Homelessness Is Getting Older: Early Aging and Early Death After 50

Homelessness is getting older. On one night in January 2025, 148,776 people aged 55 and over were homeless in the United States, one in five of everyone counted^[1]. In California in 2021–22, nearly half of single homeless adults were 50 or older, and 41% of them first lost their home at 50 or older^[2].

Behind those figures are two quite different paths into later-life homelessness. Some people have been without a stable home, on and off, since young adulthood, and are now growing old in shelters, cars and on the street. Others had worked, rented and raised families for decades, then lost a job, a partner or a tenancy in their fifties or sixties, and found nothing they could afford. Either way, they reach the conditions of old age early: falls, failing eyesight, memory problems and difficulty with everyday tasks, in places that were never designed for people who need a grab rail, a lift or a quiet night’s sleep. This study sets out what counts and research from five countries show, and what services and policy could do differently.

One in five homeless people in the US is 55 or older, and the number over 65 is still growing

The United States has the most detailed national count by age: every January, people in shelters, transitional housing and unsheltered places are counted on a single night, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) publishes the totals. In 2025 the count found 745,652 people homeless. Of these, 103,780 (13.9%) were aged 55 to 64 and 44,996 (6.0%) were 65 or over^[1]. Among people homeless on their own rather than in families, the share was higher still: 19.7% were 55 to 64 and 8.6% were 65 or over, so more than a quarter of homeless single adults were 55 or older^[1].

While overall homelessness fell by 3.3% between 2024 and 2025, the number of people aged 65 and over rose by 2,849, or 6.8%, from 42,147^[1][4]. HUD only began recording these age bands in 2023, so a longer national trend by age cannot yet be drawn from the count itself^[1].

Researchers have a reason to expect this growth. Analysing census and shelter records, Dennis Culhane and colleagues found that single-adult homelessness in the US was concentrated among people born in the second half of the post-war baby boom, from 1955 to 1965. They argue that rising homelessness at 65 and over does not reflect a new risk among older adults, but this cohort carrying its high rates of homelessness from late middle age into old age^[5]. Their 2019 projection, extrapolated from three cities and described by the authors as one to be “treated with some caution”, suggested the homeless population aged 65 and over could grow from 40,000 in 2017 to 106,000 by 2030^[5]. It is a model built on past shelter use, not a forecast.

Other countries count differently, and Ireland’s figures exclude people sleeping rough, so the figures below show that older people are a substantial part of homelessness everywhere they are counted, not which country has more. Australia estimates homelessness from its census. On census night in 2021, 19,378 people aged 55 and over were homeless, one in seven (15.8%) of the 122,494 people estimated to be homeless^[6]. The number has risen at every census since 2006, from 12,461, although the rate among older Australians fell slightly between 2016 and 2021, from 29 to 26 per 10,000. Older men were homeless at a much higher rate than older women: 34 per 10,000 against 19^[6]. In Canada, the third nationally coordinated point-in-time count, run in 66 communities between 2020 and 2022, surveyed more than 20,000 people in 59 of them; 23% were “older adults” aged 50 to 64 and 4% were 65 or over^[7]. Ireland publishes monthly counts of adults in emergency accommodation: in August 2026, 271 of 12,055 adults (2.2%) were 65 or over, and a further 3,394 were aged 45 to 64^[8].

Two in five older homeless adults in California lost their home for the first time after 50

Older homeless people are often pictured as having been homeless for years. That is only part of the story. The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness, run by the University of California San Francisco from October 2021 to November 2022 with nearly 3,200 questionnaires, found that 48% of single homeless adults were 50 or older. Among them, 41% had become homeless for the first time at 50 or older^[2].

An earlier cohort in Oakland, California, called HOPE HOME, found almost the same thing. Of 350 homeless adults aged 50 and over recruited through population-based sampling, 43.4% had their first episode of adult homelessness at 50 or older^[9]. The two groups had different lives behind them. People who first became homeless before 50 had more often experienced mental health and substance use problems and imprisonment, and were less likely to have married or worked full time. People who first became homeless later had more often reached those ordinary adult milestones^[9].

A 2026 scoping review of 65 studies drew the same distinction across countries. People whose homelessness began in later life were more likely to be women, had usually had relatively stable lives in economic terms, and had experienced a sudden change in relationships or income^[10]. Across the studies, the review found the same structural factors: a lack of affordable housing or income support, and systemic discrimination^[10].

The pattern is not identical everywhere. In Canada’s 2020–22 survey, 12% of all respondents first became homeless at 50 to 64 and 2% at 65 or over, while 46% had first been homeless before the age of 25^[7]. For more on the role of low income in later life, see our study of older people on low incomes.

At 50 to 60, homeless adults live with the conditions of people 20 years older

Geriatric conditions are the problems of old age that decide whether someone can live independently. Among the 350 HOPE HOME participants in Oakland, whose median age was 58^[11], 38.9% had difficulty with one or more activities of daily living, 33.7% had fallen in the past six months, 25.8% had cognitive impairment, 45.1% had vision impairment and 48.0% screened positive for urinary incontinence^[12]. The researchers found these conditions were more common than among housed adults 20 years older, and just as common whether people slept outside, in shelters, or with family and friends^[12].

A study of 247 homeless adults aged 50 to 69 in eight Boston shelters (mean age 56) found a similar picture: 30% had difficulty with at least one activity of daily living, 53.2% had fallen in the past year, 24.3% had cognitive impairment on a standard screening test and 49.8% reported urinary incontinence^[13]. After adjusting for demographic differences, they were more likely than older people in three population-based cohorts to have functional impairment, frailty, depression, visual impairment and incontinence^[13].

California’s statewide study shows this is not confined to one city. Among participants aged 50 and older, 53% described their health as fair or poor, against 22% of the general US population aged 65 and over; 68% had a chronic health condition; about 43% had difficulty with at least one activity of daily living; and 33% used a mobility aid such as a cane, walker or wheelchair^[2].

Falls show how the conditions of homelessness add to those of age. In HOPE HOME, spending any nights unsheltered was associated with 1.42 times the odds of a fall, and being physically assaulted with 1.67 times the odds, after accounting for health and other factors^[11]. These are associations, but they point to environments as a target for prevention.

Homelessness in later life is linked to dying in one’s early sixties

HOPE HOME followed 450 adults who were homeless and aged 50 or over when they joined, from 2013. Over the follow-up, 117 (26%) died, at a median age of 64.6^[3]. Their age-standardised death rate was 3.5 times that of adults in Oakland as a whole. The most common causes of death were heart disease and cancer (each 14.5% of deaths) and drug overdose (12.0%)^[3].

Two findings matter especially for policy. Being homeless at a follow-up interview, compared with being housed, was associated with a higher risk of death (adjusted hazard ratio 1.82), and so was a first episode of homelessness at 50 or older (1.62)^[3]. Substance use and mental health problems were not independently associated with death once other factors were taken into account^[3]. The study cannot prove that homelessness itself caused these deaths, but it suggests that people who lose their home for the first time in later life are at particular risk, and that the risk is lower for those who are housed again.

National figures from England and Wales point the same way, though they cover all ages. The Office for National Statistics estimated 974 deaths of people experiencing homelessness registered in 2025. Among identified deaths of people aged 15 to 74, the mean age at death was 47.3 for men and 43.2 for women, against 61.1 and 62.1 for all men and women dying in the same age range; more deaths of homeless men occurred at ages 50 to 54 than in any other age group^[14]. Mean age at death is not life expectancy, and the estimates are conservative^[14]. What they show is that many people who are homeless in midlife do not reach old age at all.

Homelessness services and older people’s services rarely meet

Homelessness services were largely built for younger adults; services for older people usually assume a fixed address. In the US count, people aged 55 and over were among the groups most likely to be in shelter rather than unsheltered, yet 64,187 of them, about 43%, were still counted in unsheltered locations on a January night in 2025^[1]. In Canada, older adults and seniors were more likely than younger people to be placed in hotel or motel shelter programmes: 14% of those aged 50 to 64 and 17% of those 65 and over, against 7% of young people aged 13 to 24^[7].

Income support does not always reach those who qualify. In California, 35% of homeless participants aged 65 and over received Supplemental Security Income, the federal payment for people with low incomes who are 65 or older or disabled^[2]. One in four (25%) participants aged 50 and over reported a hospitalisation^[2], and the Culhane team’s analysis of US records found a small group, 3% of their sample, with the heaviest use of hospitals and nursing homes^[5]. When there is no home to return to, hospital and nursing-home beds often take its place.

Older homeless people are also not a uniform group. In California, 31% of homeless adults aged 50 and over identified as Black, compared with 23% of younger participants^[2]; the scoping review lists systemic discrimination among the structural causes of later-life homelessness^[10]. Many older veterans and people leaving prison face particular routes into homelessness; see our studies of older veterans and older people in prison.

What the evidence asks of us

• Prevent first homelessness in later life. Around two in five older homeless adults in two Californian studies lost their home for the first time after 50, and in HOPE HOME a first episode at that age was associated with higher mortality^[2][9][3]. The scoping review points to affordable housing and income support as the structural levers^[10]. Eviction prevention, help with arrears and benefit take-up for people in their fifties and sixties are where the opportunity lies.
• Rehouse quickly, without preconditions. A meta-analysis of four randomised trials of Housing First, which offers permanent housing without requiring abstinence, found participants were 2.46 times as likely to be housed after 18 to 24 months, with fewer emergency department visits (rate ratio 0.63) and hospital admissions (0.76), and no clear difference in substance use. The trials were judged at high risk of bias and were not limited to older adults^[15].
• Bring geriatric care to where people are. The HOPE HOME authors conclude that services addressing geriatric conditions are needed across every setting where older homeless adults stay^[12]: falls prevention, sight and continence care, memory assessment and accessible shelters.
• Count older people properly. HUD began recording older age bands only in 2023^[1], and the scoping review found age- and sex-disaggregated analyses among the main research gaps^[10]. Every country that counts homelessness could publish age bands up to 65 and over, sheltered and unsheltered.

The HOPE HOME investigators put it simply: there is “an urgent need for policy approaches to prevent and end homelessness among older adults”^[3].

Language: this piece says “older people” rather than “the elderly”, and describes “people experiencing homelessness” or “older people who are homeless”, as most organisations working in homelessness prefer; it keeps “homeless adults” where a study uses that term.

Why we're publishing this

Older people who are homeless are counted in national statistics but are often missing from the conversation about aging, and their needs are often missing from homelessness services. We have brought the evidence together so that the organisations that house and support them, and the people they work with, can make their case to commissioners and governments with figures they can cite.

How to read this data

Point-in-time and census counts (US, Canada, Australia, Ireland) record how many people were homeless at one time; each defines homelessness differently and misses people, especially those hidden from view. Cohort and survey studies (HOPE HOME, Boston, California) measure health directly but come from particular US places, and their results are associations, not proof of cause. Mortality figures from England and Wales are modelled estimates covering all ages from 15 to 74. Older age is defined as 50, 55 or 65 depending on the source, because homeless people develop age-related conditions early. Evidence from low- and middle-income countries, where much homelessness is not counted at all, is very thin, and this study cannot speak for those countries.

Use this data

Free to cite with attribution to Understanding Aging. Homelessness and housing organisations, campaigners and journalists are welcome to reuse these figures and charts. For the underlying figures as a spreadsheet, get in touch.

Important: This article summarises published research and statistics for general information. It is not medical, care or financial advice and cannot be used to diagnose, treat or predict anything about an individual. If you have concerns about your own or someone else’s health or housing, please speak to a GP, another qualified health professional or a local housing advice service.

Sources

1. US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The 2025 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness. HUD, 2026. huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2025-AHAR-Part-1.pdf
2. Kushel M, Moore T, et al. Toward a New Understanding: The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness. UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, 2023. homelessness.ucsf.edu/…/CASPEH_Report_62023.pdf
3. Brown RT, Evans JL, Valle K, Guzman D, Chen YH, Kushel MB. Factors associated with mortality among homeless older adults in California: the HOPE HOME study. JAMA Internal Medicine, 2022. europepmc.org/article/MED/36036902
4. US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, Part 1. HUD, 2024. huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf
5. Culhane D, Treglia D, Byrne T, Metraux S, Kuhn R, Doran K, et al. The Emerging Crisis of Aged Homelessness: Could Housing Solutions Be Funded by Avoidance of Excess Shelter, Hospital, and Nursing Home Costs? Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy, University of Pennsylvania, 2019. aisp.upenn.edu/…/Emerging-Crisis-of-Aged-Homelessness-1.pdf
6. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Estimating Homelessness: Census, 2021. ABS, 2023. abs.gov.au/statistics/people/housing/estimating-homelessness-census
7. Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada. Everyone Counts 2020–2022: Preliminary Highlights Report. Government of Canada, 2023. housing-infrastructure.canada.ca/…/pit-counts-dp-2020-2022-highlights-eng.html
8. Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Homelessness Report August 2026 (and August 2025), regional data. Government of Ireland, 2026. opendata.housing.gov.ie/…/homelessness-report-august-2026.csv
9. Brown RT, Goodman L, Guzman D, Tieu L, Ponath C, Kushel MB. Pathways to homelessness among older homeless adults: results from the HOPE HOME study. PLoS One, 2016. europepmc.org/article/MED/27163478
10. Hoang PM, Samra RA, van Ballegooie C, et al. Risk factors and circumstances associated with homelessness in older adults: a scoping review of quantitative and qualitative studies. The Gerontologist, 2026. europepmc.org/article/MED/41397904
11. Abbs E, Brown R, Guzman D, Kaplan L, Kushel M. Risk factors for falls in older adults experiencing homelessness: results from the HOPE HOME cohort study. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2020. europepmc.org/article/MED/31965522
12. Brown RT, Hemati K, Riley ED, Lee CT, Ponath C, Tieu L, Guzman D, Kushel MB. Geriatric conditions in a population-based sample of older homeless adults. The Gerontologist, 2017. europepmc.org/article/MED/26920935
13. Brown RT, Kiely DK, Bharel M, Mitchell SL. Geriatric syndromes in older homeless adults. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2012. europepmc.org/article/MED/21879368
14. Office for National Statistics. Deaths of people experiencing homelessness in England and Wales: 2013 to 2025 registrations. ONS, 2026. ons.gov.uk/…/deathsofhomelesspeopleinenglandandwales/latest
15. Baxter AJ, Tweed EJ, Katikireddi SV, Thomson H. Effects of Housing First approaches on health and well-being of adults who are homeless or at risk of homelessness: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2019. europepmc.org/article/MED/30777888