This content is sponsored by Volunteers of America National Services.
The need for affordable housing is growing and has intensified with the aging of the population in communities across the country.
The rising number of seniors creates more challenges, but housing advocates and political leaders say it also presents opportunities to try out new ideas.
Paul Soczynski, senior vice president of health care at Volunteers of America National Services (VOANS), said that close to one-fifth of the U.S. population is now made up by seniors. Within the next 15 years, that is expected to grow to about one-fourth of the population.
“The most significant needs for seniors really are threefold: good housing, healthcare and a sense of community,” he said on WTOP’s Balancing the Housing Equation 2025.
Craig Greenberg, mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, said providing affordable housing is one of his top priorities — and that includes addressing the needs of seniors.
“I’m a firm believer that affordable housing opportunities should be in every neighborhood in our city, not just in ‘other people’s’ neighborhoods,” he said.
Greenberg said that can mean apartments, single-family homes and other types of housing. “So that, if you’re an aging senior, you have the opportunity to stay in the neighborhood that you love,” he said.
He noted it is important for seniors to be near friends and family, as well as medical facilities or grocery stores that they depend on.
The evolution of assisted living
Soczynski said VOANS has a long history of providing various programs for seniors, which continues to evolve. He pointed to the success of the Mary Marshall Assisted Living Facility in Arlington, Virginia.
VOANS partners with Arlington County to provide care for adults 55 and over with cognitive disabilities and special needs. He cited the example of a woman he called her “Maggie,” to protect her confidentiality — who since she has been living there, has made significant improvement.
She gets assistance with her medications, has improved her health and hygiene, and the experience has helped reduce the number of 911 calls she used to make or that were made on her behalf.
“She’s even made inroads with her family and friends,” Soczynski said, adding that it’s an example of how partnering with various government agencies can help meet individuals’ unique needs.
VOANS is also involved in the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), which provides medical and social services to older adults. The program operates nationally, and VOANS is involved with it in four states, with plans to expand. Later this year, the organization hopes to add a program in Prince George’s County, MD.
“That program really provides a great opportunity, by integrating health care and long-term care,” Soczynski said, adding that people can take advantage of day centers and get the socialization they need.
Affordable housing covers a lot of ground
As the mayor of Louisville, Greenberg said he must address a wide range of needs, covering the oldest residents to young people just trying to find an affordable place to live.
“Building more, renovating more, creating more affordable housing, has been a top priority of our administration,” he said. “And I think it’s important to create big and bold goals so that the community can rally around that.”
When Greenberg first took office in 2022, he created a goal of building 15,000 new units during his first term. He said they are on the way toward that goal, nearly 5,000 units.
“There are still challenges and there are headwinds in our way, whether you look at the local, state or federal level. Locally, we need to make it easier to build housing,” he said.
Greenberg also pointed out that affordable housing can mean a lot of different things.
“It can mean affordable rental units. It can mean affordable homeownership opportunities, living in a duplex, living in a four-plex, living in modular housing,” he said.
Developing housing partnerships
Greenberg called VOANS a “key partner” in Louisville. He believes a new city project could be an innovative, national model.
“It’s called the Community Care campus, and this is an initiative to provide more services and shelter to individuals who are at risk of being homeless or are already homeless,” he said.
The initial focus is on families, with the project scheduled to open in 2027.
Because that’s two years out, in partnership with VOANS and other organizations, the city opened an emergency family shelter in November 2024. Greenberg shared that since it opened, the number of families on the nightly waiting list for shelter has dropped.
“We’ll always have a lot of work to do, but we’re making great progress in that area,” he said.
It also is important to tie in support programs related to substance abuse and mental health, which can help people as they seek out affordable housing, Greenberg added
More broadly, he said the city is always looking for opportunities to create affordable housing, so people like teachers, firefighters and police officers aren’t priced out. That can mean housing developments in dense areas of the city that are accessible to public transportation and shopping.
But Greenberg said it can also mean working on rehabilitating areas of the city that have abandoned properties and need new approaches. He noted the city recently created a lien waiver forgiveness program, so properties don’t remain vacant indefinitely, with no incentives for improvement.
Creative approaches to affordable housing
Greenberg said the city also has a down payment assistance program to help people trying to buy their first home and grants programs for those who need to repair their homes.
He said it’s important that the city not just focus on apartments, “which is so often the discussion around affordable housing. We also want people to own their homes and have an affordable path to do that as well,” he said.
Soczynski agreed that it’s important to continue to work on creative approaches to affordable housing and said funding follows when his organization and others “can show that there’s a good policy investment.”
Soczynski is encouraged by the evolving nature of affordable housing, including for seniors. Previously, seniors ”may have been very individualized in their apartments, and now they do want to come out and experience those things together,” he said.
That affects how his group and cities plan for future developments.
Like Soczynski, Greenberg is encouraged by the way things are moving in affordable housing: “When people come around, identify common identification of a problem, then you can start solving it. And so we’ll get there. We’re making progress as fast as we can.”
Learn more about how organizations and government leaders are working to solve the affordable housing crisis on our Balancing the Housing Equation 2025 event page.
