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Owning your home free and clear by retirement is just impossible for many.
Incorrect. Data show ~ 70% of seniors have no mortgage whatsoever. Thus, it is not only possible, it is true for the majority.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GotHereQuickAsICould
Imagine retiring on SS with less than $100,000 or so in the bank.
Imagine how long it will be before some of them will be living in their vans, or depending on government subsidizes to exist.
All of these people had college educations, decent jobs, and every expectation that their lives would not end up like this.
Looking at the source data for the clickbait article in the original post, it appears about half of all homeless seniors are people who have been marginally attached to housing most of their lives -- in and out of shelters, couch surfing, perhaps an apartment for a while before leaving it behind, living on the street - and repeating. Odd jobs here, odd jobs there, abandoning the job for whatever reason. They haven't had steady work for any number of reasons.
That is, there is nothing new there to see.
The other half are people who "never thought they'd be homeless." Actually, they never "thought" much about anything. They never prepared, period. Some retired early with little savings without ever thinking that there might be this thing called Inflation. Interviews document they just assumed - with no higher order thought processes involved - that their meager SS check would be all they ever needed. They lack the capacity to think ahead and plan for an uncertain future.
I walked about 2 miles to school (it was in Zagreb), and yes, usually wore one pair of shoes until they fell apart, then would get another pair. The housing situation which I described is not something I consider to have been a "rough spot" - on the contrary, note that I described it as a completely satisfactory, workable solution for my family in financial/housing constraints. The reason why we all left ex-Yu was not economic.
Anyone with a brain is aware that Yugoslavia was obviously NOT a great place, particularly in its final pre-war and war decade. Most of my memories of it are awful - just about the only fond ones I have from there are memories of some Yugoslav rock bands ("mala moja, da sam bijelo duuug..." :-). Last time I visited any place anywhere in the ex-Yu territory was in 1986, and I have no desire to visit it again - that tells you how fond my memories are :-). But my lack of fondness has nothing to do with any FINANCIAL hardship I experienced there (we dealt with that without major difficulty) - it is entirely due to hatred and danger I experienced there.
Anyway, since this is already way off-off-off topic, and to not leave this tangent just as a cryptic convo between that other poster and me (which nobody else understands), this is the explanation of what I was referring to as my only fond memory of an otherwise awful place. Please listen to the whole thing before forming musical opinion :
I wish we could find out what happened to former poster PhinneyWalker, a senior who ended up homeless and then stopped posting (or was banned). She definitely didn't strike me as an addict or criminal type. If anyone knows what happened to her please post an update.
Incorrect. Data show ~ 70% of seniors have no mortgage whatsoever. Thus, it is not only possible, it is true for the majority.
Looking at the source data for the clickbait article in the original post, it appears about half of all homeless seniors are people who have been marginally attached to housing most of their lives -- in and out of shelters, couch surfing, perhaps an apartment for a while before leaving it behind, living on the street - and repeating. Odd jobs here, odd jobs there, abandoning the job for whatever reason. They haven't had steady work for any number of reasons.
That is, there is nothing new there to see.
The other half are people who "never thought they'd be homeless." Actually, they never "thought" much about anything. They never prepared, period. Some retired early with little savings without ever thinking that there might be this thing called Inflation. Interviews document they just assumed - with no higher order thought processes involved - that their meager SS check would be all they ever needed. They lack the capacity to think ahead and plan for an uncertain future.
They did it to themselves.
Good grief, where do you get this BS?
Over 25% of seniors rent. Of course, they are mortgage free.
Of the 75% who "own' homes.
"Thirty years ago, just one of every four homeowners in their late 60s to late 70s still had a mortgage – today, nearly half do. Once people hit 80, mortgages used to be extremely rare – only 3 percent had them. Today, it’s one in four, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies recently reported."
And yes, many never make enough money consistently to buy their own home.
Some, of course, are just poor planners.
But others have cognitive issues or mental health issues that limit their employment options. Some are just the victims of a unfortunate circumstances.
Just because you are on top of the world with paid for home and everything coming up rosy doesn't mean everyone is.
Over 25% of seniors rent. Of course, they are mortgage free.
Of the 75% who "own' homes.
"Thirty years ago, just one of every four homeowners in their late 60s to late 70s still had a mortgage – today, nearly half do. Once people hit 80, mortgages used to be extremely rare – only 3 percent had them. Today, it’s one in four, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies recently reported."
There are more than 55.8 million people aged 65+ in the US. If there are 40,000 homeless people in that age group, that means 1 out of each 1,375 American seniors is homeless - not a very dramatically large part of the US senior population, ie, quite bit less than 0.01% of seniors.
Large Sun Valley trailer park in Nevada has about 20,000 residents. Two Sun Valley trailer parks would house all homeless seniors in the US.
I wish we could find out what happened to former poster PhinneyWalker, a senior who ended up homeless and then stopped posting (or was banned). She definitely didn't strike me as an addict or criminal type. If anyone knows what happened to her please post an update.
IIRC, she was temporarily homeless, moving into an apartment November 1 but having had to leave her previous place a month before, so she had a gap of no place to stay between apartments and was sleeping in her car until her move-in date.
Why would that cause of homelessness suddenly change as my generation enters the senior age? If someone was a homeless addict at the age of 35, why is it so unexpected (provided that he survives to senior age) that he would be a homeless addict at 65?
What is the overlap of 40k homeless seniors with over 1,000k (ie,over 1 million) addicted seniors? I don't know. Although addicts generally look older than they are, A LOT of addicts nodding on fentanyl or raging on meth in the streets of San Francisco appear to me my age or even older.
There are more than 55.8 million people aged 65+ in the US. If there are 40,000 homeless people in that age group, that means 1 out of each 1,375 American seniors is homeless - not a very dramatically large part of the US senior population, ie, quite bit less than 0.01% of seniors.
Large Sun Valley trailer park in Nevada has about 20,000 residents. Two Sun Valley trailer parks would house all homeless seniors in the US.
I'm assuming that we are both talking about the same "Sun Valley trailer park" in Nevada. When I lived in Reno there were a lot of mobile homes in the "Sun Valley" area north of Reno, but they weren't cheap...I thought maybe they might be selling for less but the site I found has 25 trailers for sale with the cheapest priced at $180,000 and the most expensive $409,000. There is one rental available for $1250 and the highest is $2700 (data from RealEstate.com) I'm not sure how a homeless elderly person could afford that.
Over 25% of seniors rent. Of course, they are mortgage free.
Of the 75% who "own' homes.
"Thirty years ago, just one of every four homeowners in their late 60s to late 70s still had a mortgage – today, nearly half do. Once people hit 80, mortgages used to be extremely rare – only 3 percent had them. Today, it’s one in four, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies recently reported."
And yes, many never make enough money consistently to buy their own home.
Some, of course, are just poor planners.
But others have cognitive issues or mental health issues that limit their employment options. Some are just the victims of a unfortunate circumstances.
Just because you are on top of the world with paid for home and everything coming up rosy doesn't mean everyone is.
To continue with my numbers, 1 out of 1,375 Americans over 65 is homeless. In that age population there are more than 5 women for every 4 men, so if older men are at the same risk of homelessness as women, then we could expect that about 1 in every 765 senior women in the US is homeless. Compare that with a lifetime risk of breast cancer among the US women, which is 1 in 28 at the age of 60, and 1 in 24 at the age of 70. I don't think risk of homelessness is anywhere remotely near the biggest concerns for seniors in the US.
Last edited by elnrgby; 12-03-2023 at 03:28 PM..
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