Social Security Turns 91 as Its Future Hangs in the Balance—and Housing Costs Squeeze Retirees

Ninety-one years after Social Security was signed into law, the program has largely delivered on its original promise.In 1935, more than half of older Americans were estimated to lack enough income to support themselves. Today, Social Security keeps 17 million older adults above the poverty line, according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis.And yet, the retirement it was meant to help fund has dramatically changed.Housing costs are the clearest example. Expenses for homeowners without a mortgage jumped 35% between 2019 and 2024, far outpacing the 23% growth in incomes over the same period.All the while, more older Americans are carrying housing debt into their golden years. While just 3% of homeowners 80 and older had a mortgage in 1989, 31% did in 2022.Those new pressures are colliding with another threat. Social Security's retirement trust fund is projected to exhaust its reserves in 2032, after which incoming revenue would cover only about 78% of scheduled benefits without congressional action.President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who championed the program, warned that it could never protect Americans against every financial risk.“We can never insure one hundred pe...