Study provides a clear definition of late life homelessness

Homelessness among people over the age of 50 is on the rise, a phenomenon formal housing strategies often overlook — but researchers from the University of Toronto and McGill hope to prevent this oversight in the future. 

A new study published in The Gerontologist now provides a clear definition of late life homelessness informed by the lives and experiences of older adults. Drawing on interviews with older people who are unhoused and community workers in Montreal, Canada, the researchers aim to spark action and changes in policy and practice.

We became interested in late life homelessness in 2011 when local service organizations told us that they were witnessing increasing numbers of older people in shelters and that they felt ill prepared to address their complex needs. We soon realized that the experiences of older people were absent from Canadian housing initiatives.”

Amanda Grenier, a social work professor at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and researcher at Baycrest Hospital

The researchers’ definition of late-life homelessness points to a host of interconnected systemic issues that restrict access to support and contribute to increased inequalities, exclusion, and unmet needs. For example, the configurations of service for seniors are organized based on age, but people who are unhoused may experience reduced mobility or health concerns in their 50s. At the same time, community services without age criteria can overlook needs that are typically associated with aging. 

The accumulation of disadvantage over time is another factor that defines late-life homelessness. Intersecting forms of oppression are well documented in research on homelessness among younger people, but often overlooked when it comes to older demographics. The researchers point to policy strategies that focus on physical health but ignore the cumulative impact of disadvantages experienced by an individual over time — due to racism, colonialism or sexism, for example — making the ability to bounce back from income, housing, or care setbacks a bigger challenge.

Space and place or the built form of our buildings and cities is a third component of what makes late-life homelessness unique. Older people without a residential address face challenges accessing community-based homecare programs. Additionally, programs for those who are homeless often take place in inaccessible settings. Changing mobility needs can impact the physical endurance needed to travel to shelters and safely navigate between spaces of support, leaving older people to age in places that most would consider ‘undesirable’.

The final characteristic of late-life homelessness includes patterns of non-response or inaction on the part of programs and policy that leave older people with histories of homelessness to suffer unmet needs. This includes examples of health and social systems that require clients to have an address and the practice of shuffling older people who are homeless between different programs because those programs aren’t able to address their intersecting needs. 

Grenier and her co-author, Tamara Sussman from McGill University’s School of Social Work, argue that to effectively address late-life homelessness, policy makers and other professionals need a clearly defined and comprehensive understanding of what late life homelessness entails. To this end, they propose the following definition based on research with older people and in community settings:

Late life homelessness is an experience of unequal aging produced through age-based structures and social relations that restrict access to supports, reflect disadvantages over time, is lived in places that are not conducive to aging well and result in exclusion, non-recognition and unmet need.

“While attention to late life homelessness is starting to increase, older people still often remain overlooked in official strategies and policy response,” says Grenier. “Recognition and inclusion will require continued vigilance.”