Christopher Rowland reports for The Washington Post on rising homelessness among older adults. Increasingly middle class older adults are facing food and housing insecurity.
As many as 250,000 older adults were homeless in part of 2019, according to one federal study. While they are a small portion of the baby boomers, their ranks are growing. Local communities are scrambling to address this crisis, through shelters designed specifically for older adults and specially trained staff. In California, one company is setting up an assisted living facility for older adults who are homeless.
Some experts say that older adults are the “fast-growing group” of homeless people. Cities do not begin to have the resources to meet their needs and ensure their health and well-being. One organization in Arizona said that its client population of older adults grew more than 4o percent in 2022 to 1,717.
The exact number of homeless older adults is hard to establish. But, estimates are that people who are older than 55 represent about one in six homeless people. In 2019, there were about 1.45 million homeless people. By 2030, projections are that the number of homeless older adults will more than double.
How did this happen? The cost of housing has risen dramatically across the US. Often, when a spouse or parent dies, it becomes impossible for the lone older adult to keep paying the bills.
Nursing homes and other housing for older adults often cannot meet the needs of older adults who are homeless. They often suffer from mental illness and substance abuse; and they often have multiple chronic conditions.
Today, hospitals treat homeless patients with serious illnesses and then discharge them back to shelters, where their health is often at risk because the shelters do not have the staff to provide them with the care they need. Often, these older adults relapse and need to be readmitted to hospital. Dehydration, heat stroke and burns are common ailments for homeless older adults when the temperature rises. Subsidized housing for homeless older adults is generally not available or only available after a long wait.
Low-income older adults cannot always rely on Medicaid. Medicaid, which covers care for people with low incomes, does not pay for nursing home care or assisted living when you can care for yourself. Some homeless older adults can care for themselves and don’t meet the eligibility criteria. Nursing homes might determine they are not sufficiently infirm. And, if they are taken in, they can still be evicted.
Some shelters have units called “respite” centers. Some local hospitals help support these centers located in shelters. The hospitals can then discharge these older adults to the respite centers where they can rest post-hospitalization. But, even respite centers can fail older adults because they might not have the resources to care for them appropriately.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- PACE helps older adults stay in their community
- Multigenerational family housing can work
- Roundup: Housing options for older adults
- Assisted living facilities should do more for residents
- Assisted living facilities may evict residents: Protect yourself and the people you love
….if the Dems cave in and McCarthy and the (R)s get their “ransom” payment on holding the debt ceiling hostage, it will only get worse. The (R)s are looking at sweeping cuts to non military spending through that annual cheque they write to the War Department (which can’t even balance its own books and has failed five consecutive audits). THis includes expanding the work requirement to age 55 for programmes such as housing assistance SNAP/EBT, and Medicaid three of several funding sources Seniors depend on to survive these days.
But they don’t want to stop there, they’d like to cut funding for many of these programmes making it even harder for seniors to . On top of that is their ongoing war against Social Security (which an increasing number of seniors depend on as their only source of income). Their plans, along with rising housing costs (often thanks to big corporate landlords like Blackstone) will put even more seniors out on the streets many of who are disabled and unable to hold down a steady job that pays enough to keep a roof over their heads.
Such demands as work requirements also reduce eligibility for assistance programmes which have earnings thresholds. This means more seniors in poverty as to earn enough to make a difference often severely limits or even disqualifies people from various forms of assistance. I’ts becoming a no win scenario for older citizens while the (R)s choose to protect their wealthy and corporate donors over the most vulnerable in our nation.
The Dems aren’t helping much either by giving in so easily to the (R)s demands every time. They keep trying to play the “nice guy” but against a bunch of bullies who only care about themselves, it is getting us nowhere and the average citizen is caught in the middle. . It’s time for the Dems to earn that slogan “Party of the People” as right now they are more the “Party of Cowards” who are afraid they may look “too partisan” if they do the job they are supposed to.