Los Angeles County is among the least affordable places in the United States, particularly for seniors on a fixed income. A market-rate studio apartment in Chinatown rents for about $2,000 a month, while the maximum federal SSI benefit for a senior is just over $1,200. For many low-income Chinese seniors, the math doesn’t add up.
Subsidized senior housing can be a lifeline, but waitlists stretch for years. New applications open rarely and close almost immediately. For seniors facing language barriers and limited digital access, the process is even more daunting.
The alternatives can be bleak. Behind ordinary-looking houses in the San Gabriel Valley and aging storefronts in Chinatown, seniors are squeezed into improvised spaces: garages divided by curtains, boarding houses that charge by the day, or crumbling upstairs rooms above restaurants and groceries…