Anchored Yet Displaced: Affordable Housing and Aging in a Gentrifying Place

Abstract

AbstractIn an era of urban gentrification and rising economic inequality, how can policies better address the needs of older city residents who wish to age in place? Drawing on qualitative data from in‐depth interviews and participant observation, as well as US census data from 2010 to 2020, this study explores the perceptions and experiences of older adult residents of two affordable housing complexes in the Manhattan borough of New York City. These residents have aged in place while their surrounding community has grown wealthier and, in some respects, younger. While benefiting from housing security and numerous on‐site services targeting the aged‐in population, the residents nonetheless experience feelings of alienation and estrangement as their surrounding community undergoes physical, social, and cultural changes. This paper theorizes aging in place as an ongoing process of social integration and meaning making to explore issues of identity, housing, and community and to consider how policy can better address the needs of older adults aging within rapidly gentrifying urban contexts.