The Ageing Homeless

   Today, the U.S. government spends roughly 30 percent of what it used to spend on subsidized affordable housing before the 1980s.
   Researchers from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) estimate that half of the single homeless adults are age 50 or older, compared to 11 percent in the early 1990s — a 354 percent uptick.
Reasons why an older person might experience homelessness for the first time.

1. A destabilizing event after age 50 that left them unable to do physical labor
2. Aging people are less able to compete in today’s  job market
3. Job was outsourced
4. Partner or parent with whom they lived lost their income or home or died
   

   Demographics of aging homeless according to the HOPE HOME study say that their spent their whole careers hanging on by their fingertips – going from paycheck to paycheck and saving for retirement wasn’t feasible:

1.  Only 16% have degrees higher than high school
2. 63 percent worked unskilled or semi-skilled jobs.
3. Many had physically demanding, low-paying jobs without robust benefits.
4.  Lack of quality health care, poor nutrition and insufficient time for sleep increased physical vulnerability.
   

“Homelessness prevention is far less costly than interventions, just as disease prevention is cheaper than dealing with late-form illness.”   

Why American's are Retiring into Homelessness