As we spend our leisure time scrolling on our phone in the comfort of our homes, we

rarely give thought to the individuals that are less fortunate that experience a life without a home.

The issue of homelessness has been plaguing Los Angeles for years, there have been

organizations like the Midnight Mission that have been instituted to support those suffering from

homelessness. What’s more is that there is no singular sole cause for this issue of people

experiencing homelessness, there’s a multitude of reasons such as the lack of affordable housing,

low-wages, things that stem from economics. Regardless, there’s one thing that all these

individuals need, and that’s the support and belief of those contributing to help them out. The

Issue of people experiencing homelessness reaches a wide variety of marginalized groups but the

most despairing group being affected is those who are Elderly; While most are 60+ years of age

this renders them vulnerable to experience the loss of a home, and if not for policies that

imrpoved healthacre’s affordability. and making housing more affordable it would be very hard

for elderly individuals to live a comfy life.

A cause of homelessness that affects Elderly folk significantly is the lack of affordable

housing which they cannot afford. Exhibited in the text “Housing is now unaffordable for a

record half of all U.S. renters study finds.” by Jennifer Luden it states “ Since 2019, the biggest

jump in unaffordability was for households making $30,000 to $74,999 a year. Even among

those working full time, a third of all renters were still cost-burdened.” (Luden 1) This piece of

the text shows how the cost of rent has been increasing since 2019, and has continued to since. If

the cost of living continued to increase as time moved forward then of course this affects

everyone as a whole. But imagine an elderly individual who lives on their own and relies on

checks from different organizations to sustain not just their house, but life-style. It’s hard to

conceptualize especially when they are most likely more vulnerable than other adults. Paired
with those two ideas in mind, it’s very predictable to see how Elderly people are more prone to

lose their home especially when the cost of rent increases. However, a solution to this problem

may not be as complicated as the problem itself, like governmental efforts to stabilize the

economy. An example of this would be in the text “More Older Americans Become Homeless as

inflation rises and housing costs spike” by Aaron Bolton it states “Other advocacy organizations

want to help older people stay in their homes through economic stabilization initiatives. One idea

is to change how Social Security payments are calculated by pegging them to the Elder Index, an

online calculator that estimates living expenses for seniors by their location.” (Bolton 6) This

part of the text demonstrates the government trying to aid and facilitate a better process of

Social Security payments for older folk. This would undoubtedly prevent the issues being had

with elderly people regarding the lack of affordable housing. That reason being that there is an

effort being made so that elderly folk knoware aware of how much they need to pay. If they are

able to find more affordable housing for themseleves then it would be able to help mititgate the

percentage of elderly people being affected by homelessness. In other words it’s an innitiative

being taken so that older people are able to afford the house they live in and not be tormented by

costly rent. It’s clear to see that elderly folks like grandparents are a much more vulnerable

demographic to unaffordable housing when compared to average adults.

Another cause of homelessness that Senior citizens are vulnerable to is the lack of affordable

healthcare. As shown in the text “Rise of Homelessness in the 1980’s” it states that “Lastly, the

rising cost of healthcare and rapid growth of the uninsured population meant that many people

with medical problems had no recourse to affordable health care. By the early 1990s, 2.7 million

people in Los Angeles County lacked health insurance. People often faced a choice between

paying for health care or for housing, and as a result frequently found themselves homeless.” In
this piece of the text it sheds light upon the fact that health care has been becoming more and

more costly, as well as people not having access if they are ill. It also mentions that people often

have to choose between the two to spend their income on which is hard when health is an

obvious priortization. It is also worthy to note that older individuals tend to have more issues

regarding their health because of the state their body is in. With that in mind it’s easy to see how

an elderly person who has to deal with both rising cost of healthcare, and rent could easily leave

them susceptible to experiencing homelessness more than any other person. A solution to this

matter would be improving it’s affordability like funding. For instance in the text “More Older

Americans become Homeless as Inflation rises and Housing costs Spikes” by Aaron Bolton it

states “ The Coalition wants the state to modify its Medicaid program, so that shelters are

eligible for funding. The shelters would use the money to provide Medicaid services for seniors

living in a shelter, or to pay for case managers who could help seniors navigate other benefit

programs for food assistance or subsidized housing, or help them locate spots in assisted living

facilities or nursing homes.” (Bolton 6) This piece exhibits the fact a groups or individual people

decided it was best to change the Medicaid program that was provided, so that shelters would

receive more support. This is important because it’s a common goal that they wanted to achieve

in order to help the elderly people be prevented from experiencing homelessness. In the quote it

mentions that it would also help seniors be housed under a roof, so in addition to housing it also

benefits the healthcare debacle that they face. This is all only possible if they are able to modify

the amount of funding the shelters receive so that they are able house and cover for the

healthcare of these older adults. Overall it’s important to understand how healthcare affects these

older individuals because it can lead to them being without a home, which is a devastating sight

to behold.
 With that being said we know that the issue of homelessness is a problem we’re all aware

of yet, we a turn a blind eye towards it even when individuals such as elderly folk are being

effected by it. As much as we love our grandparents with all our hearts it’s important to

remember that not all senior individuals have that love and support from their family. Each and

every one of us has certain circumstances that other’s just won’t go through, so that’s why we

want to care for these older folk because seeing them in the streets trying to pass by is

heartbreaking and still prevalent today.Although seeing elderly people experiencing

homelessness is a despairing sight we shouldn’t cater to them or any other specific groups for

that matter more than others, because it’s a single issue that we all want solve comprehenssively.

It’s important to remember that we’d rather see no people experiencing this issue rather than a

singular demographic, that’s true human compassion.