Limited government supports under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 could cause low-income immigrants to struggle with housing affordability. Thus, this study examined housing challenges of Asian and Pacific Island elders, focusing on government assistance, and demographic, housing, and neighborhood characteristics. The research framework was based on the theory of housing adjustment (Morris & Winter, 1975, 1978). When investigating housing challenges, housing satisfaction was considered a representative term, as the dependent variable. The sample was Asian and Pacific Island households with a head 65+ who responded to the American Housing Survey (AHS) from 1995 through 2007 (N = 1,039). Asian and Pacific Island elders included those who lived in the U.S. for a long time as well as recent immigrants. Several statistical methods were employed: descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, crosstabs, multiple regression, and simple regression.

Overall housing satisfaction level of the sample tended to be high from 1995 to 2007. However, there was no statistically significant impact of the PRWORA of 1996 on housing satisfaction and on the government assistance, and demographic, housing, and neighborhood characteristics of Asian and Pacific Island elders since 1996. Variables influencing satisfaction levels, and thus housing challenges, included qualifying for Food Stamps, education, family income, Census region, household size, housing quality, structure size, and neighborhood rating. Other significant findings included the impact of government assistance, geographical location and household size by year.

An additional value of this study are the profiles of demographic, housing, and neighborhood characteristics and government assistance of Asian and Pacific Island elders from 1995 to 2007. Data analyses with the secondary datasets can assist housing researchers, educators, nonprofit organizations, or policymakers in their future studies or policies.