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Stable, affordable housing is one of the most powerful predictors of health, educational success, and long-term community stability.   The research is clear; housing is a primary social determinant of health. When families live in safe, affordable, and stable homes, they experience lower rates of chronic illness, reduced stress, improved mental health, and better educational outcomes for children. Conversely, housing insecurity and housing disrepair are associated with increased healthcare costs, negative educational performance, and greater likelihood of adverse childhood experiences.

At Haywood Habitat for Humanity, we see these dynamics play out every day. Haywood County’s housing stock is aging rapidly (50% built prior to 1980), and so are the people living in it. The largest age band demographic in our community is adults over the age of 65.  Many of these seniors are now moving into their 70s and 80s.  Seniors are more likely to subsist on fixed or limited income, experience failing balance and dexterity, and endure isolation within their community.

When repair prices outpace SSI increases ten-fold what is an elderly homeowner to do?  Property taxes, groceries, medicine, healthcare, gasoline have all seen generational inflation over the last five years.  What was enough five years ago, is not enough today.  Unfortunately, that often means going without; among the first casualties, elective home maintenance.

Many seniors have lived in their homes and communities for decades.  These homes, however, were never designed to support aging in place.  Deferred maintenance, accessibility barriers, mold, poor insulation, and unsafe conditions are not merely inconvenient; they are health risks. For seniors, these conditions increase the likelihood of falls, respiratory illness, hospitalization, and premature displacement from their homes.

Seniors with significant home repair needs are less likely to attend primary care appointments and accept home healthcare.  Primary care, as well as in-home healthcare, can be an essential tool for mitigating medical risk.  For example, infections such as UTI’s are easily treated with antibiotics when detected early.  However, if that same infection goes untreated it can progress toward septicemia, which can be fatal for seniors.   Home repair needs for seniors, and other vulnerable populations, are more than aesthetic blight; they often portend consequential health outcomes.

Housing instability and poor housing quality also create toxic stress for families and children. Research consistently links unstable housing to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and behavioral challenges, and to lower educational attainment. Children who move frequently or live in substandard housing miss more school, struggle academically, and face long-term consequences that extend well beyond childhood. These are adverse childhood experiences in action—preventable, but only if communities act early.

Haywood Habitat’s work addresses these issues at their root. Through affordable homeownership, critical home repairs, and neighborhood-based investments, we reduce housing cost burdens, improve home safety and quality, and stabilize families where they are. Our emerging civic space and neighborhood revitalization efforts further strengthen these outcomes by reducing isolation, increasing physical activity, and creating safe, inclusive places for connection across generations.

The urgency is real. As our senior population continues to age, the window to intervene is closing. Without timely investment, more seniors will be forced out of their homes, healthcare costs will rise, and families will face avoidable crises. Strategic investment in housing and community infrastructure now is not only compassionate—it is fiscally responsible and evidence-based.

Housing is health care. Housing is education. Housing is prevention. Haywood Habitat is ready to act—but the need is immediate, and the time to invest is now.

Please consider donating to our End of Year Appeal.  Every dollar donated will go toward a repair project here in Haywood County.