Seniors are now fastest-growing homeless population
LONDON: Both men and women over the age of 55 now represent the fastest growing homeless quartile.
Trinity Place in San Diego’s Mission Gorge area looks like many modern new apartment buildings that have popped up around town in recent years. It has a large landscaped courtyard, a coffee bar, vaulted ceilings, contemporary art on the walls and a secure key-card entrance.
But the 74-unit, three-story complex that held its grand opening Sept. 24 is more than just a place for older adults like Milo Oliver to rest his head. It’s the first permanent home the 58-year-old southeastern San Diego native has had in 17 years.
Like all of his fellow Trinity Place tenants, Oliver was homeless before he moved in. Trinity is one of five apartment projects built in recent years by San Diego’s Wakeland Housing & Development Corp. to provide permanent housing for what has become the fastest-growing population among San Diego’s homeless community: older adults.
One out of every four unsheltered San Diego County residents in 2020 was 55 or older. Of that older population, 88 percent of respondents became homeless in San Diego County and 43 percent were experiencing homelessness for the first time in their lives, according to a needs assessment report issued last month by Serving Seniors, a local nonprofit that serves low-income older adults.
Among the major causes for this spike in senior homelessness are the skyrocketing cost of housing, a fixed income that no longer covers expenses, the loss of a spouse or partner, a health crisis or an inability to find work because of illness or ageism.
The need for permanent housing for this population vastly outstrips supply — several hundred have been housed, while thousands more may remain homeless — but local housing experts say there are ways families and caregivers can help their loved ones in crisis connect with the resources they need before they end up on the streets.
Tamera Kohler, CEO of the nonprofit San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness, said many adult children and caregivers have no idea that their senior family members may be living on the edge.
The Serving Seniors report found that 56 percent of survey respondents said that an additional $300 or less of monthly income would prevent them from becoming homeless. A job loss is particularly hard on adults ages 55 to 65 because they’re too young to qualify for Social Security or Medi-Cal benefits.
“A lot of the homeless (seniors) in San Diego are hiding in plain sight,” Kohler said. “They’ve run out of money and don’t want to worry their families. They’re living in their cars. They’ve never been in the system before. Traumatic life events happen that can upend a lifetime of hard work toward retirement.”
Oliver said he had a good career working as a union stagehand building boxing rings and stages for sporting and other events at local casinos and theaters. But a spinal injury ended his career, and he has struggled for decades with schizoaffective bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, as well as substance addiction.
Over the years, Oliver lived on the streets and in and out of shelters. Finally, after nearly three years on a waiting list for permanent housing, he qualified for a studio apartment at Trinity Place, where he moved in Sept. 8.
“Being here gives me complete relaxation,” Oliver said. “It freed my spirit and allowed me to catch up with myself and provide myself with care. It has allowed me to feel more confident, like I’m worth something.”
William Jimenez was born in Colombia and moved to the United States in the 1960s, where he worked hard to make a life for himself. But when he could no longer afford housing three years ago, he began living in his car in the Mission Beach area. He calls Trinity Place a dream come true.
“It’s very hard to be homeless. Nobody can comprehend. It’s very, very hard,” Jimenez said. “Now I’m in my own home. I have to pinch myself every day. It feels like a dream. There are no words — in Spanish or in English — to express how grateful I am.”
By the year 2030, all of the baby boomer generation will be older than 65. If the issues now facing seniors do not improve, the threat of homelessness will continue to grow. The number of homeless older adults is projected to grow from 170,000 in 2017 to 225,000 by 2026, with the fastest growth among those 65 and over, according to the Serving Seniors report.
While planning at the national, state and regional level is critical, it’s also important for families to begin planning for their parents and grandparents’ needs well in advance. Tricia Tasto Levien, supportive housing director for Wakeland Housing, said that many older adults don’t want to discuss their finances or health problems with their children or grandchildren, but having these tough conversations is crucial.
In many cases, senior women end up homeless after the death of the spouse who handled all of the couple’s finances, did all the driving or whose retirement income was necessary to cover rent or mortgage payments. Sometimes the surviving spouse can fall into depression and self-medicate. There’s also a “digital divide” among seniors who may not own or know how to operate a computer to access support services online, automate their bill-paying and communicate with their health provider.
Tasto Levien said there are many services available to help seniors avoid homelessness, but in order to qualify, these seniors need to have all their paperwork in order and in hand, a task that adult children can begin work on now.
“We encourage people to come in with a caregiver to housing fairs because the process can be daunting,” Tasto Levien said. “They can be helped but they need a lot of documents such as Social Security number, proof of U.S. residency, bank statements and more.”
Sometimes, even the most well-meaning offers of assistance from adult children can have disastrous results.
Kohler said many seniors give up their homes to move in with their adult children. Multigenerational living works well for many families, but it can go wrong. Sometimes there is conflict in the relationship that makes living together untenable. Sometimes the adult child didn’t check with their landlord to see if their lease will allow an extra tenant. And sometimes the adult child loses their job and apartment and their live-in parent ends up on the street.
That’s what happened to Bert Thornton, 64. The Bay area native could no longer work in construction due to high blood pressure, diabetes and neuropathy in his fingers and toes. So a few years ago, Thornton’s adult son invited his dad to move into his San Diego home to help care for the grandkids. Then Thornton’s son got orders from the Navy to relocate to Okinawa, Japan, leaving his dad with no place to go.
Thornton got on the list for permanent housing, but he had to wait it out, living in cars and sleeping in tents and shelters while his health deteriorated. On Sept. 14, he moved into Trinity Place.
“It’s like a godsend, a blessing,” Thornton said. “It’s such a nice, clean environment. I can walk through the hallways without any hassle and I feel protected and safe.”
Homelessness can become a chronic cycle because many unsheltered people are dealing with disabilities, mental health and substance abuse issues that require medication oversight and consistency of care.
In Serving Seniors’ report on San Diegans ages 55 and over, 46 percent of those surveyed said they struggle with a disabling physical condition, 45 percent suffer from social isolation, 27 percent reported mental health issues and 7 percent struggle with drug or alcohol use.
Companies like Wakeland can build apartments for housing the homeless, but without treating the root cause of the homelessness, these buildings won’t be any more successful than temporary shelters or motel voucher programs.
Wakeland CEO Ken Sauder said that every project that his company builds has rooms for counseling and extensive services onsite, since few of the formerly homeless residents own their own transportation.
“The key part of it is we’re building shelter for people where they can succeed,” said Sauder, who said his company’s senior resident retention rate after one year is over 96 percent, compared with the national average of 90 percent.
The Wakeland projects are financed through a variety of sources, including state tax credits, Section 8 vouchers, federal loans, funds from Civic San Diego, CalHFA Special Needs Housing Program, the California Community Reinvestment Corp. and more. Seniors chosen to live in Wakeland projects are on the county’s priority housing list and classified as “medically compromised,” meaning they need medical support to live independently. The wait for housing can take several years. Once the seniors move in, they are promised housing for life. The rare times when an apartment opens up, it’s usually because the resident died. Most residents are already receiving some form of income, such as a pension, Social Security or disability or supplemental security income, which they can use for additional needs.
Many of the support services onsite at Wakeland projects are provided by St. Paul’s PACE Program (program of all-inclusive care for the elderly), which coordinates Medi-Cal-provided services such as counseling, medical treatment, meals, transportation and social services.
Cheryl Wilson, CEO of St. Paul’s Senior Services, said that once homeless seniors find permanent housing, many of the health issues they’ve experienced while unsheltered get better.
“Almost everyone, when they come to us, has some mental health issues that comes from living on the streets, so mental health services is a big part of what we provide,” Wilson said. “Once they have permanent housing and they learn to trust our staff, within three to six months, a lot of those mental health issues just fade away. Just to have a secure roof over their head, not be attacked in the middle of the night and know they’ll have breakfast in the morning makes a big difference.”
Wilson said permanent housing also makes a substantial difference for seniors with substance abuse issues.
She said many seniors who never had substance abuse issues in the past begin using drugs and alcohol on the streets because they’re in pain from arthritis, toothaches or from sleeping outdoors on cold concrete. Also, many self-medicate to treat anxiety they’ve developed out of fear of being attacked.
“What we find is once they move into permanent housing, most of them will take care of their health issues and they don’t need the pain meds anymore. And those with PTSD we get into counseling and they’re not drinking as much, if at all,” Wilson said.
Some of the most profound changes in the social isolation these seniors experience can be quickly fixed when incoming residents get a new set of eyeglasses or hearing aids to replace those that were lost or broken on the streets.
Wilson said that once many of these seniors have their housing, nutrition and medical needs met, many of the younger ones find jobs and those beyond retirement age feel compelled to give back.
New Trinity Place resident Michelle Doherty, 61, recently found a job working as a caregiver. Oliver has been helping out at a neighborhood boxing gym, sharing skills from his younger days as a professional kickboxer. And Thornton hopes to use his past experience as a librarian and his certificate in human services to find some volunteer work in the community.
“I’m eager to help others,” Thornton said. “I’m a people person and I like to be social.”
