Toward Dignity: Understanding Older Adult Homelessness

The homeless population is aging; in the past few decades, the proportion of adults experiencing homelessness who are 50 and older has risen faster than other groups. This trend is expected to continue, with the proportion of people age 65 and older experiencing homelessness in the United States expected to triple between 2017 and 2030. The aging of the population experiencing homelessness has consequences for the health and safety of those experiencing homelessness, for how policymakers respond to the crisis, and for society at large. Adults experiencing homelessness in their 50s and 60s have similar health status to people 20 years older in the general population. In this report, we present findings related to older adults experiencing homelessness from the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness, the largest representative study of homelessness since the mid-1990s. Between October 2021 and November 2022, staff from the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative administered 3,200 questionnaires and conducted 365 in-depth qualitative interviews with adults experiencing homelessness throughout California to better understand who experiences homelessness, pathways to homelessness, experiences during homelessness, and barriers to regaining permanent housing. We present findings for those age 50 and older (“older adults”) to advance evidence-based solutions for preventing and responding to older adult homelessness.

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Report

Espinoza, M., Moore, T., Adhiningrat, S., Perry, E., Kushel, M. (2024). Toward Dignity: Understanding Older Adult Homelessness in the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness. Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/2024-05/Older%20Adult%20Homelessness%20Report%2005.2024.pdf