US homeless ranks graying as more retire on streets: AP

NEW YORK - The United States' graying homeless population is a rapidly expanding group of destitute and desperate people 50 and older suddenly without a permanent home after a job loss, divorce, family death or health crisis during a pandemic, reported The Associated Press (AP) on Sunday.

"We're seeing a huge boom in senior homelessness," Kendra Hendry, a caseworker at Arizona's largest shelter, was quoted as saying. "These are not necessarily people who have mental illness or substance abuse problems. They are people being pushed into the streets by rising rents."

Academics project their numbers will nearly triple over the next decade, challenging policy makers from Los Angeles to New York to imagine new ideas for sheltering the last of the baby boomers as they get older, sicker and less able to pay spiraling rents, according to the report.

"Navigating sidewalks in wheelchairs and walkers, the aging homeless have medical ages greater than their years, with mobility, cognitive and chronic problems like diabetes. Many contracted COVID-19 or couldn't work because of pandemic restrictions," said the report.

A 2019 study of aging homeless people led by the University of Pennsylvania projected the US population of people 65 and older experiencing homelessness will nearly triple from 40,000 to 106,000 by 2030, resulting in a public health crisis as their age-related medical problems multiply, it added.