A feisty 98 year old woman in San Francisco gets an eviction notice and she is fighting back.
http://www.rawstory.com/...
Landlords in San Francisco are using the 1986 Ellis Act law to evict long time and often low income and elderly residents, in order to sell in the housing market and make a huge profit.
I don't know what the answer is on how to solve this problem. I just know that there aren't any low income housing options for the seniors and the poor in these cities.
They have been left behind.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES BELOW THE FOLD
The homeless population has exploded in recent years. In 2011 there were about 45,000 homeless seniors.
Now there are estimated to be more than more than 58,000 seniors in the USA as of 2012 and that number
is expected to go up to 95,000 by 2050. I suspect that is a low estimate given that the numbers went up by 25% in just one year.
The 2008 crash has led many people, who are not yet old enough to draw on social security, to become jobless often for the first time in their lives. Their 401k's also took a big hit and many have cashed them out in order to survive until they could find a job that never materialized.
There are so many people who are looking for jobs that employers are picky. They often don't want to take on anyone who is over 50 years old. People who also have disabilities often have an even tougher time finding a job they can do. As a result the social security crisis is going to become worse as for every year these people don't have a job also means their social security payments will be less than what they would have been had they been able to keep working.
There are 9 million seniors in this country right now who can't afford to pay their bills now and if chained CPI goes through, or even a reduction in benefits goes through, it will mean even more homeless seniors. Not every senior has someone who can take them in. Since Ronald Reagan's Administration, many have fallen through the cracks with the dismantling of mental healthcare and fewer section 8 housing slots for the homeless and low income people in general and seniors in particular. In many of our largest cities a 1 room flat can run $2000/month.
When the average social security wage for a senior is only $1300/month and half of them make far less than that, it becomes a major problem. CPI (Consumer price index) already doesn't keep up with inflation as the costs of supplemental insurance, co-pays, drug, food, fuel,
heating and cooling costs are all rising much faster than overall inflation.
There is also another health crisis looming in that many seniors wind up with dementia and Alzheimers and the costs for taking care of them in a home starts at $5,000/ month and goes up from there if you can even find a facility in your area that will take them. Medicare doesn't cover any long term care facility and if you don't have the long term care insurance and your family (if you have one) can't afford it, they are often left with no option but to drop off their relative at a homeless shelter and hope for the best.
In many cities homelessness has been criminalized and there are few shelters or help for them.
There are many homeless vets who suffer from PTSD and there is very little help out there for them either, though they do have it better than others who aren't vets in some ways due to their access to the VA.
Food Poverty Affects 1 in 7 of America's Elderly
TAKE NOTICE: A Camp for the Homeless
Homeless in San Jose- Part 1
Tent city of homeless people in San Jose Ca
Welcome Home: The Rise of Tent Cities in the United States
Robots, unemployment, and basic income
Other sources
http://kalw.org/...
http://www.sfgate.com/...
http://www.thenation.com/...
http://ecs-sf.org/...
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/...
http://www.nationalhomeless.org/...
http://cmfmedia.org/...
http://homeless.samhsa.gov/...
Here is an appropriate song for this.
[Official Video] Say Something - Pentatonix (A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera Cover)