The Declining Generation

Recently, the news reported cases of the Zika virus have manifested in Florida. Right now the instances are relatively few but people are still concerned, and rightfully so. I have a sister who lives in Florida so after calling her and assessing the situation and her well-being, I was relieved that she and her husband are fine. After the conversation I began wondering what the effect of this might entail for the homeless.

One of the difficulties of living on the streets or in public places without structural protection, is the continued risk of susceptibility to certain kinds of diseases that people with homes aren’t as prone to encounter. It is not a stretch to conclude that a life of homelessness puts a person in severe risk of not dying before those who are not homeless. Hundreds of thousands of homeless people could die over the next decade as the homeless population in the United States grows older but continues to lack access to proper housing, food, or medical care. The homeless demographic problem is stark.

Modern homelessness in American society is typically traced back to the early for a couple reasons, including double-dip recessions, the crack epidemic, and the closing of psychiatric institutions. This resulted in a boom in the number of people without shelter. We are currently seeing the results of a problem that started 30 years ago and continues to this day.

That’s because it’s incredibly difficult to pull out of the cycle of homelessness. It is challenging to find a job while living in a shelter, and it’s daunting to get out of the shelter without having a job.  The homeless deal with an existential Catch 22 every day. Compound this with a lack of affordable housing and recurring health or addiction problems and apparent why so many people who became homeless in the 1980s are still without shelter today.

A University of Pennsylvania study showed that the homeless population in the United States keeps getting older and older. In 1990, the typical age of a single homeless adult was 34. Just 20 years later, the median age was 53. In other words, fewer individuals in later generations have found themselves on the streets, but older generations are also finding it more difficult to get off them.

This problem is becoming increasingly dire because the average life expectancy for a homeless person is 64, compared to 79 years for the average American. In a decade, the United States is facing a massive surge in the number of homeless people who could very realistically die. Right now, there are about 400,000 homeless people in the United States who were born before 1964. Within 15 years it is a sobering thought that none of them might be here.

That is, unless we undertake a genuine effort to get homeless residents into housing, and ‘housing first’ is a great alternative to dying. I’ve written about this in the past and I will post more about it next week to explain this philosophy. From an ethical perspective, it’s humane to provide housing and care for our homeless population, particularly those who are aging, and economically it is less expensive. With more than 600,000 homeless people in the United States who aren’t getting any younger, the problem is as great as it is urgent.