The other problem with older generations taking up space
What happens to people that can't afford a home when they are older?
In a counterpoint to my previous post about how we can help the next generation, we see that people over 50 also make up one of the fastest-growing segments of the unhoused1 population. They are increasingly taking up space in shelters, many with healthcare needs. While they may have benefitted from some of the healthcare changes that improved and lengthened lives in Western world over the last 50 years, people on the street automatically lose 10-15 years from their predicted lifespan. It’s popular these days to talk about the 50-75 year old set as being in the 3rd quarter of their lives: the older homeless are in their last third.
Homelessness - the reasons for it, our response to it - is a complex problem. It’s not unique to the United States, but as there are countries where it is quite rare it can be seen as a societal choice. Japan has almost 0% homelessness and the problem is still fraught with complexity. There is no shortage of anti-welfare sentiment in the US and we often try to ignore people living on the street instead of providing them with safe shelter. A 65-year old with a heart condition doesn’t want to be sleeping on the street in the Phoenix heat: that’s just the safest option they can find long term.
There’s no single reason for the rise in the older homeless population. Weak social safety nets, mass incarceration policies and an insufficient supply of affordable housing are among the many factors, according to Kushel, Culhane and other experts.
— More seniors are becoming homeless, and experts say the trend is likely to worsen, Hannah Grabenstein, PBS
The older homeless show us the fragility of the system supporting them. One negative event - just one healthcare bill, one missed rent check, one car breakdown, a layoff from one shift missed - was enough to put them on the streets. Ending up on the streets is like falling off a cliff. There isn’t an option to “bootstrap themselves” back into a safe living situation, and circumstances have to be dire for them to receive long-term care.
After treatment for an acute illness, hospitals often discharge homeless patients, who wind up back in shelters or even back into their sidewalk tents and makeshift lean-tos, in what health practitioners in Phoenix ruefully call “treat-and-street.”
… A pinball effect takes hold, said health-care providers, shelter operators and advocates. Homeless people bounce from homeless shelter to hospital, then to a nursing home for a short-term recuperation stay. Once that short-term stay ends, nursing homes must decide if the person is infirm enough to qualify for long-term care. If the answer is no, they must leave the nursing home, starting the cycle over again.
— “Seniors are flooding homeless shelters that can’t care for them”, Christopher Rowland, washingtonpost.com
Reports show that this bubble of unhoused Baby Boomers will only begin to subside in 2030. It being 2023 now maybe society can run out the clock, just looking the other way as they die out. If we do that we aren’t too different from those tribes that left the old and infirm for the wolves or the cold.
This situation is the opposite of what Strong99 is looking for - thriving later in life. For many the elderly homeless are a cautionary tale. If we only look at it that way we begin to see the unhoused as “failed people”: they are not that. How can we write “Didn’t win at capitalism” as their epitaph when we as a society failed to care for them and help them find a home?
“The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
Ed. - a quick note on “unhoused” vs “homeless”. “Unhoused” is becoming increasingly popular while “homeless” is more passé, having many negative and historical connotations. I respect that there is an effort to remove the stigma of those connotations. I’m hedging and using both here: honestly, “homeless” is a better description of what I’m talking about. Time will tell what remains in usage.