OLDER HOMELESS ADULTS COULD USE TARGETED AID
The number of San Diego County residents experiencing homelessness has risen steadily in the last decade. The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated the situation. As a result, first-time homelessness in San Diego doubled in 2020.
According to San Diego’s 2020 Point In Time Count, 1 in 4 of San Diego’s homeless adults is over the age of 55. Among this group of unsheltered
seniors, 88 percent became homeless in San Diego County and 43 percent
are experiencing homelessness for the first time in their lives.
Serving Seniors has exclusively served San Diego’s low-income, older adult population for 51 years. In collaboration with the Regional Task Force on Homelessness and allied community organizations, we undertook formal research of older adult homelessness to grasp its true nature and identify more effective support services and solutions. We released “Senior Homelessness: A Needs Assessment” this month. Its findings reveal significant differences working with older adults experiencing homelessness as compared to the general adult homeless population. Simply put, the causes of homelessness among seniors — and the solutions — are distinct.
Despite perceptions, only 1 in 4 currently or formerly homeless older adults surveyed reported struggling with mental health. Just 7 percent reported substance abuse issues.
Rather, it is primarily economic forces such as insufficient retirement income, unaffordable housing options, the inability to continue working, or a single unexpected crisis like a job loss or serious illness that drive homelessness among older adults.
In addition, cognitive or physical impairments and difficulty accessing services due to age-related disabilities complicate older adults’ efforts to find help.
As a result, traditional support services aren’t always helpful. Congregate shelters may not have the capacity to manage the needs of older adults. Complex health issues, mobility limitations, incontinence, rules requiring older adults to stand in self-service lines and a heightened need for physical safety leave seniors unable to cope with a shelter environment.
We must adjust our current approach to immediately address the needs of older individuals with a recent loss of housing. Finding safe alternative housing is the goal.
To ward off the financial distress fueling older adult homelessness, our research found a minimal amount of monthly funding would successfully prevent most economic-based homelessness.
More than half (56 percent) of surveyed older adults reported that an additional $300 or less per month would make the difference between being housed and homeless. But only one-third (36 percent) of renters aged 62 or older who qualified for some form of federal rental assistance were receiving any.
A “shallow subsidy” approach recommends diverting current federal reimbursement funds for emergency shelter beds to an equivalent direct stipend to prevent homelessness.
Currently, the federal reimbursement for one bed at an emergency shelter is $12.50 per person per night, or $375 per month. The diversion of funds from housing someone in a shelter to keeping them housed offers a potential affordable, near-term solution without additional funding.
In tandem, taking a more proactive approach toward helping older adults find resources — with easily accessible information and personal guidance along with better training and coordination among service providers — would avoid delays in securing support, and prevent older adults ending up on our streets.
By providing data-driven findings and recommendations in our report, Serving Seniors and the Regional Task Force on Homelessness intend to support and encourage discussion among service providers, advocates, policymakers and the community at large about older adult homelessness, and point the way to cost-effective solutions we can implement immediately. We have a golden opportunity to address several easily preventable problems through targeted leveraging of existing resources.
The number of homeless adults over age 55 is projected to triple over the next decade. San Diegans should find this unacceptable. Although homelessness is an increasingly common issue for all age groups, the older adult population faces specific circumstances dealing with economic stresses, age-related mental and physical health issues, and the digital divide.
As the baby boomer generation continues to increase the percentage of older adults in the U.S., homelessness in areas with high housing costs like San Diego County will grow unchecked unless we take immediate action. It is a matter of health and safety, and the time is now.
Downey is president/CEO of Serving Seniors , and lives in Mount Helix. Kohler is president/CEO of the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, and lives in Downtown San Diego.