Californians experiencing homelessness are aging. And the older they get, the more time they tend to spend unhoused.
That’s one of the major findings in a recent study from UC San Francisco’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. The researchers found that for unhoused Californians aged 50 years or older, their current spell of homelessness lasted a median of 25 months. For those under 50, the median was 20 months.
“The older you are when you first become homeless, sort of the more stuck in homelessness you get,” said UCSF professor of medicine Dr. Margot Kushel, one of the researchers behind the study.
More than 181,000 Californians are currently experiencing homelessness according to the most recent statistics, making up more than a quarter of all unhoused people nationwide. About 48% of single adults experiencing homelessness in California are now over the age of 50.
“This is a rapidly increasing group,” Kushel said. “In the early 1990s, about 11% of people experiencing homelessness were 50 and older… Now it’s nearly half.”
Why are older unhoused Californians falling behind?
This aging demographic presents unique challenges to cities and service providers across California already struggling to shelter and re-house people falling into homelessness.
Though the UCSF study did not attempt to pinpoint exactly why older Californians tend to spend more time unhoused, Kushel said homelessness experts have some theories. Older Californians often have fewer job opportunities, she said, either due to age discrimination in hiring or an inability to perform certain work due to poor health or physical impairments.
“The truth…
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