Aging homeless in America

Murrmurr said:
It sounds more like you're trying to offer justification for dismissing the problem.

Those programs you elude to are rejected because they are useless. The ones that aren't are almost always programs taken on by individuals and private organizations, like a group of folks in AZ who set out bottles and jugs of ice water in areas where homeless people congregate. Some fire stations do that, too. There are restaurants that offer a free meal once a day, thrift store owners that offer free clothing and shoes, free medical clinics, barbers and hairdressers who go to homeless encampments to give free haircuts and shaves, a charity organization that helps homeless youth fill out job applications and families fill out rental applications and disabled people apply for SSDI.

Most government programs are little more than bank accounts for the government. Your last sentence there is an example of how government does it.
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I'm well aware of all those charitable efforts, which are on top of the $36k the government spends. You can dismiss the government efforts if it makes you feel better, but I guess I just don't see the need for all the pearl clutching.
 
VaughanJB said:
Those laws are not in place all across the US. In some states you can be evicted for being 5 days late on a payment.

Honestly, we can look at inflation, economic policy, and the rest, but that's never going to matter if people don't start caring. The problem today is that there's too little empathy or caring. Just go to Youtube and search for "Poverty in the USA". I've been watching documentaries on the homeless for much of the day. It's really sad that there's this flaw in the US. I do see it as a flaw. Instead there's a blame game.
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Perhaps you would care to explain why the total homeless in the UK is 0.30% of the population, vs 0.18% here in the states.
 

Murrmurr said:
That's not a bad idea, but it's not a good fit for all homeless senior women. My mother (deceased) would much rather live with, say, a young homeless mother with 1 or 2 children than a fellow homeless senior.

It'd be awesome to create a program that puts homeless seniors together with homeless young adults. Naturally, a social worker would have to be involved to vet and monitor placements long-term, but that would create jobs. The gov't spends billions needlessly on absolutely ineffective programs, so this could be a winner.

Imagine a senior lady helping a young unwed mother by keeping an eye on the children while she looks for work and also after she gets a job, helping the young woman budget her money so she can save up for her own place, maybe teaching her to cook and keep house and stuff. The senior lady would be a mentor, giving her life purpose, and being around children might make her feel younger.

That wouldn't be a good fit for all older women, either, but could be a successful program well worth the costs.
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What a great idea, Murrmurr. I'm sure there would be problems to be ironed out but if it began on a small scale with some bright people overseeing the operation much could be learned.
 
The living together idea is valid and honestly many many on programs never fess up to living in groups and quite frankly few are ever caught if they are sharing quarters with others ...
i knew a group all in one home just put on address unit #1 / unit #2 ......... no one even looked that house was single family not multi units.... Most states / programs do not check up... and instead rely on honor system in paperwork so those who just learn creative work around..

Working is all about health ........many innovative options house sitting/ dog/ pet walking or sitting / after school childcare / even teaching knitting /crochet or cooking are things some retired ladies i know do. usually under the table or paid direct to bills by their customers.
 
katlupe said:
That is what they should do but they do not. If you share an apartment with someone who is receiving SSI even if it just a roommate status, your SSI check will be cut. They count the whole household income.

I don't understand what you mean about strict limits on move-in costs. If someone gets evicted from my building they cannot afford to get another apartment due to the high cost of moving into another apartment (unless they can get into another building that is subsidized).

I am talking about senior apartments only not younger people. Ones who are on Social Security or SSI.
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That is not true. I've lived with several people, including relatives. I am my own household, they are their own household. You just need to buy and prepare your food separately. Even when I lived with my adult son and grandchild my benefits did not change, they did not count my son's income at all. It would be especially true for people you are not related too, at least in the US. If you don't combine households the government won't either.
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Jeni said:
The living together idea is valid and honestly many many on programs never fess up to living in groups and quite frankly few are ever caught if they are sharing quarters with others ...
i knew a group all in one home just put on address unit #1 / unit #2 ......... no one even looked that house was single family not multi units.... Most states / programs do not check up... and instead rely on honor system in paperwork so those who just learn creative work around..

Working is all about health ........many innovative options house sitting/ dog/ pet walking or sitting / after school childcare / even teaching knitting /crochet or cooking are things some retired ladies i know do. usually under the table or paid direct to bills by their customers.
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Most government-subsidized programs fail because the gov't stops checking up when they can no longer fund the programs, or the programs are no longer affordable, or aren't in any way profitable.

State programs that get federal funds for, say, the first 3 years, abandon the programs after that because they don't want to use state tax revenue to keep them going.

In other words, the gov't abandons programs when they stop being profitable. Sometimes they donate them to some charity organization that has no idea what it's getting into, or they sell them to some agency or corporation that knows they can make money on it.

That's what's happening to some low-income housing and low-income rent-to-own communities right now. Real estate corporations are snapping them up super cheap, then raising the rent.

And a lot of those corporations immediately dismiss the management teams and cancel the landscapers and pest-control people. Then they place a whole bunch of new rules on the tenants about not letting their kids play in the automatic sprinklers, and keeping the grounds clean and mowed and trimmed and their homes pest-free under the threat of eviction.

And the tenants all get an 800 number to some property maintenance insurance agency answering service that will dispatch a repairman... if the repair is covered. But the tenants won't know either way; they'll just have to wait and see. Chances are the broken window or torn screen or warm freezer, or whatever, is the tenant's problem, and, since their rent was just raised about 35%, they can barely afford to take their clothes to a 3-dollar and 50-cents a-load laundry-mat, but they have to because the community washers and dryers all broke down like a gall-dern government program.
 
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Murrmurr said:
In other words, the gov't abandons programs when they stop being profitable. Sometimes they donate them to some charity organization that has no idea what it's getting into, or they sell them to some agency or corporation that knows they can make money on it.
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Because the war on poverty has made poverty a business .......growing it
it is not about abandoning programs it is about not using the rules/ requirements in place..........that general public think is being used.

Audits and accountability can be done easier then ever using computers to catch fraud and abuse or irregularities ...............and use the money more effectively
 
oldaunt said:
The sad sick part is your parents took care of you til you could take care of yourself, and now when your parents need care you dump them in a home or leave them to fend for themselves.
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But not all situations are the same. When my mother needed help, debilitating arthritis & emphysema I was still working, single & lived in a one room apt. My sister lived 400 miles away. So mom & I shopped around and found a senior home/community that her SSI & small retirement could afford , with some help from me. As it turned out, after about six months .... you couldn't drag her out of there with a team of Clydesdales. She luv'd it. unfortunately after about six years it closed ... due to a local road project. It was at that time my sis, and BIL said she could just move in with them , so we moved her.

I really don't know what happend between them & her [they both seemed mum, on the subject] ... and I didn't push it, but she wanted to move back here so .... We, [her & I] found her another place she liked, and that is where she was when she died.
 
How can we help with this increasing problem of more elderly becoming homeless.

  1. Donate to organizations that provide services to the homeless population, such as food, shelter, and medical care. Some of the organizations that you can donate to include:
  2. Volunteer your time at local soup kitchens, shelters, or as a mentor with youth organizations. You can also tutor homeless children or organize an outing for them 3.
  3. Recruit local businesses to help by donating goods or services, such as food, clothing, or transportation 3.
  4. Practice smart giving by researching the organizations you want to donate to and ensuring that they are reputable and effective 3.
  5. Have a conversation with your friends and family about homelessness and its impact on older adults. Raising awareness is an important step in addressing this issue 3.

This all seems out of reach for most people who CARE at all. Unless you are experiencing this with a family member, your not likely to be giving to a charity that helps them. It is a systemic problem running deep into the baby boomers aging. The economy will not support us all. Everyone is stretched to the limit in providing for their own family. IDK...I have been talking with a friend in Alaska. Misa and I are considering having him come and live with us. Maybe that is what will start happening. Take in those you know who are struggling. Help them out. There might be many ways to add a person to your household. We are all going to have to adjust our life styles to accommodate a changing society.
 
Paco Dennis said:
How can we help with this increasing problem of more elderly becoming homeless.

  1. Donate to organizations that provide services to the homeless population, such as food, shelter, and medical care. Some of the organizations that you can donate to include:
  2. Volunteer your time at local soup kitchens, shelters, or as a mentor with youth organizations. You can also tutor homeless children or organize an outing for them 3.
  3. Recruit local businesses to help by donating goods or services, such as food, clothing, or transportation 3.
  4. Practice smart giving by researching the organizations you want to donate to and ensuring that they are reputable and effective 3.
  5. Have a conversation with your friends and family about homelessness and its impact on older adults. Raising awareness is an important step in addressing this issue 3.

This all seems out of reach for most people who CARE at all. Unless you are experiencing this with a family member, your not likely to be giving to a charity that helps them. It is a systemic problem running deep into the baby boomers aging. The economy will not support us all. Everyone is stretched to the limit in providing for their own family. IDK...I have been talking with a friend in Alaska. Misa and I are considering having him come and live with us. Maybe that is what will start happening. Take in those you know who are struggling. Help them out. There might be many ways to add a person to your household. We are all going to have to adjust our life styles to accommodate a changing society.
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As you've pointed out time and again, when Government partners with Big Business, average people suffer. Change has to happen at the top. We have to stop re-electing shills and liars. We need to demand integrity and ethics in journalism and term-limits in congress and true fairness in the justice system and we need to stop being so materialistic and selfish.

But maybe most Americans are too dumb and/or lazy to fight for all that. Maybe the Government-Big Business partnership really is intentionally misdirecting youthful rage, keeping them occupied with gender oppression, false inequities, and the color green.
 
againstthegrain said:
No clarification wasn't all you wanted. If you don't want comments on what you write don't post.

And you did a similar thing to me in another thread.
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Stop bickering. If I did the same in another thread, it is because you weren't clear in what you posted - at least to me.

Comments? No-one is stopping you commenting, but I'm sure everyone would appreciate the conversation being moved on, not this childish back and forth. This is a forum of seniors, best act like it.
 
Thanks for these, Holly.

I do wonder if some people simply have no grasp of what poverty and/or homelessness means. To think of it terms of a front door isn't it. The whole "American Dream", and it's concepts, are beyond these people. Clawing their way back is about attitude and desire.

I also wonder why threads on this topic seem to get the most heated. It's telling, I think.
 
VaughanJB said:
Stop bickering. If I did the same in another thread, it is because you weren't clear in what you posted - at least to me.

Comments? No-one is stopping you commenting, but I'm sure everyone would appreciate the conversation being moved on, not this childish back and forth. This is a forum of seniors, best act like it.
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What's childish is asking -

"You're not trying to point score over homeless percentages, are you?"
 
Time out guys..Time out....
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Lets' just get back to the topic and agree to disagree on small points...
 
Buckeye said:
Perhaps you would care to explain why the total homeless in the UK is 0.30% of the population, vs 0.18% here in the states.
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I can't speak for the UK, but in the US, if you live in any sort of vehicle or on private property, you are not counted among the homeless. In some states, cities or counties, if someone lets you use their address and you receive mail there regularly (i.e., your social security checks), you are not counted among the homeless. Some cities and counties do not keep a count at all, so do not contribute to any database or whatever. Some counties, mine for example, do not count you as homeless if you have a place to shower or bathe or you sleep at a shelter more than 2 times a week.

There's a couple more dis-qualifiers, but I forget what they are. In any case, these omissions obviously skew the data.

Be that as it may, whether the number is 300,000 or 3,000,000, it's still a massive problem imo. Not everyone who is homeless is enjoying it.

Especially distressing here in Calif is that (last time I checked) the state justice system discourages intervening in situations where a homeless person has kids. In other words, Calif does not condone the removal of homeless children from their homeless parent(s) by Child Protective Services, and CPS then placing the children in a foster home while a caseworker assists the parent(s) in finding a permanent home. I don't know why. Too triggering, maybe. Maybe too time consuming or too expensive, idk.

Of course, CPS intervenes if a child is endangered by drug use, neglect or violence, as long as someone reports it. And most counties intervene if a school reports that a child isn't attending "regularly", which I think means they attended less than 70 days/yr. But naturally, they have to have been registered in the first place.
 
Different to the US... here in the UK... you're considered homeless if you are sleeping in a vehicle not adapted as a home

Rough sleeping is sleeping anywhere that is not designed or adapted for
human habitation.

That includes things like sleeping in a barn or a shed
as well as outdoors. So it would also include a car or an unadapted van..but it
it wouldn't include a caravan or motorhome as they are designed or
adapted for human habitation.

However the one thing here which may be different than the US as well.. is that even if a person is living in a car.. they would not be considered for housing if it was deemed that they made themselves homeless.. now that covers a huge criteria.. one of course is non-payment of mortgage or rent, and evicted because of that... another would be becoming homeless through anti-social behaviour... and so on...

if children are involved the local authority would be asked to find '' temporary'' accommodation for the family .. which usually consists of one room in some type of hostel. Temporary can mean anything up to 10 years ...
 

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