Kūpuna houselessness is becoming a crisis for Hawaiʻi
The growing crisis of people not being able to afford housing is a difficult situation. The increasing crisis of homelessness in Hawai'i is becoming a crisis for the state of the island, particularly in the elderly population. The issue arose in 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Medicare system to offset the costs of medical care for our elderly citizens. However, the system is currently in a dire situation, with affordable housing not yet meeting the need for many promises. Laura Thielen, Executive Director for Partners in Care, who oversees and assists all houseless programs and agencies in the realm of affordable housing and houlselessness, expressed a significant increase in houelessness among those who are 62 years of age and older. The increase in unsheltered kūpuna is attributed to an increase in elderly people, with over 1,100 individuals aged 60 years and older, and an increase of 23% of those experiencing houpuna living on the streets. The supply of housing is not matching the need within the community, and this has led to increased evictions for those with limited incomes and fixed incomes.
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HONOLULU (KHON2) — The growing crisis of people not being able to afford housing is a difficult situation.
If we lower prices, then the wealthy don’t have as much surplus profits. If we eliminate houselessness, then non-profits and state/federal/city/county agencies would lose funding, which means people would lose their jobs.
This makes it difficult to get any real movement on eradicating houselessness.
In 1965, the senior citizen houseless problem was so great that President Lyndon B. Johnson created the Medicare system. This was meant to offset the costs of medical care for our elderly citizens, one of the most common reasons kūpuna end up houseless.
But with Medicare being a seemingly universal opportunity for politicians to sow discord, the system is in a dire situation.
Then, there’s affordable housing that doesn’t quite seem to ever come to fruition regardless of how many times we are promised that it will.
“When we say that we want to end houselessness and that we want to increase affordable housing that we treat it like the crisis that it is,” said Laura Thielen who is the Executive Director for Partners in Care. “It is people’s mothers, fathers, kids, relatives and friends who are impacted by houselessness. It’s a crisis, and we need to treat it as a public health crisis that it is.”
Thielen works with the houseless populations of Oahu, and she was able to provide a bit of insight into the troubling increase of kūpuna who are finding themselves to be unsheltered. Her organization, Partners in Care, oversees and assists all houseless programs and agencies that work in the realm of affordable housing and houselessness.
“We’re seeing a dramatic increase in houselessness amongst those who are 62 years of age and older,” said Thielen. “In the 2023 Point in Time Count, we saw a significant increase; and part of that is due to the obvious increase of rental housing costs and the lack of affordable housing that’s available out there. So, the supply of housing is not matching the need within our community, both at just a structural level of having enough housing, but also with the rental costs. That’s also impacting seniors in a greater number over the last couple of years.”
Theilen explained that lots of families have had to move away from Hawaiʻi to be able to afford housing.
“This has interrupted the traditional intergenerational support for people who are kūpuna that have lived here all their lives and now are possibly facing eviction due to nonpayment of rent because their limited income and their fixed income will not meet the needs of the rental market,” said Theilen.
She said that Oahu, in particular, Oahu saw that approximately 23% of those experiencing houselessness and unsheltered, meaning they are literally out on the streets. About 23% of those were elderly which accounts for over 1,100 individuals who are unsheltered on our streets that are 60 years and older.
Theilen said that this is a significant increase since 2016.
“It’s about 12%,” revealed Theilen. “And we’re seeing that that number is not going to do anything but increase over the coming years because we do have an aging population here in Hawaiʻi. And the rents will not be able to house individuals on a fixed income of social security and the great expense of medical that really takes away a lot of the flexible funds that people have.”
She also explained that houseless kūpuna with cognitive decline have no help in our current system.
“We do not have the resources to take in medically fragile people,” explained Theilen. “Because of that, unfortunately, some of them are staying on the streets longer because we’re not able to connect them as quickly as we would like to, to other resources such as care homes; but we’re working on to make sure that going forward that care homes and any other resource that is available to us is utilized as quickly as possible to make sure that no one slips into houselessness.”
And you guessed it, COVID continues to impact us.
“We’re seeing that increase at a steady pace over the last couple of years, but this past year [due to] the effects of COVID has also added to those medically fragile individuals,” said Theilen. “And what we’re also seeing is a lot with dementia and other elder health concerns. We’re also seeing some mental health concerns that is causing them to have some behavioral issues.”
Theilen said that support from the community can go a long way to help out agencies like Partners in Care. Sure, monetary contributions are always accepted; but knowledge, experience and skills are things that can really help fill in the gaps in access to care for our houseless kūpuna.
You can click here to access more information on Partners in Care; and if you are looking for something to do that will help make our community stronger, then check out the different ways you can help.
So, now we have to ask ourselves what will take for us to see houselessness as the crisis that it and take it seriously enough to demand that our county and state leaders do better for our kūpuna? Enough with the promises; we need action.