Why More Baby Boomers Are Sliding Into Homelessness

livemint.com:

NAPLES, Fla.—Judy Schroeder was living a stable retirement in this affluent Florida enclave. Then her apartment building was sold to a new owner during the pandemic and she lost her part-time job working at a family-owned liquor store. What followed was a swift descent into homelessness.

Faced with a rent increase of more than $500 a month, Schroeder, who had little savings and was living month-to-month on Social Security, moved out and started couch surfing with friends and acquaintances. She called hundreds of other landlords in Naples and southwest Florida but failed to find anything more affordable. She applied for a low-income housing voucher.

She began eyeing her 2004 Pontiac Grand Am as a last resort shelter. “I never thought, at 71 years old, that I would be in this position," she said. Baby boomers, who transformed society in so many ways, are now having a dramatic effect on homelessness.

Higher numbers of elderly living on the street or in shelters add complications and expenses for hospitals and other crisis services. The humanitarian problem is becoming a public-policy crisis, paid for by taxpayers. Aged people across the U.S.

are homeless in growing numbers in part because the supersize baby boomer generation, which since the 1980s has contributed large numbers to the homeless population, is now old. But other factors have made elderly people increasingly vulnerable to homelessness, and the vast numbers of boomers are feeding the surge. High housing costs—a major factor in all homelessness—are especially hard for seniors living on Social Security who are no longer working.