Tax Credits For Aging In Place Get A Step Closer

Source: nextavenue.org | Re-Post Careprodx 8/4/2016

About a year ago, Next Avenue described a clever idea from Louis Tenenbaum, of HomesRenewed.org, to create federal tax credits that would help people age in place safely and independently by subsidizing the cost of retrofitting their homes. The idea just got a baby step closer.

Recently, a (barely) bipartisan group of Congressional members introduced The Senior Accessible Housing Act (HR 5254, for the C-SPAN crowd), which would provide a tax credit of up to $30,000 to people over 60 for aging-in-place modifications to their homes, such as widening doorways for wheelchairs and installing ramps, nonslip flooring, handrails and grab bars. (The credit would be nonrefundable, which means it wouldn’t be of use to those who don’t owe federal income taxes.)

Many of these modifications don’t come cheaply. Ramps can run as much as $4,000, installing grab bars and level handles throughout a home can go for $1,500 and you can spend $1,000 or so to widen a doorway.

If you can stay in your home safely, that cuts down on falls, which cost patients and insurance companies $34 billion a year.

— Louis Tenenbaum

First Federal Bill for Homeowners to Age in Place

Tenenbaum, founder of the Aging in Place Institute, believes The Senior Accessible Housing Act is the first federal bill to incentivize older Americans to prepare their homes for aging in place.

He’s over the moon.

“I love it because it exposes the issue of individual housing that needs to be updated,” Tenenbaum told me. “This jumpstarts it to a national stage.”

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