Kelly Thompson lives in a sun-faded camper at an encampment in an industrial corner of West Oakland. At 76, being homeless is getting harder. Thompson is feeling it in his bones.
“My knees are hurting. My hips are hurting. My feet hurt.
It hurts all over,” he said. According to a new UC San Francisco study, nearly half of California’s rapidly aging homeless population is now over the age of 50. And amid a severe affordable housing shortage, that trend is expected to continue.
By 50, a homeless person’s health more closely resembles that of someone in their 70s, with a higher chance of chronic disease, mobility issues and cognitive decline, according to the study. Researchers say understanding the challenges of caring for such a vulnerable population is crucial to stemming the crisis. “This has just huge implications for service providers, for policymakers — really for all of us to recognize that increasingly when we talk about homelessness, we’re talking about homelessness for older adults,” said Dr.
Margot Kushel, director of UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. California’s general population is also aging. State officials project that by 2040, nearly one in every four residents will be 65 or older, underling the urgency of addressing the root causes of older adult homelessness.
In Thompson’s case, outreach workers are trying to secure a housing voucher for him, but for now, he prefers what he described as the freedom of living out of hi.
