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There are some small towns around Indianapolis that might fit the bill on the rental front - problem is, the places are often cheap because next to nothing is there.
Phoenix has very good bus service coverage. And there's light rail that serves many who live around it.
Not sure on the $400 monthly rent though.....rents have risen quite bit here with demand. And the areas with $400 rent are places I'd check out carefully before moving there.
Phoenix is VERY hot. Scorching hot. It's a little hotter than here in Dallas, and in Dallas every year several people die from the heat. Someone sickly would have trouble coping with that kind of heat, and the electric bills for a/c would take all his money.
Phoenix is VERY hot. Scorching hot. It's a little hotter than here in Dallas, and in Dallas every year several people die from the heat. Someone sickly would have trouble coping with that kind of heat, and the electric bills for a/c would take all his money.
That's why I'd suggest somewhere in rural western Michigan, central Indiana, Ohio, somewhere between Lexington and Louisville. These places are often underrrated for cost of living.
Retired human services professional, returning to U.S. from Philippines cuz my Medicare is no good here. I am poor due to health problem (but I am not stupid, uneducated,nor low class) In researching there are very few places I can afford to rent even a room in USA. I need helpful suggestions from smart people here. To be brief, I need to find a medium to large city with the following: 1) abundance of studio apt or room rentals no more than $400/mo in tenant friendly city 2) not cold winters,if things go bad I don't want to freeze to death 3) good public transport-would rather not get a car. 4) Singles dances where I can meet 40-60 year old ladies 5) Quality doctors who accept Medicare with good access to specialists. Thanks.
I just did a lot of research on Tyler, TX, and consider it my #1 destination for retirement. Here's what it has that might suit your needs:
*It is a retirement city.
*It has a large medical complex, so can treat anything there. (it's the east texas medical hub)
*It is a mid-sized city
*It has a lot of amenities (big box stores, grocery stores everywhere, thrift shops, a more developed bus system than a small city, etc.)
*It's not too large for you to get somewhere in minutes...and if you are lucky, you might even be able to walk to your doctor's office, if you can't drive.
*Cost of living is pretty low, compared to a big city (look at cost of living sites, like City-Data)
*It's a little more than an hour away from Dallas, TX, should you need to go to a big city (actually, it took me 2 hours from a hotel parking lot there to go to an office deep w/in Dallas, and park in that lot; but it's an hour from boundary to boundary)
*It's hot, but less hot than Dallas and less humid than Houston.
*It can get cold a bit for a short while, but just a short while, and may snow a bit once a year or every 2 years. But a mild winter.
*It'll have lots of retired women there, since it's a retirement city. Which means there will probably be events that focus on seniors.
*It's has a university there and a community college (this means LOW RENT APTS should be available).
$400/mo. is going to be tough. I think your best bet is finding an apartment for rent by an individual...like a duplex or a garage apartment (can you manage stairs?). You will need a good credit rating. But I think $400/mo. is doable there. But what they look like or the area they're in...who knows.
Individual landlords would probably be pleased to get someone your age, as opposed to rowdy college students.
Look for cheap rentals around the colleges. If you are able to walk, or like to walk, there would probably be amenities w/in walking distance, too (bus stops, grocery stores, etc.), but you'd have to check on that.
SECOND SUGGESTION:
The city I'm moving from: Dallas, TX. It has a well developed bus system AND a RAIL/SUBWAY system. If you rent in the right place, you could probably get around "Dallas proper" pretty well using mass transit.
There are certainly cheap rentals here, but they would be in crime ridden areas. That is usu. the case in most cities. You'd have to check to see if any are $400 or so. I would think so. Most big cities have low rent areas, and here in Dallas, we have a lot of illegal immigrants, so I'm sure there are cheap rentals for them.
Cost of living here is higher than in Tyler, but partly that's for property taxes and healthcare. You could end up paying less by using more mass transit and shopping wisely at discount stores and thrift stores. Lots of competitive retailing here. BUT your Medicare premium might be higher here; I'm not sure how Medicare premium costs work. But healthcare is costlier here than in Tyler or in Houston, for that matter.
I hope you mean the $400 rent does not include utilities. I can't imagine it would.
LOUISIANA. You might consider Louisiana (like Shreveport). Not a good economy, low cost of living (other than buying a house). Shreveport is struggling with its non-growing economy, so is likely to have some cheap rentals. It's also a fairly largish city, so probably has all the medical providers you'd need. Health care in Louisiana is LESS than in most places in Texas (in other words, it's low). Mild winters, humid hot summers but not hot like Phoenix (horrible heat there) or Dallas (very hot with blazing sun in July and August). I'm from Louisiana.
And given the OP says they have health issues and is a disabled senior, one of the states you picked on, GA(and the fed level of course), can take care of this side of things as can any other state in the union:
I don't know if you're on a political kick with your "red states" talk but I think sticking to facts is more beneficial to the OP in his particular circumstance, not overgeneralizing/making personal and political statements on the matter. We have a forum on politics. Plenty of red/blue/right/left talk and what congress or the POTUS should do/not do there to last us all a lifetime and a half.
A civil reply from one of our Southern compatriots. Thank you. The reason I gave conflicting advise about heading for the South is that when I started writing about conditions here in Colorado, I flashed back on two of my cousins from Alabama who came out for a visit and promptly succumbed to the high altitude and arid climate of Colorado. It took them a week to acclimate, and by then they had to go back home. I visualized an elderly person from the Philippines having an even worse reaction, so overall, it might be best if OP headed South after all - a minor point.
I never stated that Georgia or anywhere else doesn't have assistance for seniors. Sure, there's plenty of assistance - IF you have the money to pay for it. If you are low income, you can pretty much forget getting any kind of help. The links you gave prove my point:
Your first link that I clicked on started out with the usual happy talk of how much everyone everywhere loves our senior citizens and will do anything for them – if they have the cash. I’ve read enough of this stuff in my own quest for housing that I could write that crap for them myself and spare them the trouble. Then they gave a short list of private for profit senior living communities. The first, Calvin Court, claimed to be “affordable,” but when I clicked on their link, it was broken. I was not impressed. The second outfit called itself “Christian City” and stated “Residents must have financial resources for the basic cost of the unit and to pay the monthly maintenance fee. The basic life lease cost of a unit varies depending on size, location and special features. Call 770-703-2749 for more information. (Fees are charged for services if applicable).” Call me a hardened cynic, call me an unbeliever in the savior, but somehow I doubt that Christian City’s rents, fees, and maintenance costs come to $400.00 or less. I’d be willing to bet that $4,000.00 would be more like it. Feel free to call them on Monday and tell me if I’m wrong. I won’t be holding my breath.
The final outfit was presented as a safe, affordable GATED community with a long list of amenities. Again, I can’t help but suspect that a monthly rent of a mere $400.00 is not among those amenities.
See, this is the problem when people want to prove something, but they don’t want to be bothered to read or investigate the plethora of claims that can be found floating around on the Internet. Anyhow, since two of these private senior communities in Atlanta claimed to have HUD units available, but gave no further info about them, I went straight to the horse’s mouth – the Atlanta Housing Authority where I found a link of my own. Check it out if you wish.
First thing in bold letters was the notice - Section 8 Waiting List Status: Closed (Section 8 is a housing voucher program which allows the individual with a voucher to rent directly from a private landlord, provided the landlord is willing to have his property go for about half what the rent is really worth. I have checked Housing Authorities across the nation in my effort to both help myself and try to assist others. I have yet to find a single HA with an open section 8 wait list. On a slightly more optimistic note, the Atlanta HA notes that individuals may apply to be put on the wait list for one of their senior housing units, but admonishes “Please note: The AHA no longer operates a Public Housing program.” Yay! No more of those despised, crime-ridden projects – not in Atlanta, anyway. Therefore, if OP likes the idea of living in Atlanta, he can fill out a lucky 13 of separate applications (one for each senior housing complex in the Atlanta metro region), mail them all off, and then sit back out there in the Philippines and wait… and wait. Because OP is at the very bottom of all those wait lists and the only way they open up is when someone dies or else is whisked off to some substandard Medicaid financed nursing home to achieve the same result. It comes down to a rather morbid contest of who outlasts whom. Again, this is the situation everywhere in the country since HUD is a federal program and Atlanta just complies with the Feds along with every other American city.
So much for your first link. Still game, I checked on your second link for independent living in Georgia. Since I’d already researched Atlanta, I decided to go off the beaten path a little and checked out Suwannee. There were a number of senior communities listed, so I picked one at random - Cottonwood Estates Gracious Retirement Living. I liked the name – it was just so Southern and homey sounding. The pictures were nice, too. Unfortunately, when I tried to figure out how much it would cost to live there, I only found the statement “Pricing Options: Private.” In other words if you have the assets, they’ll be gracious about accepting them. Now, perhaps a more persistent woman would have forged onward through the rest of your links, but I got distracted listening to bluegrass on a station streaming its broadcast from a location across from my grandparent’s farm where I spent many happy days in my childhood.
Look, I understand that Georgia and the rest of the South does not have an open season on the elderly. The problem is that there’s so very little help for low-income elderly and it is only getting worse, not better. According to the Kaiser Health Foundation, 45% of America’s seniors live at or below the poverty line (48% live below the poverty line in Georgia and you don’t even want to know what it is in Kentucky – especially in the communities located in the eastern Kentucky mountains. And in Colorado, that percentage is a “mere” 29%. Now, what’s wrong with this picture?
In general, I agree that politics is a subject best left to the trolling masses on the CD Politics Forum, but unfortunately, politics can often influence our lives for good or ill and avoiding mention of political issues is worse than tiptoeing around that hypothetical elephant out in the cotton fields. As when you wrote: “And given the OP says they have health issues and is a disabled senior, one of the states you picked on, GA(and the fed level of course), can take care of this side of things as can any other state in the union:” I guess you don’t realize that if all goes according to plan, our esteemed new speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, has plans to curtail funding for the SSDI disability program which actually is a part of our Social Security benefits. Like Social Security, SSDI is a program for disabled WORKERS who have paid Social Security payroll taxes for their entire working lives. Benefits could be cut by as much as 20% creating incredible hardship for a group of disabled American workers who can barely get by on their incredibly small checks (average around $750/month) as things stand now. But that’s OK. My fellow Kentuckian, Rand Paul, informs us that most people on disability are “just anxious,” so any cuts won’t be a real problem. Et tu Brute? Oh, Kentucky is much worse than Georgia is. Those who must depend on a disability check SHOULD be anxious.
Here’s the bottom line. The US government made a contract with the American worker to pay into the Social Security program for all of their working life and then at the end of their days, those workers would receive a small Social Security check in return for their contributions. Now the government at the behest of idiots like Rand Paul and the Tea Party with its strong roots in the South, wants to wiggle out of its promise to the American worker and leave us stranded at a time in our lives when we need that money the most. EVERY American, North or South or West or East should be very angry over that one.
I invite you to consider El Paso. COL was one of my criteria. I have only been here 3 months so hardly an expert but I just looked through room shares on Craigslist and there are many 400 or less. The weather, so far, has been wonderful. Generally speaking, the people are very nice. Violent crime is very low. There aren't bums and beggars everywhere (like I experienced on my research trip to Phoenix!) Even though the population is 80% Mexican Hispanic ( a plus for those of us wanting to sharpen our Spanish skills) it will not impact your ability to conduct your affairs. English is well spoken by most). I can't speak to the dating scene yet but I have enjoyed my first few months. Good luck on your search!
Good reply. Yes a definite place to consider. Do you speak Spanish? Definitely a plus there. Lots of young single moms there and the older women tend to be overweight, but that can be said of many us cities. I have visited there many times. Curious to know your lifestyle there?
There are some small towns around Indianapolis that might fit the bill on the rental front - problem is, the places are often cheap because next to nothing is there.
Yes ,if Indy, I'd be looking for a walkable area ,close to a good health club. Any suggestions?
I just did a lot of research on Tyler, TX, and consider it my #1 destination for retirement. Here's what it has that might suit your needs:
*It is a retirement city.
*It has a large medical complex, so can treat anything there. (it's the east texas medical hub)
*It is a mid-sized city
*It has a lot of amenities (big box stores, grocery stores everywhere, thrift shops, a more developed bus system than a small city, etc.)
*It's not too large for you to get somewhere in minutes...and if you are lucky, you might even be able to walk to your doctor's office, if you can't drive.
*Cost of living is pretty low, compared to a big city (look at cost of living sites, like City-Data)
*It's a little more than an hour away from Dallas, TX, should you need to go to a big city (actually, it took me 2 hours from a hotel parking lot there to go to an office deep w/in Dallas, and park in that lot; but it's an hour from boundary to boundary)
*It's hot, but less hot than Dallas and less humid than Houston.
*It can get cold a bit for a short while, but just a short while, and may snow a bit once a year or every 2 years. But a mild winter.
*It'll have lots of retired women there, since it's a retirement city. Which means there will probably be events that focus on seniors.
*It's has a university there and a community college (this means LOW RENT APTS should be available).
$400/mo. is going to be tough. I think your best bet is finding an apartment for rent by an individual...like a duplex or a garage apartment (can you manage stairs?). You will need a good credit rating. But I think $400/mo. is doable there. But what they look like or the area they're in...who knows.
Individual landlords would probably be pleased to get someone your age, as opposed to rowdy college students.
Look for cheap rentals around the colleges. If you are able to walk, or like to walk, there would probably be amenities w/in walking distance, too (bus stops, grocery stores, etc.), but you'd have to check on that.
SECOND SUGGESTION:
The city I'm moving from: Dallas, TX. It has a well developed bus system AND a RAIL/SUBWAY system. If you rent in the right place, you could probably get around "Dallas proper" pretty well using mass transit.
There are certainly cheap rentals here, but they would be in crime ridden areas. That is usu. the case in most cities. You'd have to check to see if any are $400 or so. I would think so. Most big cities have low rent areas, and here in Dallas, we have a lot of illegal immigrants, so I'm sure there are cheap rentals for them.
Cost of living here is higher than in Tyler, but partly that's for property taxes and healthcare. You could end up paying less by using more mass transit and shopping wisely at discount stores and thrift stores. Lots of competitive retailing here. BUT your Medicare premium might be higher here; I'm not sure how Medicare premium costs work. But healthcare is costlier here than in Tyler or in Houston, for that matter.
I hope you mean the $400 rent does not include utilities. I can't imagine it would.
LOUISIANA. You might consider Louisiana (like Shreveport). Not a good economy, low cost of living (other than buying a house). Shreveport is struggling with its non-growing economy, so is likely to have some cheap rentals. It's also a fairly largish city, so probably has all the medical providers you'd need. Health care in Louisiana is LESS than in most places in Texas (in other words, it's low). Mild winters, humid hot summers but not hot like Phoenix (horrible heat there) or Dallas (very hot with blazing sun in July and August). I'm from Louisiana.
Thanks much, u mention places I never though of. Tyler sounds interesting. I've been to Dallas,great singles scene there,traffic bad. Not sure, but I would guess poor public transport? Rents are high there,but ur right cheap can be found but at great cost methinks. Thanks.
Last edited by Yac; 11-09-2020 at 01:42 AM..
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