Some 70 years ago, a number of nations put their other national priorities on hold while sending a large segment of their young male population off to fight World War II. When the war ended, their return triggered ‘baby booms’ prolonged by postwar prosperity.
As they age, the baby boomers are skewing populations in several countries, where little or no preparation has been made for this bulge of older citizens.
The result: a housing crisis with aging citizens in homes that are no longer suitable, along with a lack of supports for the frailties of advancing age.
In the U.S., Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) annually produces The State of the Nation’s Housing Report. This year it produced a supplemental report focused on the huge and growing numbers of older Americans, as well as the stress they are placing on the nation’s housing supply.
The details of this report, while aiming exclusively at the growing problem in America, have messages for any country experiencing the consequences of an aging post-war baby boom. Read some of the sobering details in the JCHS Supplemental Report: Housing America’s Older Adults 2018
