The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression
An interesting contrast in this whole debate is Japan, where homes actually depreciate slowly over 20-30 years while the underlying land much more moderately appreciates vs homes in the West [0]. This makes apartments quite cheap, even in popular cities, and the rate of homelessness is quite low [1].There are small towns trying to sell empty houses for super cheap, though possibly you have to pay to bring them up to code, I am not sure on the details. 
More recently, renovation has started to become popular [2]. I guess that helps with costs and is more eco-friendly.I'm not sure if this way of doing it is better but it makes sense to me that the house itself, like a car, should lose value as it ages and its parts will require more servicing and replacement.[0] https://www.rethinktokyo.com/2018/06/06/depreciate-limited-l...[1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/homelessn...[2] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusabl...