Cost of retirement on Long Island squeezing seniors, forcing them to cut back

Mary Whelan keeps a close eye on the circulars.

The 83-year-old said she's always been thrifty, but as food costs on Long Island have risen she's found new ways to cut back: shopping at the dollar store, watching for grocery store sales on foods such as canned soups and coffee, and buying when prices are lower.

"I watch everything. If I can save here and there, that's what I do," Whelan said. "I'm willing to wait and stock up."

Whelan is one of more than a dozen Long Island seniors across the economic spectrum who told Newsday the higher cost of living has forced them to cut back. Some have cut down on vacations and household repairs. Others have bought less food, particularly meat. And some — including seniors with savings and retirement accounts — worry about whether their money will last as long as they do.

"I can't buy as much as I used to food-wise," said Freeport resident Aida Mieles, who is 82. "The meat is too much."

Their tighter budgets come amid a broader cost crunch. Grocery prices on Long Island were roughly 26% higher in 2026 than in April 2020, Newsday reported. The average price of a gallon of gas was about $4.47 on Sept. 29, more than $1 higher than one year ago, according to AAA. Long Island apartments often rent for more than $3,000 a month.

Rising housing, food, transportation and medical expenses are squeezing seniors trying to grow old on Long Island, experts and seniors told Newsday. For lower-income seniors, that can mean choosing housing over food or turning to assistance programs. For others, it can mean putting off home repairs or worrying about the potentially enormous cost of care as they age. And as the region grows more expensive, the number of seniors has only grown.

Long Island is "aging really rapidly, but financial insecurity among older adults is growing even faster," said Rachel Neches, senior data and policy researcher at the nonprofit Center for an Urban Future. "Many of these older adults are living on fixed or relatively limited incomes. They have much less ability to absorb increases in everyday expenses."

As of 2023, there were roughly 520,000 seniors — those 65 and older — living on Long Island, 24% more than in 2013, according to a 2025 CUF study.

But the number of seniors living in poverty grew by 62%, from 19,846 to 32,147, over the same period — more than twice the growth rate of Long Island's overall senior population, according to the study. For a senior living alone, the federal poverty threshold was a little under $15,000 per year in 2023.

To live comfortably on Long Island, seniors need to make far more than the amount designated as the poverty line. Seniors living alone need an annual income anywhere from $37,000 to $64,000 to meet basic expenses, depending on whether they own a home mortgage-free, rent or are still paying their mortgage, according to the Elder Index, a tool developed by the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston to measure how much money seniors need to grow old at home.

There's a lot of uncertainty when it comes to aging, and income is fixed. That can cause a lot of fear.

— Caitlin Coyle, the director of the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging at UMass Boston

That "bare-bones budget" doesn't account for costs like hobbies or travel, or if someone needs full-time home healthcare, said Caitlin Coyle, the director of the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging at UMass Boston.

As costs rise, so does financial anxiety among seniors with limited resources, Coyle said. UMass's Gerontology Institute estimated about 860,000 older New York State residents lived below the Elder Index in 2024, according to a report published that year.

"There's a lot of uncertainty when it comes to aging, and income is fixed," Coyle said. "That can cause a lot of fear."

Rents, food costs squeeze seniors

Whelan learned to save early. Her parents, factory workers and first-generation Irish and Italian immigrants, made relatively little, she said, and neither graduated from high school.

"I know what it's like to be without," Whelan said. "I was always conscious of the fact that things could change. And see what's happened with the expenses?"

Today, Whelan has a major advantage: unusually cheap housing. She pays a little over $100 a month for her car insurance and rents a studio apartment from a friend for $600 a month, including utilities — a steal in Nassau County, where apartments below $2,500 per month are scarce.

"It's very reasonable," Whelan said. "I don't think I could afford the apartments today."

For seniors without cheap rent, housing can consume enough of their fixed incomes that something else has to give — and affordable housing is difficult to find, said Awilda Rosario, the director of senior services for the Salvation Army Freeport Senior Center.

Long Island sees some of the longest wait times in the nation for public housing, Newsday reported. The wait list in both Nassau and Suffolk counties is closed for Section 8 vouchers, which subsidize a low-income tenant's rent, according to the program's administrator.

"Their main concern is the affordability of housing," Rosario said. "They have to prioritize their limited income to make sure that they keep their home. So that puts other things like food to the back burner, where they have to utilize pantries and programs."

Long Island pantry programs are seeing higher demand. The nonprofit Long Island Cares saw 46,620 seniors visit the nonprofit's six pantries in 2025, a 9% increase from the 42,627 who visited in 2024, according to Ciara O'Brien, the director of public policy and government relations for the nonprofit.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit's 340 member agencies — soup kitchens, shelters and food pantries across Long Island — served 552,765 seniors in 2025, a 17% increase from a year earlier, O'Brien added.

"We've all received calls from seniors requesting more food assistance," O'Brien said. "It's really due to a multitude of factors. Some of them have shared that their social welfare benefits are no longer stretching as much, that they're not able to get by that easily [and] that they're feeling their budgets being stretched thin."

A shrinking margin for error

We say 'God bless' because we can afford it, but again, I'm multiplying by 100 times the people who surround me, living on the streets of Long Island, they cannot do it.

— Satish Anand, 83

Even seniors with homes, pensions or substantial savings said the growing cost of living has become increasingly difficult to absorb as they age.

Satish Anand, an 83-year-old retired doctor, sold his six-bedroom house in Dix Hills in 2017 to downsize to a single-story home in the same neighborhood because going up and down the stairs had become too difficult. Anand, who had polio as a young child, walks with a cane.

Anand, who lives with his wife, Gita, said he has about $750,000 in various retirement accounts — money he hopes will cover his expenses for the rest of his life. Still, he said, he's put off pricey repairs to his home to save money, like replacing his living room's air conditioning. He said he worries most about his fellow seniors — some former patients — who don't have his resources.

"We say 'God bless' because we can afford it, but again, I'm multiplying by 100 times the people who surround me, living on the streets of Long Island, they cannot do it," Anand said. "Imagine people who are on the street. Imagine what's happening to senior citizens across the board."

For other seniors, the bigger uncertainty is what happens if they can no longer live independently.

For Anila Midha, a retired physician, the rising cost of living has come with a fear that she and her husband, retired New York University Professor Subash Midha, will outlive their retirement funds or become a burden on her children — particularly if she becomes unable to live on her own.

"Everyone has that fear,” Midha said. "We are eating well, living well, we have done everything we wanted to do. But right now, at this age, all of us have that fear inside.”

Suzanne Fields, a professor in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University who specializes in geriatric medicine, said that concern is common.

As Long Islanders age, they need more care: more frequent trips to the doctor or even a live-in aide. But care at home can be very expensive if a senior doesn't qualify for Medicaid, private long term care insurance or lacks children or family members willing to help, Fields added.

"People who are just above the Medicaid financial requirements, they're not well off but they're not wealthy enough to pay for private help either," Fields said. "I think they're particularly vulnerable."

New Yorkers above the age of 65 are eligible for Medicaid, which can cover the cost of a home health aide, if they fall under certain income and asset limits. For a senior living alone to be eligible, they cannot make more than $1,836 a month in income, which includes annuity payments and Social Security, according to the American Council on Aging.

But for those who don't qualify for Medicaid, the cost of paying for a home health aide can be staggering: around $66,000 per year as of 2021, according to a New York State Department of Financial Services report.

"It adds up quickly," Fields said, adding that home health aid costs vary based on how much time and what kind of help a senior needs.

What will happen is each and every Social Security recipient will have an about 20% cut in their Social Security check. ... Think about if someone called you tomorrow and said you're going to take a 20% cut in your pay.

— Beth Finkel, the state director for AARP New York

Many Long Island seniors rely on Social Security to meet their expenses in retirement. Nearly half, or 45.3%, of seniors over the age of 70 did not report any retirement income — such as money from a pension — other than Social Security, according to CUF's 2025 study.

That money "isn't a supplement to their retirement income. It is literally the foundation," said Beth Finkel, the state director for AARP New York.

That dependence comes as Social Security faces a funding shortfall. In June, the Social Security Board of Trustees announced the trust's fund reserves would run out in 2032 if Congress takes no action. At that point, the program would only have the funds to pay out around 78% of the benefits promised to seniors, according to the announcement.

"It's not like there will be no payout. But what will happen is each and every Social Security recipient will have about a 20% cut in their Social Security check," Finkel said. "Just think about it. Think about if someone called you tomorrow and said you're going to take a 20% cut in your pay."

Choosing to stay

Still, seniors across Long Island told Newsday they had no interest in leaving the region for a lower-cost state — their friends, doctors and families are all here, they said.

Those community ties also help make staying possible.

Whelan comes to the Freeport Salvation Army senior center twice a week for the exercise classes, arts and craft activities and meals, which are free, though the center does ask patrons to donate.

Mieles, who lives with her son in her Freeport co-op, told Newsday she comes to the Freeport senior center every day. The retired clerical worker said the center helped her come out of her depression after her husband of 55 years died.

"You meet people, and not only that, you hear stories that are worse than yours," Mieles said. "It makes a difference, a big difference."

For Mieles, there is another reason to stay.

"I wouldn't want to move from Freeport because my husband is buried in Farmingdale," Mieles said. "He's waiting for me. So I've got to be buried there too."