Search for Affordable Housing Gets Tougher for Seniors

While economic times are tough for many Americans throughout the nation, senior citizens who are living on fixed incomes face extraordinarily difficult choices when they are forced out of their homes because they can't pay their rents or mortgages.

Senior Citizen Housing developments are located throughout Los Angeles County, but many affordable housing units for senior citizens are no bigger then a match box.

I know because my wife and I were not generating enough income to pay all our bills. We recently vacated our home in San Bernardino and moved in with our daughter and grandchildren while we searched for another place to live. My wife no longer receives SSI payments and medical coverage due to a recent ruling by a Social Security Social Worker located at the Compton office. The Social Worker based her decision on my personal income and because my wife receives a pension from her first husband who died several years ago.

The Social Worker's decision reduced family income by $700 a month in Social Security. To make matters worst, the Media Consulting agreement that I received for nearly a year was reduced from $3000 a month to $500 a month thus creating a financial crisis. My wife and I had no other choice but to reduce living expenses, find a more affordable place to live and to apply for welfare from Los Angeles County.

Drastic reductions in a family's income can bring a married couple closer together — or tear a marriage apart. Fortunately, in our case, my wife and I are growing closer as we face the daily challenges of managing our expenses and living with family members or at a motel until we find a place of our own in an affordable and safe neighborhood.

Senior Citizen Rubin Mayes checks his medicine at his senior citizen apartment resident.

Over the last several days, my wife and I searched for rental properties that we could afford in the cities of Compton, Lynwood, Long Beach and Inglewood, along with parts of South Los Angeles. The rents ranged from $900 to $1,000 a month for a one-bedroom apartment; $1100 to $1300 for two bedrooms; and $1400 to $1600 for three bedrooms. So far, we discovered that there are only a limited number of senior citizen facilities with units available in South Los Angeles and those nearby cities. Another concern is that, while rents are typically below market rates at many senior citizen complexes, many of the units are built to accommodate single tenants in small and compact rooms or mini-apartments. In addition, tenants must often provide the equivalent of the first and last month's rent payments, along with a security deposit and payment for credit checks, in advance. Meanwhile, the delays that renters face during the application process can continue for a week or more.

Although the average rents are pretty much the same in the cities that my wife and I searched for vacancies, there are significant differences in rents for houses, apartments and duplexes. Some properties for rent have been vacant for months or years, and need refurbishment in order to be brought up to code. There are also property owners who have converted the rear of their houses or their garages into rental spaces, and some of them are not up to code.

There are also commercial properties that were once used as stores or offices that are on the market for rent as apartments or rooms. One "apartment for rent" in Compton that I visited was no more than a converted office space located on a lot next to a liquor store. The living room area was not much bigger than a walk-in closet. The property owner wanted $900 per month to rent the site as a one bedroom apartment.

By the way, if you have a pet as my wife and I do — our dog, Mickey — the difficulty in finding a place to rent goes up, and there is often extra "pet deposit."

Finally, this week, my wife and I were approved to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Compton, where I lived and published Hub City News for many years prior to moving to San Bernardino

My advice to any readers who are planning to begin the search for a place to live in the near future is to take the following suggestions from Real Estate Broker Patti West.

* Don't overspend. The first thing you need to consider is your budget.

* Monthly rent shouldn't be more than two week's of your monthly income. If you find something that you really love, you can go over a little bit, but stay close to this goal.

* Consider location. Are you close to a bank, a grocery store, and entertainment? How far do you want to be from where you're working? Do you want to take your car or the bus? * And most importantly before making the final decision to move in, visit the neighborhood at night as well as during the day to determine if it is safe.

Ronald Ellerbe is a columnist for LA Beez.