We all are aware of the increased costs of everyday items. Gasoline is flirting with $4.50 a gallon in New Jersey with California paying over $6.00 and this is just for regular! The cost of a single first class postage stamp is 82 cents for those of us who still even mail letters and bills. The cost of housing is no different not just in New Jersey but across the country.

Nationally, nearly half of renters paid more than the recommended 30% of their monthly income in 2024 for shelter, according to a 2026 report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

From an online article from Punchbowl News, It’s a “socioeconomic crisis,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), ranking member of the Financial Services Housing and Insurance Subcommittee. “The current state of housing is traumatic,” Cleaver said. “We have a shortage right now in the country, in the United States, between 3.7 million to almost 6 million homes and rental properties.”

Side note, fun fact – punchbowl is the Secret Service nickname for the U.S Capitol. Picture the Capitol’s dome upside down…get it. Who knew?!

But getting back to the affordability crisis. It is as Rep. Cleaver stated a socioeconomic crisis. Even more so for those with limited or fixed incomes. Our agency is seeing more older adults requiring assistance, sometimes for the first time in their lives. Social security alone can no longer pay the bills in this increasingly demanding economy.

This is why we must come together as a community to help one another, help fill the social gaps when one of us needs help.