The number of people older than 65 who are living in shelters is growing quickly, in an unheralded sign of New York City’s affordable housing crisis.
Earl Boyd, 83, moved into a Manhattan homeless shelter in May and often hangs out across the street. Credit...Ahmed Gaber for The New York Times
By Andy Newman - June 28, 2024
According to a report released on Thursday, the number of single adults ages 65 and older in the city’s main shelter system more than doubled from 2014 to 2022, growing nearly three times as quickly as the number of younger single adults in shelters.
There were about 1,700 people older than 65 in single-adult shelters, which house a vast majority of the older New Yorkers who are homeless, during the fiscal year ending in June 2022, up from about 700 eight years earlier. The share of residents in those shelters who were older than 65 increased to 8 percent from 5 percent.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people who just muddle along, and they just muddle until they can’t,” Allison Nickerson, LiveOn NY's executive director, said in an interview.
About 315,000 older New Yorkers are on waiting lists for affordable apartments in federally constructed buildings reserved for people 62 and older, up from about 230,000 in 2016, the group said. The typical wait is six years; many buildings have longer waits.
The overall market for affordable housing in New York is the tightest it has been in half a century, with vacancy rates for the lowest-priced apartments below 1 percent.
The number of older adults in shelters is also growing considerably faster than the broader population of seniors is increasing as baby boomers hit retirement age.
About 30,000 lottery apartments hit the market from 2020 to 2023, LiveOn NY said, but only about 10 percent were in buildings that included apartments reserved for older people.
Households with older adults filed 220,000 applications for lottery apartments during that period, and fewer than 2,000 of the households received apartments, the study said.
Andy Newman writes about New Yorkers facing difficult situations, including homelessness, poverty and mental illness. He has been a journalist for more than three decades.
Robert Kirk, 74, became homeless after he was evicted. He now lives in a shelter in Brooklyn. Credit...Ahmed Gaber for The New York Times
Locket Strowder entered the shelter system after a series of health problems. He moved into a supportive-housing apartment in October. Credit...Ahmed Gaber for The New York Times
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