ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the complex issues surrounding rural elderly populations and housing. Rural housing issues exhibit a marked complexity when the specific analytical focus is on the needs and experiences of older Americans. A central theme is the 'long-standing assumption that as persons become frailer, they need to move along a housing continuum from one setting to another'. Initial insight into rural elderly populations and their varied housing situations requires recognition of long-term migration patterns characterizing United States (US) society as a whole. At the broadest level, for instance, attention needs to be given to the lasting effects of the historical shift from an agrarian-based to an industrial-based economy. In addition, it might also be expected that the increasing proportion of the oldest-old in the general population will deepen the rural-to-urban assistance and disability migrations by those who are able to afford it.
