The Growing Pains of Elderly Homelessness
In the United States, roughly 38 million people are at or below the poverty line at any given time. That’s 38 million people who live on the streets, with no job to keep them afloat. 38 million people who barely scrape by every day. 38 million people who have never had anything, or at one point lost everything they had. And out of these 38 million people, around 5 million of them are senior citizens—people aged 65 years or older. Of all age groups in the United States that are at risk of experiencing homelessness at some point in their life, seniors are one of the fastest growing ones, projected to triple by 2030.
One of the reasons for this is the economic status of the vast majority of senior citizens. By the age of 65, many people are on a fixed income, like social security or welfare. The problem with this is that while the income is fixed, the price of living is very much not, and many senior citizens can end up getting their rent raised to the point where they can’t afford to live in their own home anymore. And this problem doesn’t go away if the person in question is a homeowner, either, as property taxes and maintenance costs can vary wildly on a case-by-case basis, and if the house has been purchased with the help of a mortgage, then the amounts of money in each increment being paid back is entirely up to the loan company, which can become expensive rather quickly.
Another reason for the high senior homelessness rates is life-changing events that can affect income or the places that require monetary attention. Spousal death can cause the source of income to change or cease existing entirely, cognitive and mental issues can factor into healthcare and health insurance problems, or make seniors more vulnerable to scams. For seniors who can’t retire or haven’t retired yet, job loss can be a devastating blow to financial security in the long run, and unless retirement has already gotten saved for, this can be a proverbial point of no return. Disabilities that come with age also make it incredibly difficult to seek new job opportunities.
Unfortunately, the issue of homeless elderly people is a microcosm of numerous larger problems concerning poverty in the United States, and this problem will only be fully solved once other, much wider-scale problems are taken care of first. But fortunately, there are things that are still being done to help on this long road to recovery. The U.S. Government Accountability Office reports that the staff at shelters across the country have begun to take measures to make their shelters more accessible to the elderly, such as replacing bunk beds and floor mats with regular ground-level beds, and increasing the space between said beds to allow for wheelchair access. Some now even offer services which account for disability and difficulty with daily tasks.
Many homeless shelters around the country are made possible by volunteer work, staffed by people who care greatly about the cause they’re working for. If you are one of these people, and you want to make a difference in your community, volunteer work is a surefire way to begin making a difference. VolunteerMatch is a good place to start in this process, as it allows you to search for local volunteering opportunities in and around your area and find the one that most suits your interest. Homelessness is a problem that requires compassion to help solve, and volunteer work is a prime example of how making change on an individual level can change the lives of everyone around you.
Sources and Further Reading:
https://www.usich.gov/news-events/news/older-adults-and-homelessness-how-continuums-care-and-area-agencies-aging-can
https://aisp.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Emerging-Crisis-of-Aged-Homelessness-1.pdf
https://endhomelessness.org/blog/paint-by-numbers-older-americans-and-homelessness/
https://www.gao.gov/blog/more-older-adults-are-homeless-what-can-be-done-help-vulnerable-population-unique-needs
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