4 - (SYM 28) Starkville Strong: Successes and Barriers of a Community-led Response to Housing Insecurity in Rural Mississippi and the Impact on Older Adults

Rural areas in the U.S. have a disproportionate number of the “oldest old,” individuals aged 85 and over and a lack of affordable housing in rural areas represents a major obstacle to aging in place for these individuals (Henning-Smith et al., 2021). Rural-dwelling older adults who are housing insecure likely have a compounded risk for poor medical and mental health outcomes. The health consequences of housing insecurity for older adults is intensified in a rural setting due to the dearth of government resources.

Starkville Strong is a community-based program for housing insecurity in rural Mississippi that represents how a grassroots program can facilitate community change. Because housing insecurity is not an isolated factor, Starkville Strong is a community program organized around four pillars: food insecurity, housing instability, homelessness, and community advocacy. Administrative data from the Starkville Strong program were used to provide descriptive statistics of the program scope and barriers to wider implementation, particularly for older residents. A subset of clients served in 2023 answered a survey about housing, mental health, and support in the local area. Starkville Strong services include case management, financial aid, and other forms of instrumental support such as transportation to temporary housing.

In 2022, the Starkville Strong team saw 389 unique clients, 35% of whom were aged 50 and over. Each of Starkville Strong’s seven Free Little Food Pantries is visited by families and individuals an average of 75 times per day. With the support of Starkville Strong advocacy efforts, rental property code enforcement guidelines were revised and passed in March 2022. Primary concerns about housing in the area were cost of living and knowledge of resources.

Many of the older Starkville Strong clients are custodial grandparents or are otherwise taking on a more formal caregiving role for grandchildren (e.g., caring for grandchildren while the parents are at work). Grandfamilies in any context face additional challenges (Tompkins et al., 2020), and this is compounded for rural-dwelling older adults who are housing insecure. Interventions implemented by community members to serve unmet needs may serve as indicators of how to optimize limited government resources. Starkville Strong’s scope of services and accommodations for older adults in the community represents a potential road map to success for communities seeking to increase quality of life for their most vulnerable residents.