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Homeless shelters are seeing more senior citizens with no place to live
Low-income seniors are struggling to find housing amid skyrocketing rents and widespread nursing home closures.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
As winter sets in, homeless shelters across the country are seeing more senior citizens with no place to live. There's a mix of reasons why. Montana Public Radio's Aaron Bolton reports.
LISA BEATY: Here, put that over there with that hat.
AARON BOLTON, BYLINE2: In the small town of Columbia Falls, Mont., 64-year-old Lisa Beaty sorts through piles of clothes, jewelry3 and family heirlooms she plans to sell because her landlord just doubled the rent.
BEATY: They're not evicting4 me. It's just that, you know, on a fixed5 income, I can't do it.
BOLTON: Beaty and her partner Kim Hilton, who's 68, both live on disability payments and can't find a rental6 they can afford.
KIM HILTON: This moving thing's just really got the both of us.
BEATY: Unfortunately, it's broke us up. Just...
HILTON: We're still going to be friends and everything, but we're going to be, you know, away from each other. And - I don't know. It's - yeah, it's - it hasn't been a good thing.
BOLTON: Beaty is moving into her daughter's one-bedroom apartment. Hilton, who's recovering from a broken leg and has lots of other health issues, is trying to get into an assisted living facility. He plans to live in his truck while he waits for an opening.
HILTON: That light at the end of the tunnel seems like it's going out.
BOLTON: Homeless advocacy groups say this kind of story is playing out across the country, as rents over the past year have skyrocketed, and thousands of seniors have been displaced by nursing home closures during the pandemic. It's impossible to say exactly how fast the elderly homeless population is growing. Counts typically exclude people over 50 as unsheltered populations rarely live past that age. But the mounting crisis is easy to see inside shelters.
LISA SIROIS: This is our women's wing
BOLTON: At the Poverello Center in Missoula, staffer Lisa Sirois says people 60 and older are quickly becoming one of the largest demographics they serve.
SIROIS: We definitely are seeing more and more, like, folks in their 70s. And we've definitely seen some in their 80s or 90s.
BOLTON: Walking the narrow stairwells in crowded rooms full of bunk7 beds, Sirois says the building simply isn't designed for seniors with mobility8 issues. Her staff aren't medically trained, and they can't help older guests manage conditions like incontinence.
SIROIS: So really, as soon as someone is unable to make it to the restroom on their own, regularly transfer on their own, really operate independently, we do have to ask them to leave.
BOLTON: Those seniors often have no place to go, says Brian Guyer, who works at the homeless shelter in Bozeman.
BRIAN GUYER: We had to ask this gentleman to find alternative place to stay. And he actually was found outside of a Lowe's store here in Bozeman.
BOLTON: The man had frozen to death. National advocacy groups say the situation didn't develop overnight but is becoming a crisis as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have failed to keep up with the true cost of aging for decades. Montana's population is among the oldest in America, and rents in much of the state are increasing much faster than the national average. In the last year, more than 10% of the state's nursing homes have closed. There are efforts to keep Montana's seniors in their homes, but there's broad agreement here that the real long-term solution is building more housing, specifically apartment buildings.
GREG GIANFORTE: When you put more units in a smaller space, costs go down, and units become more affordable9. It's no more complicated than that.
BOLTON: That's Montana's Republican governor, Greg Gianforte. He recently convened10 a task force on the housing crisis and thinks if government regulation is reduced, the free market will generate enough new housing. Advocates for homeless people, like Sean O'Neil, say the free market alone won't provide affordable housing. He favors state and local subsidies11.
SEAN O'NEIL: Talking and having those conversations is something we need to have. Otherwise, we're going to keep twiddling our thumbs and hoping that trickle-down housing will come to our seniors and fixed-income folks.
BOLTON: In the meantime, the number of seniors scrambling12 to find housing, like Kim Hilton and Lisa Beaty, continues to grow.
HILTON: I guess I'm ready there, dearie.
BOLTON: Leaving the apartment they've shared for the last seven years, she gives him a hug.
HILTON: You've done...
BEATY: (Crying) Be careful.
HILTON: You've done so much.
BEATY: (Crying) Be careful.
HILTON: I will.
BOLTON: Hilton reassures13 her, saying she can help him get settled at an assisted living facility soon. But when that opening will come, no one knows.
(SOUNDBITE OF ENGINE TURNING OVER)
BOLTON: For now, he drives off in search of a place to camp out while he waits for that call.
For NPR News, I'm Aaron Bolton in Columbia Falls, Mont.
1 transcript | |
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书 | |
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2 byline | |
n.署名;v.署名 | |
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3 jewelry | |
n.(jewllery)(总称)珠宝 | |
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4 evicting | |
v.(依法从房屋里或土地上)驱逐,赶出( evict的现在分词 ) | |
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5 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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6 rental | |
n.租赁,出租,出租业 | |
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7 bunk | |
n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位;废话 | |
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8 mobility | |
n.可动性,变动性,情感不定 | |
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9 affordable | |
adj.支付得起的,不太昂贵的 | |
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10 convened | |
召开( convene的过去式 ); 召集; (为正式会议而)聚集; 集合 | |
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11 subsidies | |
n.补贴,津贴,补助金( subsidy的名词复数 ) | |
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12 scrambling | |
v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 );攀登;争夺;(军事飞机)紧急起飞 | |
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13 reassures | |
v.消除恐惧或疑虑,恢复信心( reassure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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