This old house

The just-out Harvard study was released to the general public, but it should have been addressed directly to Mayor de Blasio, who has fallen down on an obligation and can’t seem to get up.

Fifteen years from now, in the year 2034, the population of Americans age 65 and older is expected to reach 77 million people, outnumbering children for the first time in U.S. history. The report, from the university’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, exposes the rapidly expanding challenge we’ll face giving them affordable places to live.

That’s because, of course, many older people grapple with rising housing and healthcare costs, even as their incomes stagnate or decline in retirement. They’re increasingly living alone and far from children and family who could care for them.

In New York City, the over-65 population is set to reach a record 1.35 million by the year 2030. The population of homeless city residents over 65 is set to nearly triple, from 2,600 in 2017 to 6,900 in 2030.

Yet de Blasio shows no sign of honoring a promise made on the City Hall steps and later shattered to radically ramp up public housing for senior citizens. He said he would make an initial investment of $500 million to produce more than 1,000 units, freeing up large NYCHA apartments for wait-listed families in the process. Two birds, one stone.

Six months ago, we might have blamed the lapse on de Blasio being distracted by presidential pipe dreams. Now, it just looks like a plain old failure of mayoral leadership. Of course.