Poster #110 - Gaps in Policy Supporting the Rehousing and Stabilization of Older Adults Experiencing Homelessness

• In Event: Friday Poster Reception

Abstract

Homelessness is an increasing problem in both rural and urban places across the US and older adults are the fastest growing demographic of people who experience homelessness. While this growth is largely related to the aging of people who are unhoused, many older adults also experience homelessness for the first time in late life. This increased precarity relates the rising number of older adults experiencing severe housing cost burdens, meaning they spend at least half of their income on housing. While affordability problems exist across age groups, many older adults experience intersectional challenges, including disability, chronic health conditions, cognitive decline, and need for long-term care and assistance. These challenges increases the risk of, and vulnerability to, homelessness in late life, and also leads to the need for more complicated interventions. Further, even once housing has been stablized, late-life needs tend to become more complex over time so interventions must often be responsive and progressive. Yet existing federal, state, and local policies do not necessarily reflect this late life experience of both compunded and advancing needs. To better understand the mismatch between existing policy and the needs of this group, researchers conducted a mixed methods case study of Hearth, the first organization in the nation to focus specifically on serving older adults currently or formerly experiencing homelessness. Researchers used administrative data of this Boston-based organization to describe they ways Hearth financially supports their work by braiding funding across policy areas, including housing, health, and income programs. Researchers then conduct a series of interviews with Hearth staff to discern the significant amount of unfunded outreach, rehousing, and stabilization activities that they practice on a regular basis. Findings suggest gaps in policy available to support older adults currently or formerly experiencing homelessness, largely related to a misalignment between this target population and the designed purposes of existing funding resources. Further, state and local programs comprise a meaningful component of the funded work, suggesting that there is likely to be variation in services available to this population by geography. Additional research is needed to better understand the landscape of intervention and examine both solutions and gaps that have arisen in other places. Ultimately, this work surfaces the need for a robust research program that assesses best practices and develops a more complete picture of the policy needed to stabilize housing in late life.

Author

• Samara Scheckler, Harvard University
  Presenting Author