Baby Boomer Homelessness In America

Now it is official! I am a You Tuber. The following video and transcription is doing well, this week. 

It’s interesting to note the difficulty in knowing what video will do well and which will not. This week after doing this video, which I felt was probably going to be a dud, I decided to tell stories. 

Because the subject matter is about homelessness in my generation of Baby Boomers, many came by to give their perspective on their own experience of homelessness. It opened a can of worms, so to speak, on the lack of community in American society. 

Is it possible to go back to the commune days? That’s for another video.

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Even though the boomers are the wealthiest population segment in American society, an increase in the amount of homeless Boomers on the horizon and in present time is alarming.

I read these statistics in the Wall Street Journal. I believe it is important to face the realities instead of denying them.

The majority of Boomer wealth is held in real estate. These are the boomers that were born between 1946 and 1954. They own more property than the younger Boomers before me born between 1955-1964, who are struggling with homelessness as well. This is how the boomers are exacerbating the home shortage problem which in turn overwhelms local economies. 

As more of us age, more and more are finding an inability to afford taxes, insurance or general upkeep of our homes. 80% of older boomers, now mostly in their 70s, are homeowners. They were able to buy their homes when these homes were minimally priced. These homes are now paid off and older Boomers have chosen to age in place. 

They feel connection to the community where they live, but unfortunately, they feel that they are stuck with the homes that they have. If they wanted to buy another home, the cost would be out of reach.

Boomers are hanging onto their homes, which is contributing to the housing shortage we now see. It also contributes to rising home costs because it’s almost impossible to buy a home now. 

The millennials are at a prime home buying stage of their lives. They can’t afford to buy a home. That’s why millennials are furious at the boomers.

Fun fact – if you own a home in California, the property taxes will not go up. 

There is a small home movement, as you may know, and these homes are absolutely gorgeous. But you really have to downsize if you want to move into one. You certainly don’t want to rent storage units to put all of your possessions in.

A university of San Francisco study shows that over 40% of the homeless older adults in California are homeless for the first time after the age of 50. This could’ve been caused by a major health crisis or the loss of a spouse or loved one. We need a universal healthcare system to create a federal safety net for our older folks.

There are a lot of people who worked and didn’t contribute to Social Security such as restaurant workers, low skilled workers, migrant workers, construction workers who work in demolition. They could be eligible for supplemental security income, which comes to about $1000 a month, according to the article.

Homes at the very bottom of the housing market have been affected by the nationwide housing shortage. The supply of these marginal but available housing options shrinks in the context of a very real hot real estate market. 

The prices have gone up on properties that serve low income people such as hotels, etc. Now people want to sell to convert and knock down these properties and build new buildings. The assisted-living properties which were never built in adequate numbers to handle the large boomer population, have also been closing amid staffing shortages and financial troubles.

Academic researchers have attributed the different economic prospects of the older and younger boomers to something called the cohort effect. This is the idea that people born in the same period share unique experiences as they move across time. The older boomers in particular were coming of age into a prosperous economy. For decades thereafter interest rates fell, and that meant even though they were entering into homeownership at a time when rates were high, they were able to refinance time after time.

The second half of the boomer generation defined as born between 1955 to 1965, experienced back to back recessions, and faced a crowded housing market. Prices were escalating and young adults in particular faced challenges of gaining entry into the labor market. Jobs were rare at that time.

Over the next 10 years researchers are counting on what they call a silver tsunami, a huge wave of housing inventory from boomers aging out of their homes. They say this would free up housing for younger families but other housing expert say that that’s unlikely to happen. 

We will not see a silver tsunami, they say. We will see a trickle, but according to the experts, there will be a tsunami that happens all at once and unexpectedly. By 2030 all boomers will have reached traditional retirement age which researchers expect will only increase the pressure on healthcare facilities, shelters and retirement homes. 

A nursing home crisis will arise in the United States. We need a federal safety net for the homeless and for people who are struggling to live. The Biden administration budget has put $3 billion to address the elderly homelessness problem. This bill is not likely to pass this year. We’ve never seen a federal proposal of any kind to aid in homelessness in the elderly population. So that’s a conversation that’s happening.

We do not have communities that care for one another. We should go back to the Commune days of the 1960s and 70s, where people shared everything as they lived together. The nuclear family model has not worked.

We live in an age where the elderly aren’t given the sanctity and sacredness of life they deserve.

You can’t blame everything on the housing crisis. A major contributing factor is the lack of respect for the elderly in this country. 

This is when I introduce The Iceberg Effect.

Meet Kate and Dean Holland