Sep 24, 2026 · 46 min · 9 segments
Homelessness is rising across Western New York, and many people are entering the homeless response system for the first time. In this episode of The Public Good, host Dejia James of Partnership for…
Daniella GallegoGuest
Dejia JamesHost
Haley DiagostinoGuest
Sammy WuHost
on an average in chicago or in new york or and people don't quite understand that and then there's also just still not enough jobs but that's a whole other thing um but you recently um had a film screening at the the library the central library and i wanted you just to talk a little bit about that about what the film was and and why you kind of had that moment and what you were trying to educate the public about
And it tells the stories of older adults experiencing homelessness in Portland, Oregon.
But the barriers and challenges that they face in the film aren't unique to Portland.
So we wanted to host this screening to really educate the public on homelessness, but specifically older adult homelessness.
And the film does a really good job at humanizing the issue and also really reminding us all that for every person experiencing homelessness, they have a lifetime of experiences that have brought them to where they are today.
And after we screened the film last night, we had a panelist, a panel of experts that are supporting older adults in Western New York.
And so they spoke to the ways that we're seeing the trends in older adult homelessness increasing here, as well as resources that are available.
And they really discuss the importance of preventing people, specifically older adults, from becoming homeless in the first place.
I think something that surprises a lot of people is not only that older adults are such a fast-growing group experiencing homelessness, but I think there's often a misconception that These are simply people that have been experiencing homelessness or housing instability throughout their life, and now they're simply aging into homelessness.
And that is true for a lot of people, but a significant amount of older adults are experiencing homelessness for the first time later in their life.
And so that kind of tells us there's unique age-related factors that are putting people specifically at risk for losing their housing.
And so these can be things like the loss of a loved one, a loss of a spouse or a family member can be really destabilizing for older adults, increased medical needs, even things like social isolation.
When an older adult doesn't have somebody checking in on them to notice things like they're not paying their bills or they have new medical challenges, it can be hard for people to kind of notice that this person might be at risk of losing their housing.
And so our goal with the documentary really was to just raise community awareness around the issue.
that's so interesting with older adults, too, because I've definitely seen, especially now that we see the threats that Social Security is going to disappear, there are upping the age limit of when you can retire all of these different things and those historical safety nets we've been told we have aren't enough and even just if you do get your social security check with the current rate of the market of rent of all the things inflation you can't afford to live just on that anymore um and i've seen that rise also of older adults trying to figure out how to work still being in grocery stores doing jobs that people associate it with like that's a teenage job and now you see seniors doing it because they can't
Well, and how we were talking about just a minute ago, the root cause of homelessness being a lack of affordable housing and rising housing costs, and then income and wages that don't keep up with those rising costs.
To your point, limited income, a lot of older adults are reliant on Social Security, and a lot of them, that's their only form of income.
on an average in chicago or in new york or and people don't quite understand that and then there's also just still not enough jobs but that's a whole other thing um but you recently um had a film screening at the the library the central library and i wanted you just to talk a little bit about that about what the film was and and why you kind of had that moment and what you were trying to educate the public about
And it tells the stories of older adults experiencing homelessness in Portland, Oregon.
But the barriers and challenges that they face in the film aren't unique to Portland.
So we wanted to host this screening to really educate the public on homelessness, but specifically older adult homelessness.
And the film does a really good job at humanizing the issue and also really reminding us all that for every person experiencing homelessness, they have a lifetime of experiences that have brought them to where they are today.
And after we screened the film last night, we had a panelist, a panel of experts that are supporting older adults in Western New York.
And so they spoke to the ways that we're seeing the trends in older adult homelessness increasing here, as well as resources that are available.
And they really discuss the importance of preventing people, specifically older adults, from becoming homeless in the first place.
I think something that surprises a lot of people is not only that older adults are such a fast-growing group experiencing homelessness, but I think there's often a misconception that These are simply people that have been experiencing homelessness or housing instability throughout their life, and now they're simply aging into homelessness.
And that is true for a lot of people, but a significant amount of older adults are experiencing homelessness for the first time later in their life.
And so that kind of tells us there's unique age-related factors that are putting people specifically at risk for losing their housing.
And so these can be things like the loss of a loved one, a loss of a spouse or a family member can be really destabilizing for older adults, increased medical needs, even things like social isolation.
When an older adult doesn't have somebody checking in on them to notice things like they're not paying their bills or they have new medical challenges, it can be hard for people to kind of notice that this person might be at risk of losing their housing.
And so our goal with the documentary really was to just raise community awareness around the issue.
that's so interesting with older adults, too, because I've definitely seen, especially now that we see the threats that Social Security is going to disappear, there are upping the age limit of when you can retire all of these different things and those historical safety nets we've been told we have aren't enough and even just if you do get your social security check with the current rate of the market of rent of all the things inflation you can't afford to live just on that anymore um and i've seen that rise also of older adults trying to figure out how to work still being in grocery stores doing jobs that people associate it with like that's a teenage job and now you see seniors doing it because they can't
Well, and how we were talking about just a minute ago, the root cause of homelessness being a lack of affordable housing and rising housing costs, and then income and wages that don't keep up with those rising costs.
To your point, limited income, a lot of older adults are reliant on Social Security, and a lot of them, that's their only form of income.
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