Seminar Offers Advice For Seniors Facing Housing Issues

ORLEANS – Soaring housing costs. Limited inventory. More people phasing into retirement.

The issues driving the ongoing housing crisis are varied, and they’ve created problems for many, not the least of which families and members of the local workforce. But staff at the Homeless Prevention Council say the crisis is equally acute for the region’s senior population.

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the housing landscape in recent years. Many homes are being sold as property values continue to rise. Towns are also seeing more second homeowners opt to make their seasonal Cape residences their full-time residence.

In both cases, more senior tenants are being left with the burden of trying to find new living arrangements, often on short notice.

“I think it’s always been a problem,” Maureen Linehan, a senior case manager with HPC, said of the issues the seasonality of housing have long presented on the Cape. “But now there’s no housing. Now there’s no apartments. Now there’s nothing.”

Linehan led a seminar last week, “Let’s Talk About Tomorrow,” at the council’s Orleans headquarters on Main Street. She was joined by Andrew Bardetti, an elder law attorney with South Coast Counties Legal Services.

The seminar walked attendees through the process of qualifying and applying for state and subsidized senior housing, as well as what rights and protections seniors have if they are faced with eviction. It also provided an overview of the council’s various programs and services, including fuel assistance, connections to other community resources and help with budgeting.

“We just kind of work where you are,” Lindehan said. “What’s your priority? What can you pay?”

Bardetti, who has been working out of the South Coast Legal Services offices in Hyannis for the past year, said he’s seeing more seniors faced with leaving their homes, even if they’re not in violation of their leases.

“I think some of the hardest challenges I’ve seen are people in private housing being evicted for no cause,” he said. “It’s not like they’re not paying their rent.”

Apply Early…And Often

For seniors seeking housing on the Cape, the wait can be significant, Linehan said. She estimated that the wait time for homeless seniors to find new housing can be one to two years. For those currently situated in housing, the wait can be as long as five years.

With that, seniors seeking housing are encouraged to apply, and apply early.

“I tell everybody ‘Do every application that you’re eligible for,’” she said.

The council offers seniors assistance in applying for senior housing. That includes the Common Housing Application for Massachusetts Programs, or CHAMP, which Bardetti said is a common application that allows applicants to apply for state housing across the commonwealth.

“Never turn anything down,” Linehan said. “Even if you say today ‘I don’t want to live in state housing,’ fill it out. Because five years from now when your name comes up, you might have changed your mind. Or that might have to be an option for you.”

Bardetti said it pays to apply for housing early, and that applicants should apply for housing through programs even if they are told verbally that they don’t qualify. He said there are legal options for appealing a denial, but only if there is an application on file.

“On some level, you should just apply and get a denial,” he said. “And if you get denied, then that’s where you can look at ‘Well, was this denial correct?’”

Veterans and people with “emergency status” are moved up housing wait lists quicker. The same goes for town residents in projects that show local preference.

“Suffice it to say, you want to indicate all the facets of you,” Bardetti said. “If you are a veteran, you have a disability, you’re over 60 or 65, you want to list those things. They can make a difference.”

Tenants Facing Eviction Have Rights

For tenants looking at possible eviction, Bardetti’s advice is simple: Don’t leave, at least not right away.

Month-to-month leases are common on Cape Cod, and those require that a landlord provide a 30-day “notice to quit” a lease in writing for a no-cause eviction. After the written notice is served, the matter is brought to court, Bardetti said. But he said only a court order, not a landlord, can force a tenant out of their home.

“Sometimes landlords will send an eviction notice and never follow up on it, never bring it to court. So you don’t have to go anywhere.”

Bardetti’s office typically works on eviction cases involving state and subsidized housing, However, he said cases involving private renters can be more complicated. Still, renters of private property have rights, he said. That includes on matters of rent, he said, noting that the landlord and tenant both need to agree on any changes to the rent stipulated in the lease.

“If your landlord only sends you a notice saying ‘You’ve been paying $500 a month, I want $600 now,’ and that’s it, you can ignore that,” he said. “And that’s not a notice to quit, by the way. They didn’t terminate the tenancy in that notice.”

But sometimes due process ultimately ends in eviction. But even in those cases, Linehan said the council is there to help.

“Maybe there aren’t any options, but at least somebody walks with them,” she said. “There have been times where someone has said ‘The sheriff is coming.’ I’ve said ‘OK, get your papers. Get your jewelry and your most valuable things and put them in the car.’ And then we call them. ‘Where are you? What’s happening?’ We have to keep track of them. It gets scary out there.”

But how does eviction impact someone’s chances of securing housing moving forward? Bardetti said it depends. Tenants have more protections when it comes to state or subsidized housing, but less so when it comes to private rentals. He noted that evictions can be publicly searched online, and there’s little that can be done to prevent a landlord from denying an applicant based on a prior eviction.

As the housing crisis deepens, Linehan encouraged anyone worried about their housing situation to seek out help. She said a consultation with council staff can set up seniors for future housing if and when the time comes that they need it.

“Let’s get everything in order so that if your name comes up, it’s ‘Bang, bang, bang’ and you’re there.,” she said.

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com