News and Press Releases

Numbers of elderly homeless decreasing

 

South End News, February 22, 2007
by Linda Rodriguez, Associate Editor

Though the results are still preliminary and the full report has not yet been issued, the Mayor's Press Office said Feb. 12 that the number of elderly homeless individuals found on the streets of Boston during the annual Homeless Census had decreased by nearly half since last year.

The Homeless Census, conducted on Dec. 18, 2006 by the city and many volunteers, counted 28 homeless individuals over the age of 55 on the street that night, a relatively balmy December evening.  In 2005, by comparison a very cold night, the Census counted 44 homeless elders on the streets; in 2005 the Census counted 77 homeless elders on the streets.  Those figures indicate, according to city officials, that over the last two years, the number of homeless elders on the streets have decreased 63 percent, at least on those nights.  Officials added that the drop was due to a coordinated effort by the city and homeless advocates.

"For the past year, there's been a kind of targeting intervention," explained Jim Green, director of the City's Emergency Shelter Commission.  Green said that the numbers have decreased due to the collaborative work of the Shelter Commission, the Department of Neighborhood Development, the Elderly Commission and the city's homeless advocacy organizations and housing providers, aided by grants from local foundations and businesses to help fund their efforts.  Charged by Major Thomas Menino to decrease the numbers of homeless elders on the street, the group worked together to first identify 118 chronically homeless elders in need of housing.  From there, they've been working with the elders individually, identifying their needs and what it would take to get them into a permanent resident [sic]; thus far, 30 people have been placed.

"So far, we've seen some initial success," Green said.  He added, though, that getting homeless elders off the streets isn't simply a matter of finding them a bed.  The homeless elder population tends to have different needs and present different challenges than the younger homeless population, not the least of which are more medical issues and the simple fact that many have been homeless for a very long time, becoming accustomed to life on the streets.

"The early signs of success are promising, that through this focused partnership and really working person by person, we're demonstrating that some people who have lived very long periods of time on the street can be successfully housed," said Green.

The South End is home to several organizations advocating specifically for and reaching out to the homeless elder population; Hearth, formerly the Committee to End Elder Homelessness, has been in the South End at the Anna Bissonnette House on Washington Street since 1997.  Mark Hinderlie, executive director of the organization, said that while he could not say with certainty that the overall numbers of elder homeless (those also living in shelters) had in fact decreased, he was nonetheless encouraged by the effort being made by the city to get homeless elders into housing.

"The Homeless Census is statistically a bit random" he said, nothing that factors such as the weather can make a difference in the numbers of individuals out on the street.  "What I think you can say, though, with some absolute accuracy is that it's a sign that this is a city and this is an administration that is very committed do addressing the problem."

Hearth was one of many organizations that worked with the city to help identify and house the homeless population; Hinderlie said that the taskforce on homelessness meets regularly to assess how best to help homeless elders.  "It's a very hands-on, focused concern about 'Let's get these people in houses,'" he said.  "There's a systematic information gathering and sharing to focus on the problem among providers ... Information is key."

Hinderlie also said that with the leadership of the city, as well as the state's Office of Elder Affairs, more resources have been made available to organizations dealing with homeless elder populations.  Those resources are coming not only form the city and state, but from the community at large as well.  "[The city is] helping to make it visible to the community that this is a problem and this is unacceptable," he said.

Shepley Metcalf of the Pine Street Inn, New England's largest emergency homeless shelter that also operates a number of permanent housing programs, agreed that the city has taken a leadership role in trying alleviate the problem of elder homelessness.  "It's exciting and it's great when an initiative like this comes from the Mayor, comes from that office and there's a collaboration of different shelters in the city," she said, noting that Pine Street also worked closely with the collaboration to identify and house elders.  "We're all at different times working with the same people ... It makes sense for us at times to work together."

Metcalf also said that through Pine Street's work, it did seem that the numbers of homeless elders are decreasing.  "It's exciting to see that you can carve out and focus in on a specific population and make a big difference," she said.

One of the biggest issues behind elder homelessness and homelessness in general, Metcalf, Hinderlie and Green all agreed, was the issue of affordable housing and the lack thereof in the city.  "Ultimately, we also know that the solution to homelessness is housing and we'd like to see more resources committed to that on both the state and federal level, said Green.

Numbers, such as those reported in the Homeless Census, can help make the need for more affordable housing clear.  Green also noted that this year, the Homeless Census is more comprehensive: For the first time, the Census also documented the income levels of the individuals living or staying in the shelters across the city.  Those numbers are still being work through, however Green said that he believes they will likely show that even individuals with jobs have a difficult time making rent in the city.