End homelessness

Abstract

Each year, nearly 1.5 million people in the United States experience homelessness, at least a third of whom are over the age of 50 (Henry et al., The 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. Part 2: Estimates of homelessness in the United States. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, DC, 2017). By 2030, the number of adults ages 65 and over experiencing homelessness is expected to triple (Culhane et al., The emerging crisis in aging homelessness: Could housing solutions be funded by avoidance of excess shelter, hospital, and nursing homes? Retrieved from https://www.aisp.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Emerging-Crisis-of-Aged-Homelessness-1.pdf, 2019). Evidence suggests that older adults experiencing homelessness have the physical and mental indicators of aging 10-20 years earlier than the general population (Cohen, Gerontologist 39(1):5-14, 1999) and experience premature mortality due to age-related chronic conditions (Baggett et al., JAMA Intern Med 173(3):189-195, 2013). This chapter will focus on the Grand Challenge to End Homelessness which seeks to address the persistent problem of homelessness and build on the evidence supporting housing-based interventions by expanding available housing resources, ensuring evidence-based psychosocial support to accompany housing, and developing and evaluating new housing-based interventions for specific populations, including older adults and elders.