Perceptions on residential environments for urban low-income elderly homeowners aging in place

With a qualitative phenomenological approach, residential environment (neighborhood and city) perceptions were explored for urban low-income elderly homeowners who were aging in place. In-depth interviews with open-ended questions were conducted with 30 urban low-income elderly homeowners, and content analysis was employed. Results showed that low-income aging homeowners were most likely to like their neighborhood because of neighbors’ helping each other, a friendly/nice neighbor (hood), quiet environment, or privacy. They were most likely to dislike their neighborhood if it was an unfriendly neighborhood, noisy, lacking safety or maintenance. Friendliness levels were responses for both the most and least favored attribute for the neighborhood. In terms of their city features, low-income aging homeowners liked conveniences within the city (i.e., easy access to retail or service facilities) and the feeling of a hometown, but also disliked city features such as crime, lack of safety, or no friendship. Four themes were suggested for the urban low-income aging homeowners: informal support; convenience; residential environment (neighborhood and city) problems; and opportunities. This study is meaningful in providing an opportunity to better understand urban low-income elderly homeowners’ living environments that have been less visited with a qualitative approach in the field of housing.