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‘Unconscionable’: American baby boomers are now becoming homeless at a rate ‘not seen since the Great Depression’ — here’s what's fueling this terrible trend
"Thanks in part to a series of recessions, high housing costs and a shortage of affordable housing, older adults are now the fastest-growing segment of America’s homeless population, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, based on data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development." ...
This article states that half of the homeless in America are over age 50. Rising rents and the other factors like the death of a spouse or medical emergencies are contributing factors.
Has anyone here experienced homelessness in their life? What triggered the loss of your place to stay? Could you ever see it happening to you again?
Locally our homeless population now includes seniors something I rarely saw 26 years ago when I first moved here. We have become a very desirable community and rents and housing prices have skyrocketed. A woman on Nextdoor was asking for boxes because she was moving to a town of 1500 people in Oklahoma because rent there was only 650/month. She didn’t know anyone there.
Baby boomers have the largest net worth
Baby boomers own 52.8% of all wealth in the U.S., compared to 5.7% of millennials, according to the Federal Reserve.
Good read on the variables in wealth inequity between boomers and millennials and between boomers and other boomers.
It is a mixed picture of wealth differences. I intentionally use differences and not in equality which has a different connotation to some.
Last edited by volosong; 11-28-2023 at 10:17 AM..
Reason: fixed hypertag
Locally our homeless population now includes seniors something I rarely saw 26 years ago when I first moved here. We have become a very desirable community and rents and housing prices have skyrocketed. A woman on Nextdoor was asking for boxes because she was moving to a town of 1500 people in Oklahoma because rent there was only 650/month. She didn’t know anyone there.
Oh what a horrible thing to ask people to live within their means! I guess Oklahoma is good enough for Warren Buffet, but how can anyone do such a cruel thing to the poor as to offer a low-income or no-income person an affordable home in Oklahoma rather than in three most expensive cities in the nation?
THAT, the demand to house the homeless in places like San Francisco or Manhattan, is a blatant example of overreach, of exploiting social assistance provided by taxpayers. You could probably house 20 people in Oklahoma for the price of housing 1 in San Francisco.
As horrible as this is, I am not surprised. I think too many of my Baby Boomer generation have patterned their lives on the later decades that their parents lived through, assuming things will be the same for them.
Changes include:
• Loss of the 3-legged retirement income stool.
• Massive layoffs and unemployment after age 50.
• Economic stagnation rather than growth.
• Technology costs (cell phones, internet, streaming services, etc.).
• Rampant consumerism not included in above.
• Healthcare technology with its abhorrent costs.
And I fear it will be even worse for following generations.
As horrible as this is, I am not surprised. I think too many of my Baby Boomer generation have patterned their lives on the later decades that their parents lived through, assuming things will be the same for them.
Changes include:
• Loss of the 3-legged retirement income stool.
• Massive layoffs and unemployment after age 50.
• Economic stagnation rather than growth.
• Technology costs (cell phones, internet, streaming services, etc.).
• Rampant consumerism not included in above.
• Healthcare technology with its abhorrent costs.
And I fear it will be even worse for following generations.
-If I am not mistaken, at least the younger half of the Boomers doesn't have the 3-legged stool, that is not new (ie, pensions have become rare quite a while ago). Who are the Boomers born after 1955 that have a pension (unless they were government employees)?
-Really? Are massive layoffs and unemployment after the age 50 going on? I have not heard of that, only of a lot of people who want to retire at 50 (or earlier), but voluntarily.
-AI technology is in the air, so I am not sure that there won't be economic growth
-Technology costs seem to be lower than in the 1980s (even though technology has evolved incredibly)
-Rampant consumerism is not new; it has been rampant since circa 1946 :-)
-My health insurance premium for next year (age 64) actually went a little bit down compared with this year
Has anyone here experienced homelessness in their life? What triggered the loss of your place to stay? Could you ever see it happening to you again?
It was February, 1973 when I found myself totally penniless in a car totally out of gas in downtown Sacramento, California. By penniless I had to borrow a dime to place a collect call.
Loss of a job, moving across the continent along with other stupid decisions that a lot of 23 year old males make.
It was all my fault but, luckily for me, I had friends 100 miles away that drove over to rescue me.
I swore never again.
I saved some cash, not a huge amount I am talking $100 in 1973 dollars, and swore I would never be penniless again.
Stayed at a friends house for three weeks during which time I found a job and worked all the hours I could to get out of the mess I was in.
The job?
It was for a company called Concise Casting and what they did was make aluminum toilets for prisons. Thousand of them. My wonderful job found me with my head in a toilet all day with a grinder grinding off burrs. Yep, me in a toilet all day.
But it was 1973 and my pay was $4.25/hour which today is equivalent to $29.45/hour. Also, since they were behind, I was able to work all the overtime hours I wanted and ended up working 5 tens plus 8 hours on Saturday for 58 hours a week. My head in a toilet all that time but I was earning the equivalent of $1,973.15 a week and with two paychecks I was able to get my own place with a roommate.
I wouldn't call it a bad experience it was actually a good one. Taught me some lessons I never forgot.
Today I have zero debt, the mortgage is paid off and my wife and I have a total retirement income of $6,297.73/month. Not rich but we should have a comfortable retirement.
My head in the toilet job taught me to plan for the future.
Oh what a horrible thing to ask people to live within their means! I guess Oklahoma is good enough for Warren Buffet, but how can anyone do such a cruel thing to the poor as to offer a low-income or no-income person an affordable home in Oklahoma rather than in three most expensive cities in the nation?
THAT, the demand to house the homeless in places like San Francisco or Manhattan, is a blatant example of overreach, of exploiting social assistance provided by taxpayers. You could probably house 20 people in Oklahoma for the price of housing 1 in San Francisco.
Warren Buffett lives in Omaha, not Oklahoma. Omaha is a lovely city in Nebraska.
I wish we all were as honest and generous as Buffett, but far too many Americans lack both of these traits.
A woman on Nextdoor was asking for boxes because she was moving to a town of 1500 people in Oklahoma because rent there was only 650/month. She didn’t know anyone there.
More people should have the common sense of that woman. People trying to live where they can't afford and not being adaptable leads to all kinds of unhappiness.
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