To Washington or DC as we call it (now)

We were transported here from Baltimore by the most delightful man, Eddie, who is a driver for Erickson. He is an older African American, native to Baltimore, and we enjoyed hearing about life in the “real Baltimore”.

We met with David Schless, CEO of the Australian Seniors’ Housing Association ASHA) – the equivalent of ACCA in Australia.

He explained that the construction of seniors’ housing had all but stagnated in the wake of the GFC. He said that the capital markets had become incredibly tight and that people were putting off investment decisions, indeed all decisions while there was so much uncertainty about the US economy. As a consequence, rental housing models were faring better than lease-for-life product as the decision to rent was a more conservative one than shelling out a huge lump sum amount.

He said that the US had little social housing product or retirement communities for poorer, older people. There was some aged-friendly housing, but for the most part poorer people had to make do as best they could in the private rental market. David’s view was that the USA’s economic circumstances would prevent any expansion of social housing provision in the foreseeable future.

From the various discussions we’ve had here, it is clear that, while housing is considered to be a personal responsibility of people even if they are old, health care and community care are not. At the age of 65, “pensioners” in our terms qualify for Medicare and Medicaid benefits. We have been quite surprised at the level of support that is provided to older “pensioners” in the US. It’s obviously a significant cost burden on government and many people have questioned whether the current level of benefits is sustainable. I’ll return to this subject a bit later when describing Capitol Hill Village.

We took the opportunity to talk to David about how effective his industry group/ association was at influencing government on key issues, noting of course that his association in based in Washington, the seat of government. He said that this organisation was influential and he cited the reasons for this as being the retention of specialist lobbyists and the creation of the Political Action Committee (PAC).

The PAC is interesting. It is used to support the campaigns of sympathetic politicians. It is illegal in the US for organisations to donate to such committees and so it is supported by personal cheques from supporters/influential members. This fund raises up to $500K per annum – now that should purchase some influence!

David stressed that the association’s influence on Capitol Hill is achieved by developing sustained, long-term relationships with politicians. My interpretation of this would be that you can establish such relationships if you are out and about as an association in the seat of government.