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Her income is $1600 from Social Security. Her mortgage which includes taxes and insurance is 1200. She has other bills of heat, electricity, cell, and food etc. Can she get government housing assistance? She is old and not well and can no longer work. She is 77.

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Was her husband a vet? If so, apply for benefits. Those who served during war time will be able to collect the most.
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No, she is single
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bolliveb Feb 2021
My mother is also adamant that she does not want to leave her home. The difference is that my mom's home is long paid for, she has substantial savings, and her income exceeds her spending. She has the luxury of being able to afford the assistance she needs to stay in her home.

Unfortunately, your mom does not have that luxury. You might want to frame the explanation with an example that has no emotional context for her. Such as, tell her YOU would love to (pick one), go on a trip around the world, buy a luxury yacht, or live in a mansion. But you can't afford it. Same goes for her house. She WANTS to live in it, but she can't afford it.

Best of luck. It's so difficult when our parents want things that, for whatever reason, are not feasible.
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Others will give answers, so stick around for help.

I do know that there are apartments specifically for seniors.

My brother rented in a place like this, which happened to be run by the church.

They also provided non perishable food items on a monthly basis.

They had religious services held on the premises, shuttle buses to grocery store, pharmacies and doctor appointments.

Also, a few activities were held on the property too, such as bingo.

Would she be interested in residing in a ‘senior’ community that charges rent based on income?
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Lauramcdonald23 Feb 2021
She is adamant she doesn’t want to leave house. I just got house out of foreclosure so we can use that money towards housing, she can not cognitively pay her bills anymore so I believe she may need to go to a nursing home and we can use the $150,000equity in home to help.
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Is a roommate a possibility?
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Lauramcdonald23 Feb 2021
She would never agree to that. I will start calling senior services. Get her on some senior housing lists. Thanks for responding. I wish I new how dire her situation was sooner.
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It’s time to sell the house. Someone with only $1600 a month in income has no business living in a home with a $1200
mortgage. If there is equity in the home, your can use the proceeds to rent an apartment or small house. There really isn’t financial assistance for homeowners. But there is for renters. So......she should probably seriously consider selling the house.
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Lauramcdonald23 Feb 2021
Thanks for responding. We have no choice but to sell.
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There are a lot of services for aged and disabled in New Jersey. Help with utilities (for homeowners too) and food stamps and medications (PAAD) as well. But I know of no mortgage programs. Housing assistance comes in the form of senior housing after you sell your home (as far as I know). You can start with county social services. And your Aunt may qualify for home care services such as light housekeeping and a visiting nurse. But taxes and maintenance of a home in NJ is very expensive. It might be better to try and make a longer term plan and get her on some waiting lists (they can be long) for subsidized senior housing and plan to sell the home while it may have some value. I have gone through this with my mother. She let the house go and refused to make applications for senior housing, and there are lovely ones in her area of NJ, and lost a lot of money on her home because she let it go. And then she had nowhere to go. Carrying a mortgage at 77 with a limited income is not ideal. Years ago I looked into services for my mother and there were some home repair services as well. My mother refused all services BTW. Start by calling around different social service agencies and be persistent. Don’t be daunted by rude questions from different agencies. They will ask for her name and other information. And then they will ask if you have POA etc. Your aunt will need to complete the process. Remember communication will be more difficult with Covid. I had to deal with cleaning up my mother’s mess in the middle of Covid shutdowns and I’m still waiting for return calls! I can say that even with the various services that could have helped my mother, it wasn’t enough to sustain her long term. It would have helped her in the short run. And also all services may have some sort of qualification - like resource limits.
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Lauramcdonald23 Feb 2021
Thanks this has been helpful. Will def start by trying to get food stamps.
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I have a friend whose house payment is $1300 and she owes over $200K on it--I assumed that EVERYBODY aged 70+ must own their homes outright--but I find that is often not true. Her VA benefits are $1100 a month.

My friend packed up her entire house 3 years ago (with my help) and got so far as to engage a realtor and plan a sale & move out--at the very last second, literally the morning of the open house, her son (who has been MIA for years) called her and told her not to sell. So she pulled out of the contract and moved back into the house. Now she's on the brink of foreclosure--again because she cannot afford to live there anymore. At any given point she has at least one of her utilities shut off.

She's upside down in it, even if she tried to sell it now, it would garner a LOT less than what it's worth. We had found a double wide trailer for $70K with a $400 'lot fee' and she would have sold her home, bought the trailer and been able to live comfortably in this development.

She has a verbal agreement from her son to have custody of his 3 kids. She works FT at age 70+ and is exhausted all the time. The 2 older boys are beginning to get into criminal activities, the oldest will be heading to Juvie in May.

She qualifies for SO MANY programs, I took time to look them up and do what little I could to set her up--all she had to do was SHOW UP at the gov't offices and show her ID and she's have health care, food stamps, etc to help out.

She won't do ANYTHING. Complain, yes, but not actually DO anything. There are so many programs for her--esp as she has custody of the kids---but she won't move forward. She actually gave her son (the kids' father) their stimulus checks, rather than keep them for the support of the kids. He had no right to those---and he will happily take the next round too.

My point--though long in coming, is that you can prod, suggest, push, support and even just get tough with people like this--and it's like talking to a wall. She doesn't seem to WANT to be successful. IDK.

With a little effort--she could be living comfortably and not be stressed out over money 24/7.

I totally gave up on her about 18 months ago. She was killing me with her indecisive behavior and actual neglect of these poor kids.

As my DH often says "You can't fix stupid". That may be harsh, but when you have a PILE of dividend checks from an investment that total OVER $3K and you are too LAZY to go 3 blocks to the bank and cash them---then my sympathy is gone for her.
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worriedinCali Feb 2021
You would think people over a certain age would live in paid off houses but a lot of people make bad financial decisions including buying new homes with large mortgages later in life and borrowing against the homes equity. My God parents bought a house around 1975, should have been paid off in 2005 at the latest. Their kids were all out of high school and out of the house by 2002. Godmother worked as a veterinary assistant, godfather was a mailman (for over 30 years). They were obviously living beyond their means, they took out several mortgages/home equity lines of credit on their house. They were going to Europe for 2-3 weeks every summer after the kids were out of the house. Around 12 years ago, my godfather was fired from the post office after he got caught stealing a $5 off target coupon from the “dead mail” room. Long story short, getting fired cost him his pension, wasn’t eligible for social security because postal employees don’t pay in to it, but would have been ok financially had they paid the house off and left it that way. With no house payment, they would have only paid utilities and home & car insurance. Their one car was paid off. But since they had mortgages on the house, they lost it to foreclosure because they couldn’t afford the mortgage payment and they had to move to a cheaper state. There really wasn’t a good reason to keep mortgaging their house, they did it simply because they were living beyond their means. Bad bad finally decision that bit them in the a**.
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Like Worried and Midkid I am surprised that people still have Mortgages past 65. I am 72 and our house has been paid off since 2005.

I hope you r her POA. If she is proven incompetent, it is no longer want she wants its what she needs.
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Frebrowser Feb 2021
There are a lot of people who scrape by by making questionable long term decisions that make things squeak by in the short term. This lady managed to stay in her house until age 77. If she has had the health problems for a while, she may have never thought she'd live this long.

I hope Lauramcdonald23 isn't using her own money to pay her aunt's bills.
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I would not be able to put my head on a pillow and sleep if I had enormous debt.

We chose to build a custom designed home in our 30’s. We took out a 15 year mortgage.

I would hate to be paying off a loan in my senior years! Ours was paid off many years ago.

Now that it’s just the two of us, I feel lost in this house. I would love to downsize into a smaller home or even a condo.
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Forgot to answer ur question about vouchers. As far as I know their is no program that will help pay mortgages. Vouchers are issued for renters. Its based on monthly income. The person pays a portion and the voucher pays the rest.

With interests rates low maybe Mom could refinance? But the best thing may just sell house, pay off the Mortgage and put the balance where it will get some interest. Make sure the house sells at Market Value in case Medicaid is needed in the next 5 years. The proceeds can only be spent for her needs. She can't give any large amounts away. There is low income housing that she maybe able to get a voucher for and HUD has senior apartments.
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She needs to downsize and llve within her means. At her age, she should be living mortgage free.
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