Finally, Some Affordable Housing for Grandfamilies in D.C.
Online advice about preparing for retirement could stand to be more inclusive; it tends to focus on a small subset of retirees and to ignore major changes to the financial circumstances of many Americans. For example, if you go online to get ideas about what to expect in retirement, most of the articles and videos you find assume that you own your own home. Whether they are advising you to age in place and take out a reverse mortgage to have some cash in your pocket or sell your house and spend the proceeds traveling the world, you cannot follow that advice unless you own your house. What about all the folks who rent their accommodations and put so much of their paycheck toward rent that they have little in the way of retirement savings? This includes most millennials, a generation unlikely to afford homeownership unless they inherit a house for their parents or their parents give them money for a down payment. Furthermore, not all seniors spend their time socializing with other seniors. Some of them are so busy taking care of their grandchildren that they don’t even feel retired; they just feel like stressed out, cash-strapped family caregivers, like their younger counterparts. It’s time that estate planning websites showed some appreciation for the grandfamilies who enrich our society. Our youth-obsessed culture may not start appreciating grandparents anytime soon, but at least an affordable housing complex for grandparents and their grandchildren is coming soon to Washington, D.C. For help building an estate plan where your grandchildren play a central role, contact a Washington, D.C. estate planning lawyer.
H.R. Crawford Gardens Aims to Meet the Housing Needs of D.C. Seniors and Their Families
The District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA) has obtained funding for a 76-unit affordable housing complex for seniors. The new development, called H.R. Crawford Gardens, will be located in Ward 7. It is not the only housing development designated for seniors whose income is between 30 and 50 percent of the area median income (AMI). What makes H.R. Crawford Gardens unique is that some of its three-bedroom units are reserved for grandfamilies, in the sense of households consisting of minor children and their grandparents. Other units are designated for permanent supportive housing, while some one-bedroom units are for senior singles or couples.
In the District of Columbia, nearly 3,000 grandparents are the primary caregivers for their grandchildren; nationwide, the number exceeds 2.5 million. This figure does not include multigenerational households, where grandparents, parents, and children all live together. Grandfamilies are more likely than the general population to live in or near poverty, especially if the grandparents are of retirement age; some grandparents who are raising their grandchildren are in their early 60s or younger and hold full-time employment.
Contact Tobin O’Connor Ewing About Estate Planning for Grandfamilies
A Washington, D.C. estate planning attorney can help you build an estate plan if you have unlimited love for your grandchildren, but you do not have unlimited resources. Contact Tobin, O’Connor, and Ewing in Washington, D.C. or call 202-362-5900.
Source:
housingfinance.com/developments/d-c-development-will-be-home-to-grandfamilies_o
