Homelessness has dropped by nine percent in Michigan over the last two years, however the number of homeless who are 55 and over has increased by eight percent over the same period.
Agencies on aging across the state believe the increase is being driven by rising medical costs and the financial burden of extended family moving in with parents or grandparents.
Annette Jeske is the Program Development and Grants Manager for the Region 7 Area Agency on Aging. She said sometimes when an older individual spends multiple weeks in rehab after a hospital visit, their home is no longer available to them upon discharge.
“And by the time they are ready to potentially go home their apartment lease is up. Maybe they haven't paid the rent anymore. Or if somebody has been in the nursing home for awhile sometimes the house is no longer available. Maybe the kids sold it. Things like that. So, you end up with people who are homeless”.
Jeske said the state is encouraging housing developers to build new subsidized housing for the elderly.
“You’ve got an older adult person who’s raised a family in maybe a four bedroom home and they’re now a single older adult. They don't need the large house. They can't maintain physically or on their income from an economic standpoint. So we’ve got some issues there. We’ve got a lot of people who are kinda ready to transition into easier living, but where are they going”.
Jeske said many elderly do not want to leave their homes, but those that may need don’t always have reasonable alternatives.
“An adult child will move back in with a parent because the parent has social security income. So we see that in this neck of the woods. A good number of people as of 2015, about 43 percent of people, who were social security recipients, that means somebody technically 55 and older, had only social security benefits to rely on”.
