{"id":44133,"date":"2019-08-09T10:42:43","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T14:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=44133"},"modified":"2019-08-09T10:43:02","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T14:43:02","slug":"eleven-percent-of-the-homeless-population-was-over-50-years-old-in-1990-today-50-of-the-homeless-population-is-50-and-older","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/08\/eleven-percent-of-the-homeless-population-was-over-50-years-old-in-1990-today-50-of-the-homeless-population-is-50-and-older\/","title":{"rendered":"Eleven percent of the homeless population was over 50 years old in 1990; today 50% of the homeless population is 50 and older"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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 It\u2019s August, a time when it can be pleasant to spend\ntime out of doors. But, says Dan Weber, president of the Association of\nMature American Citizens [AMAC], \u201cit won\u2019t be long before temperatures start to\nfall and, while most of us have homes for shelter from the elements, tens of\nthousands Americans live without a roof over their heads. They are the\nhomeless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, some 12.3% or more of\nthe U.S. population — nearly 40 million men, women and children — live\nin poverty<\/a>. \u201cToo many of them do not have the means to\nfind shelter and, therefore, are forced to live hand-to-mouth and find\nthemselves homeless, which is bad enough for the younger members of that\npopulation. But, consider how hard it is for the elderly and how grim it\nis for seniors dealing with health issues.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Housing and Urban Development says that\n553,000 Americans were homeless last year, says Weber. He adds that \u201chalf\nof them were over 50 years of age and studies show that the 50-plus segment of\nthe homeless population is likely to triple over the next ten years. In 1990<\/a>, only 11% of the homeless population was 50 or\nolder.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless,\n\u201cIncreased homelessness among elderly persons is largely the result of poverty\nand the declining availability of affordable housing among certain segments of\nthe aging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former HUD Secretary Mel Martinez says that providing\naffordable housing is key to the task of stemming the tide of homelessness\namong the elderly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margot Kushel, MD, professor of medicine at UC-San\nFrancisco, is an expert on the elderly who become homeless and she agrees with\nMartinez. According to Kushel, \u201cA lot of these people have been healthy\ntheir whole lives. But it doesn\u2019t take long for their health to plummet\nonce they\u2019re homeless. Once someone is housed, depression often lifts,\nstress fades away, infections heal. It\u2019s instant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Kushel heads up the University\u2019s Center for Vulnerable\nPopulations and was recently tapped to direct a new initiative<\/a> funded by a $30 million gift from\nphilanthropists Marc and Lynne Benioff. The new Benioff Homelessness and\nHousing Initiative is devoted to the task of finding practical, \u201creal world\u201d\nsolutions aimed at ending homelessness, particularly homelessness among older\nvictims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Says Weber, \u201ceveryone has his own set of priorities, but one\nthing we all have in common is that we are all growing older. It\u2019s one of\nthe hardest things we will all do in this life and so we should have compassion\nfor those who need our help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are able, there are things you can do<\/a> as individuals to help alleviate the\nproblem, even if it\u2019s only donating unused clothing to a local homeless\nshelter, he adds. Meanwhile, do some research and find out just how dire\nis the fate of the homeless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll be surprised the impact you can have by becoming a\npart of the solution and how good you\u2019ll feel.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 It\u2019s August, a time when it can be pleasant to spend time out of doors. But, says Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC], \u201cit won\u2019t be… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":44134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}