The Boston Housing Authority (BHA) yesterday submitted a plan that would increase the elderly resident percentage in its elderly/disabled public housing developments by 10 percent.

“With more and more elders in need of affordable housing, we want to insure that we are providing Boston’s seniors with affordable housing options that they need and deserve,” BHA Administrator Bill McGonagle said in a statement.

Seniors represent Boston’s fastest-growing and most economically challenged group according to the Boston’s housing report, Housing a Changing City: Boston 2030, released last year.

The BHA’s plan, called a Designated Housing Plan by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, dictates that the demographic make-up of elderly and non-elderly disabled residents of the BHA’s elderly/disabled developments be raised to 80 percent elderly and 20 percent non-elderly disabled from 70 percent elderly and 30 percent non-elderly disabled, as it currently stands.

The new plan must be reviewed and approved by HUD prior to implementation. Approval would bring the BHA’s percentages of elderly and non-elderly disabled residents in designated buildings in line with those of other housing authorities throughout the commonwealth.

The BHA has 36 public housing developments throughout Boston that specifically house elderly and non-elderly disabled residents.

The BHA’s Designated Housing Plan can be found here.