Older Adults and Homelessness: How Continuums of Care and Area Agencies on Aging Can Collaborate
The fastest-growing group of people experiencing homelessness in the United States are those aged 50 and older. Unless our nation’s systems to prevent and respond to homelessness become “aging-capable”—meaning they reliably provide effective support tailored for older adults—we can expect that number to triple by 2030.
This trend is a major concern for USAging and our members—the nation’s network of Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) and Title VI Native American Aging Programs, which offer services to help older adults live with optimal health, well-being, independence, and dignity in their homes and communities. The needs of older adults at risk of or experiencing homelessness is a priority for our members.
All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness calls for stronger coordination between local AAAs and local Continuums of Care (CoCs), which help people experiencing homelessness access housing and services. As we consider how AAAs and CoCs can work together to address this growing crisis, it is important to keep in mind four critical points:
1. The reasons older adults experience homelessness are different than other populations.
There is a range of reasons older adults lose their housing or may be at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Some experience homelessness throughout their lives, while others become unhoused for the first time after age 50. A lifetime of discrimination and inequity in the education, employment, housing, and justice systems increase risk of homelessness for people of color of all ages.
But for people who first experience homelessness in the later stage of their life, there are some distinct reasons:
- Many have a fixed income, often relying solely on Social Security, which has not kept up with the rise in housing costs. This leads older adults on fixed incomes to be priced out of long-term rentals or unable—even if they paid off their mortgage—to keep up with housing expenses, such as property taxes, repairs, utilities, and homeowners’ association fees.
- Some experience a major or sudden life change that made it difficult to afford and/or manage housing. These changes may include death or loss of a spouse or caregiver, job loss, or a new health condition. Some may have cognitive, mobility, or functional limitations that hinder their ability to do the things they used to—like manage finances and housekeeping, complete applications, shop for groceries, and protect themselves from scams. If they lack assistance with these types of tasks, their housing situation may become unstable.
2. AAAs can help CoCs develop aging-capable homelessness response systems.
AAAs and CoCs are both essential to improving how our systems help older adults experiencing or at risk of homelessness. AAAs specialize in providing a range of services and supports to people in greatest social and economic need, including people experiencing housing instability and homelessness. CoCs specialize in homelessness across the lifespan.
AAAs provide many home- and community-based services for older adults—including group meals, transportation, and caregiver education—and they are beginning to expand their services to address housing and homelessness needs more broadly. According to a 2022 USAging survey, 26% of AAAs now offer services related to eviction prevention, diversion, or mortgage foreclosure; 20% have a homelessness prevention or intervention program; and 11% provide AAA services in homeless shelters.
At the same time, CoCs connect people to housing and a range of services—from shelter and health care to job training and legal assistance. CoCs are also strong and vital advocates for systems to make long-term changes that will prevent and end homelessness.
However, many CoCs have limited capacity to effectively serve older adults experiencing homelessness. Many shelters are ill-equipped or staffed to support older adults’ functional, cognitive, or health needs and often are unfamiliar with home- and community-based services and Medicare.
More collaboration between AAAs and CoCs can help older adults navigate the two systems, reduce the time they spend unhoused, and avoid homelessness in the first place.
3. It is possible to improve older adults’ housing stability, and existing AAA-CoC partnerships show us the way.
As USICH’s federal strategic plan states, we must “reduce housing instability among older adults and people with disabilities—including people with mental health conditions and/or substance use disorders—by increasing access to home- and community-based services and housing that is affordable, accessible, and integrated.”
USAging published case examples on AAA efforts to prevent homelessness. Additional examples of AAA work in partnership with CoCs include:
- The Alliance for Aging, Inc., in Miami, Florida, initiated communication with the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust and providers of emergency shelter and housing to improve access to services available through the Aging Network. Enhanced coordination has increased bidirectional referrals between the CoC and AAA (including their networks) to improve access to housing, Medicaid, and long-term services and supports for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
- Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia’s Homeless Older Adults Program offers outreach and supportive services to older adults experiencing homelessness. Senior Services created and now facilitates the Coalition for Homeless Elders, a regional coalition that spans three CoCs and is dedicated to collaborative service delivery, systems change, and education on the crisis of late-life homelessness.
- San Diego County’s AAA and CoC studied local needs and then created a series of trainings on aging issues for several hundred homelessness service providers. Other collaborative projects include prevention programs, such as rental subsidies, and they are exploring ways to provide both assistance with activities of daily living and age-friendly features in shelters.
4. Now is the time for collaboration.
The rise in older adults living without a home is alarming. It’s time for all of us who have the power and know-how to work together to reverse this trend by leveraging the strengths of AAAs and CoCs to bring housing assistance and home-and community-based services together to address the needs of older adults who are or are at risk of experiencing homelessness.
Find your local AAA through USAging’s Eldercare Locator. Start a conversation, learn each other’s systems and resources, and discover what we can do together to stop this crisis—because every older adult deserves a place to call home.