Homelessness among older adults is increasing and the two concepts are connected in many ways. What is less obvious is the ways in which interventions in one area can have unintended consequences in other areas.
Homelessness in older adults is increasing. There’s been a 39% increase in homelessness among older people in the UK over the past five years. In the US, according to a recent University of Pennsylvania study, the numbers of older homeless people ‘will grow from 40,000 today to 106,000 by 2030’. This tracks with the Boomer-fuelled growth in the older population, but suggests that the OK Boomer criticism of a pampered generation is off the mark.
Homelessness accelerates ageing. Homelessness leads to ageing at “hyper-speed”, according to the director of UCSF’s Center for Vulnerable Adults, which just received $30m from Salesforce founder Marc Benioff. It’s a vital ‘social determinant of health’, making it easier to eat, sleep, stay clean and have a sense of purpose. It is associated with increased levels of depression (60% in homeless people vs 35% in the general population), cognitive decline (25% vs 10%).
Age-appropriate affordable homes will offer opportunities for ‘systems entrepreneurs’. Similar to the need to get out of our cars and enable better public transport, we need to change the dynamics of home ownership. We should start with the land – UK land values have increased 400% since 1995 and now represent half of national wealth. Community right-to-buy models are worth exploring. New housing concepts can blend social and financial impact; Goscombe Homes is developing an approach where one under-market affordable home is built (supported by tax breaks) for every market-value home sold. And shared housing models such as Nesterly and Airbnb can help lower the cost of home ownership and reduce homelessness.
Interventions aimed at one impact the other. More subtly, one of the (presumably) unintended consequences of the neoliberal-inspired ‘war on the poor’ is that an uncomfortable public space hurts those who need it most. Consider the humble street bench:
What we’re seeing is the result of complex systems. So in reverse, rather than throwing money just at homelessness per se, let’s explore the root cause of homelessness, and part of it is likely to be systems that don’t support older people to stay healthy, engaged, active and purposeful.
For those impact investors looking to make a difference in homelessness, investing in ageing initiatives could be one way to get there, and vice versa.
