I saw her multiple times from the window of the Number 33 bus as we drove past Tenley Circle NW: an older white woman seated on the bench fronted by stacks of black containers, her luggage inside a large cart. It didn’t matter the weather — rain, sweltering heat — she was there with all her bags sitting at the bus stop but not boarding any bus.
As an urban dweller, people experiencing homelessness have never been alien to me. Still, the sight of an elderly woman on the street affected me greatly. Was she someone’s grandmother? Was anyone looking for her? How had she come to be in such seemingly dire straits?
What was her story?
I promised myself that the next time I saw her, I’d ask that question. She has suddenly disappeared, however.
In 2023, as many as 139,098 homeless people nationwide were aged 55 and older; 63,644 or 46% were sleeping on the streets. In the District, 32.9% of homeless individuals are over 55 years old. Interestingly 37.3% of the country’s homeless population is Black and 49.7% is white — a notable contrast to the situation in DC, where 75.8% of homeless individuals identify as Black, African American or African.
The elderly are the fastest growing age group experiencing homelessness, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The federal government has estimated that the number of unhoused seniors could triple by 2030.
President Joe Biden two years ago set a goal of reducing homelessness by 25% by 2025. Given the rising cost of housing that we are seeing around the country, including in DC, I am less than sanguine about the efficacy of their efforts.
Truth be told, those facts aren’t what inspired me to look into this issue. Over the past couple of weeks I have agonized over the woman at the bus stop.
Where is she?
I reached out to Friendship Place, an award-winning nonprofit I knew about but with which I had never interacted. Perhaps someone there would know her, I thought. They said they hadn’t seen her.
Friendship Place began after a contentious communitywide debate in 1991 triggered by the DC government’s plan to establish an emergency men’s shelter at Guy Mason Recreation Center, according to Chris Rutledge, Friendship’s vice president for external affairs. “There were two factions of neighbors: one who did not want that to happen because they didn’t think there was a need in the Upper Northwest.
“The second group said, ‘Well, wait a second. We know that there are people who are struggling with housing in the Upper Northwest,’” he explained during a recent interview I had with him and his colleague Lynn Amano, director of advocacy.
“That second group went out and engaged a social worker who did a census and found that certainly there were people, even in the Upper Northwest, who were living in garages, alleys and cars, who needed help,” continued Rutledge.
In the end, DC officials didn’t establish the men’s shelter. However, the group of Ward 3 residents who became concerned about homelessness bought a van and began to provide services to people they met on the street. Later, they bought a house at 4713 Wisconsin Ave. NW where a flower shop had been located and turned it into a Welcome Center — a place that when I toured it felt warm and homey.
The center serves many of the practical needs of Friendship’s clients. For example, there are two medical suites, operated by Unity Health Clinic. A small office is provided for private conversations with case managers; that space also holds containers of various supplies and materials like socks, underwear and toiletries. There is a kitchen with a washer and dryer. And there is a mail room.
“We can be their fixed address,” explained Rutledge. “It’s all about maintaining people’s dignity in a difficult time.”
Dignity is a fragile but essential thing, I learned years ago from an instructor at Trinity Washington University. Homelessness makes it hard to maintain. That task is even more difficult for a senior citizen who is living on the street, despite age and whatever their previous contributions to society.
The folks at Friendship Place have become increasingly concerned about aging and homelessness, especially as the “the baby boomer population moves into senior years,” explained Amano.
“We wanted to sort of take a look at the system, and how well the system was meeting the needs of that older population who has a different set of needs from younger people who are homeless,” she added.
They’ve just started delving into the subject, but have already established an advocacy group to push for improvements that would fill the gaps that currently exist.
Amano said the change in income upon retirement can lead to seniors being unable to keep their homes. “If they’re renting, for example, rent prices go up, and they lose the ability to essentially make ends meet, and eventually, that can lead to homelessness.
“A person [also] can become homeless because they had a medical incident and weren’t able to pay their medical bills, and then they lost their housing because they had to use the money they would have paid for rent to cover whatever medical bills they had,” said Amano.
“That’s a fairly common thing that happens, just because of how our medical system is set up.”
Ironically, the person affected has sacrificed their living space to pay a medical bill — an act that pushes them into homelessness, which then negatively impacts their health.
It can become a vicious cycle.
“When you’re living on the street, your body ages, 10 to 20 years beyond your actual chronological age,” continued Amano, adding that at 55 many homeless individuals experience chronic diseases typical of those 65 or 75 years old. “Because it’s just that harsh to be out in the elements, sleeping on the ground, or whatever.”
Further, elderly people sleeping outside may be harassed by others or mugged, exacerbating the level of anxiety and trauma.
There are many areas “where we can adapt this system to help better serve those individuals that fall into that older category,” said Amano. Consider, for example, the mobility of seniors who may not be able to climb into the bunk bed in a shelter. “If you have cancer, you cannot necessarily access regular care in a congregate shelter. Or you might be immunocompromised, so you might not be able to be there in the shelter.
“If you have breathing issues like COPD, you can’t access an oxygen tank if you’re out living on the street or living in the shelter,” Amano added.
As she ran through the list, I kept thinking of the woman at the bus stop. Was she as old as I imagined or did she just seem older? Was she suffering from any of the ailments and illnesses Amano cited?
There are also the simple issues that affect many in the general aging population. For example, who reminds the elderly homeless living on the street about taking their medications?
“You might need help with any of the activities of daily living, like moving from your wheelchair to a bed, or from your bed to a bathroom, or whatever. All of those things don’t go away just because you’re experiencing homelessness,” said Amano.
The DC Department of Aging and Community Living has various programs that help aging residents stay in their homes. In some neighborhoods, there are Senior Villages, which are nonprofit membership organizations typically run by volunteers that create a sense of community and communal living that is comfortable, protective and based somewhat on shared resources. Equally important, some individuals eligible for Medicaid may have the option of having a home health aide to help them with cooking and cleaning.
Amano and Rutledge praise these programs and benefits. Are they enough, however?
“I think that people don’t necessarily realize that the population is aging at the rate that it is,” said Amano. “I don’t think that we have equipped ourselves well enough for both affordable housing and places that can provide the kind of supportive services that our seniors need — both our seniors experiencing homelessness and seniors in general.
“A lot of what you’re talking about, the Villages, that’s great for housed seniors, right? It’s not really something that benefits people who are experiencing homelessness,” added Amano.
When I asked what the city could do to improve services to those already homeless, she said, among other things, DC could establish on-site medical teams — doctors, nurses or certified nursing assistants — to help persons who are in shelters, short-term housing or permanent supportive housing facilities, which would “make a substantial difference in quality of life.”
“We don’t have people to coordinate the care or advocate for people who are older who are experiencing homelessness,” said Amano. “Like my mom has the benefit of me helping to make sure she can get to appointments, helping to make sure she gets the medication that she needs. People who are experiencing homelessness generally don’t have that.
“Some sort of medical care coordination would be something else I think that we should be taking a look at,” added Amano.
For now, the folks at Friendship Place are critical to helping people who are homeless find their way forward. It manages a network of shelters, short-term housing and permanent supportive housing, including La Casa for men in Columbia Heights and The Brooks for families in Ward 3. At the Welcome Center, it sees as many as 300 individuals a month.
“It’s a facility where people can come and get a hot meal, get out of the heat, get out of the cold, and get out of the rain on a day like today,” said Rutledge. “We serve about 5,000 people a year, and we do it through a variety of programs, including some buildings we operate on behalf of the [DC government].
“We provide a veterans program funded by the VA,” continued Rutledge, adding that the organization also operates street outreach and young adult programs, which for the most part are privately funded through grants and community donations.
“We just look to see where the need is and try to fulfill that need,” he added, placing several information cards in my hand as the tour of the Welcome Center ended. I put all but one in my purse.
I walked up the hill to Tenley Circle, holding that single card in my hand, hoping the woman at the bus stop was there. She wasn’t. Maybe another woman can benefit, I told myself. After all, contrary to a common misconception, 38% of the homeless population nationwide are women.
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