Instead of finding a safety net, a wealth gap means that many are unable to afford to pay rent.
Of any generation, it might appear that baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — enjoy more housing stability than any other age group.
Younger generations find themselves priced out of the market. But in 2025, baby boomers made up the largest slice of sellers, representing 53 percent, and were 42 percent of all buyers, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.
In Massachusetts, more residents than ever are aging into the 65+ bracket. They now make up 23 percent of the population — nearly double the 2010 rate — according to the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Data Report.
Baby boomers stayed in their homes longer than any other age cohort — about 20 years before downsizing. But instead of finding a safety net as they age, a wealth gap means that many are aging into uncertainty.
Housing needs grow more complex over time, including memory care and assisted living, and even homeownership and planning can’t insulate from unexpected disruptions.
In Southbridge, retired firefighter David Bourassa, 67, moved into the Lebanon Hill Housing complex with his wife, Karen,67, in 2020after his battle with cancer forced them to give up the home they owned for 20 years. But the 116-unit complex, previously protected as income-restricted senior housing, had lost its federal affordable housing subsidy.
Though the restriction was gone, its mostly senior residency remained. Last year, the property was purchased by Westborough-based Shorelight Real Estate, which increased rent by up to 70 percent — a hike that Bourassa said is untenable on a fixed income. Both David and Karen collect retirement benefits, and Karen works part time.
“I had a dream when I was younger, you know, buy a house just like everybody else, own a property, and have a place to retire,” he said. “That doesn’t work, because life has its own plan for you.”
Bourassa has been paying $975 a month for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment, and said that some residents who agreed to pay the new rate — $1,650 — are now depleting their savings to make rent. He noted the higher amount is comparable to the new asking rate for other apartments in the complex that have been renovated, but his has not. He has continued to pay his previous rate during the negotiation.
According to the building’s purchase records, the complex is owned by an LLC registered to Shorelight owner Steffen Panzone.The firm lists property holdings of $400 million on its website, and calls “opportunistic monetization” a “fundamental value” of the company.
Bourassa said many residents who did agree to the increase felt pressured to do so, struggling to find alternatives given the market rate and deterred by the prospect of moving in their 70s and 80s.
“I ended up this way because I got sick, and a lot of other people that live here are the same thing,” said Bourassa. “They came here because it was elderly housing, that they could get friendly with their neighbors and enjoy the rest of their lives. And it’s not that way anymore. Everybody is living in fear over here.”
Nearly 60 residents, all over 58, held their first tenant union meeting last year to discuss their approach, said Jonathan Morales, an organizer with Homes for All Massachusetts, which is supporting tenants. He said that Shorelight is attempting to accumulate wealth from a vulnerable population.
Co-owner and property manager Emily Panzone said the increase is necessary to address taxes and maintenance. According to public records, the property’s tax assessment increased more than 187 percent between 2024 and 2026, and is now listed at $11,502,100. Then there’s rising maintenance costs, which she said is more “management intensive” for aging tenants.
“We are involved in trying to help people age in place,” she said, adding the company is involved in “elder affairs” for “at least one” tenant, including feeding a cat while its owner was hospitalized.
“I am trying to keep a property afloat and pay the bills, and you can’t do that when utilities are included and people are paying $900 a month,” she said.
Bourassa said maintenance quality has decreased since the turnover, and provided photos taken this past January and February documenting ice dams, a leaking ceiling, and unplowed lots.
But Panzone resisted characterizing the complex as senior housing, and a rebrand as “Therese Pines” is underway.
“We are actively trying to change how people view it,” she said. “It’s not senior housing, and it hasn’t been for quite some time.”
According to Action for Boston Community Development, or ABCD, a Boston-area nonprofit that offers fuel assistance and housing coaching among its economic stability resources, the recent government shutdown limited applicants for its popular heating assistance program.
The Southbridge Town Council recently passed a resolution entered by Lebanon Hill residents asking for housing stability for elder residents.
“We’re seeing more seniors seeking help for the first time, because maybe they’ve … been able to afford — whether it was rent or housing or even homeownership — but once their income changes to that fixed income, then they’re for the first time seeing that challenge,” said Sharon Scott-Chandler, ABCD’s CEO.
“We’re in crisis mode, as far as Massachusetts is concerned,” said Alex Martin, marketing director for Rogerson Communities, a nonprofit that operates more than 1500 units of senior-focused housing around the state. “Now the demand for housing services is outstripping the supply, and it’s getting worse.”
As baby boomers begin to enter their 80s, Martin said more complex housing is more resource-intensive. Meanwhile, 20 percent of the generation has no savings, he said.
“We keep thinking about this population in terms of statistics, and not thinking about this population as our grandparents and mothers and fathers … retired teachers, retired firefighters,” he said. “These are human beings that deserve to age with dignity, and right now do not have the ability to.”
Often, aging-related needs are only sought out during a crisis, but not before — and then it might be too late.
“I think there’s a stigma that if older people are in any way in need of something that they don’t have resources to get, it’s because of something they did wrong or something they didn’t do right,” he said. “And that’s usually not the case. It doesn’t take extreme circumstances to find yourself in need of affordable housing, or higher levels of care than you can afford. It’s very expensive, and most people aren’t prepared for it.”
For those who wish to age in place, home modifications are an option if the budget allows.
“Try to get someone with expertise in before you need it, because a lot of these projects are reactionary,” said Brian Harvey, owner of Harvey Home Modifications based in Southborough. It’s hard to manage a renovation after a medical incident, and updates can be helpful during earlier years with conditions such as a knee replacement. Harvey said he uses principles of “universal design,” which means a space is useful to anyone in any state of physical ability.
New England’s antique housing stock can be trickier to modify, but almost any space can be adapted.
“What we have to do sometimes is cannibalize existing spaces that aren’t being used,” he said. For example, many old homes are vertically oriented, often lacking a ground-level bathroom. That can mean converting the downstairs into primary living space, where renovation could mean the difference between a weekly versus a daily shower.
As partners die and children move away, community reshapes itself. Jane Fortier, a real estate agent with LAER Realty Partners in Leominster, said her older clients want to live around others their age.
“The open houses [for 55+ communities] are just packed with people,” she said.
Sherene Raisbeck, 59, of Needham, is strategizing her next home to accommodate aging.
“I will be looking only for things that will have a suitable unit on the first floor, and also looking at places that are relatively near to transit, because I don’t want to lose my independence if I lose my ability to drive or I lose my ability to drive at night,” she said.
Growing up in Beacon Hill, Lidia Barczan, 75, enjoyed life with her husband, her job, and a walkable neighborhood.
“We had a really good life,” she said.
But her husband died in 2023, and soon after, she fractured her femur. No longer able to work or afford the apartment, she found a smaller unit in Beacon House — another Rogerson property — that allowed her to maintain her routine and community.
High cost is one factor that researchers said contributed to a 40 percent increase in older adults becoming homeless between 2019 and 2022.
“If you think about a flood, we are up to our necks,” said Thomas Byrne, an associate professor at Boston College and coauthor of a study that examined age in relation to homelessness. “In 2020 … one in every five single adult homeless person was aged 60 or above. That’s more than double what it was 20 years earlier.”
Affordable, sustainable solutions are costly and rare amid the ongoing fallout of a $1 trillion cut to Medicare spending by the federal government effective through 2034. Medicare pays for up to 20 days of skilled nursing in a nursing home, and skilled assistance for up to 100 days. According to the 2025 Massachusetts Healthy Aging Data Report, about 30 percent of the state’s over-65 population is enrolled in a Medicare-managed health plan.
Some safeguards for the future are straightforward.
“Fundamentally, homelessness is about an inability to afford housing, and so for some people, all they’re going to need is a little bit of income support to be able to either stay in housing that they’ve been in for a long time, that they’re at risk of losing because the rent has gotten too high and it outstrips what they can pay based on their fixed income,” said Byrne.
Last week, 38 members of the Lebanon Hill Tenant Association asked Emily Panzone to cap rent increases with structured bumps over time, but the company has begun eviction proceedings for some residents who have not agreed to the new rate. Bourassa, who has received a notice to quit letter signaling the beginning of the process unless he pays $1,349.33 in arrears and has not received a new lease, said he isn’t sure what comes next. His monthly income disqualifies him from Section 8 housing, and besides, he said, he’s liked living there.
“Eventually, it’s going to come to a point where I’m going to have to move somewhere else. Where do I go?” he asked. “It’s like every time I turn around, something is kicking me in the butt. I don’t know where to turn anymore.”