prediction-is-out.html?outputType=amp.
Gailey, Alex, and Jeff Ostrowski. “Study: Typical Single-Family Home Costs over $18,000 in Hidden Expenses.” Edited by Suzanne De Vita, Bankrate.Com, Bankrate, LLC , 11 June 2024, www.bankrate.com/mortgages/hidden-costs-of-homeownership-study/.
Goodman, Nanette, et al. “The Extra Costs of Living with a Disability in the U.S. — Resetting the Policy Table.” National Disability Institute, National Disability Institute, Oct. 2020, http://www.nationaldisabilityinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/extra-costs-living-with-disability-brief.pdf.
“Homelessness in America: Overview of Data and Causes.” The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, 2018, https://homelesslaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Homeless_Stats_Fact_Sheet.pdf.
Katz, Lilly, and Sheharyar Bokhari. “Renters Must Earn $66,120 to Afford the Typical U.S. Apartment. the Typical Renter Makes $11,000 Less than That.” Redfin Real Estate News, Redfin, 21 June 2024, www.redfin.com/news/renter-incomes-affordability-2024/.
Thomas , Erin Vinoski. “Homelessness among Individuals with Disabilities: Influential Factors and Scalable Solutions.” The National Association of County and City Health Officials, The National Association of County and City Health Officials, 14 June 2019, https://www.naccho.org/blog/articles/homelessness-among-individuals-with-disabilities-influential-factors-and-scalable-solutions.