MORE ELDERLY AMERICANS ARE HOMELESS DUE TO RISING RENTS AND INFLATION: REPORT

Sun 08 May 2022:

Rising rents and inflation are pushing more elders in the United States out of their homes, according to a new report. FOX News.

Quoting a study led by the University of Pennsylvania, the report said that the number of elderly people experiencing homelessness is estimated to nearly triple by 2030, reaching over 100,000.

FOX reporters also found that at Travelers Aid Society, a homeless outreach and counseling center in New Orleans, more seniors are showing up.

“It’s alarming what we’re seeing,” said Phyllis Lofton, one of the center’s crisis coordinators.

“We used to have the occasional senior come in, but now it’s more of a regular thing with maybe one or two seniors a day coming in newly homeless,” Lofton added.

The U.S. homeless population increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2020. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the results of the 2021 U.S. homeless count were incomplete and incomparable. Housing people should remain the top priority for policymakers, but this will take time. In the interim, we need to address the health and health care costs of over 580,000 Americans without housing.

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. More precise and recent nationwide figures aren’t available because HUD has since changed the methodology in the reports and lumps older people in with all adults over 25..

A 2019 study of aging homeless people led by the University of Pennsylvania drew on 30 years of census data to project the U.S. population of people 65 and older experiencing homelessness will nearly triple from 40,000 to 106,000 by 2030, resulting in a public health crisis as their age-related medical problems multiply.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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