https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-business-homelessnes…
**America’s homeless ranks graying as more retire on streets**
**By ANITA SNOW, AP News, April 10, 2022**
**...**
**America’s graying homeless population is a rapidly expanding group of destitute and desperate people 50 and older suddenly without a permanent home after a job loss, divorce, family death or health crisis during a pandemic.**
**“We’re seeing a huge boom in senior homelessness,” said Kendra Hendry, a caseworker at Arizona’s largest shelter, where older people make up about 30% of those staying there. “These are not necessarily people who have mental illness or substance abuse problems. They are people being pushed into the streets by rising rents.”**
**Academics project their numbers will nearly triple over the next decade... The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said in its 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report the share of homeless people 50 and over in emergency shelters or transitional housing jumped from 22.9% in 2007 to 33.8% in 2017.... the U.S. population of people 65 and older experiencing homelessness will nearly triple from 40,000 to 106,000 by 2030...** [end quote]
Although the numbers aren’t very large on a Macro scale, they represent a huge burden of misery. About half of both women and men ages 55 to 66 have no retirement savings, according to the census. With rents rising and many older people living on meager Social Security checks (or none if they worked fewer than the required years or outside the Social Security system) many are being pushed out of their abodes.
Many of the homeless elderly have disabilities, both physical and mental. They may have diabetes or other chronic diseases that need continual care.
This is a growing problem. The lack of affordable housing is affecting all of American society on a Macro scale, from young graduates to families to workers to elders.
Wendy