Housing Instability and Elder Mistreatment: How a Growing Movement Addresses Two Intersecting Issues

• Pages: 50-51
• Date: 01 March 2025
• Published date: 01 March 2025
• Author: Malya Kurzweil Levin

Bifocal 46 Issue 4

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Valerie is a 78 year old woman who has lived in

her home for decades. After her husband died

two years ago, Valerie began spending time on

a Facebook bereavement group, where she met

Je, who said he was also grieving the loss of his wife. Val-

erie begins messaging with Je for hours, and believes she

has found a second chance at love. She is so preoccupied

by this new romance, that she says nothing when her neph-

ew Sam, who started out dropping by to help out around

the house, starts sleeping in a spare bedroom. Mysterious

charges begin appearing on her credit card and pills for her

hip pain begin disappearing from the medicine cabinet. But

Sam helps with shopping and minor home repairs, which

Valerie doesn’t know how she would manage alone. She

loses herself in long text conversations with Je, who just

needs to pay o some debt so he can leave the city where

he currently lives and nally join her. She calls the bank to

learn more about a second mortgage on her house and is

surprised to learn her account is overdrawn.

As Valerie’s story illustrates, elder abuse most frequently

happens at home or directly causes housing instability.

According to an October 2023 report issued by the US

Department of Health and Human Services, older adults

are the fastest growing age group of those experiencing

homelessness, composing nearly half of the homeless

population, with that number expected to triple by 2030.1

While some older adults may have experienced chronic

housing instability for decades, many older adults are

facing homelessness for the rst time. In 2021, two thirds

of the people over age 65 entering homeless shelters were

doing so for the rst time in their lives.2 Many of the

recognized risk factors for housing instability and home-

lessness, such as medical, functional or cognitive decline

and loss of nancial independence or control over nanc-

es, are also risk factors for elder abuse. Research suggests

that elder abuse itself may be an overlooked risk factor for

homelessness among older adults.3

Older adults experiencing harm and the professionals

working to support them often see a need for temporary

housing options where older adults can be safe while

simultaneously receiving multilayered services to ad-

dress the harm they have experienced and begin to heal.4

Domestic violence and homeless shelters are often ill-suit-

ed to this population, as they cannot address the medical

needs common to many older adults and are nearly impos-

1 Henderson, K.A., Manian, N., Rog, D.J., Robison, E.,

Jorge, E., AlAbdulmunem, M. Addressing Homelessness Among

Older Adults (Final Report). Washington, DC: Oce of the As-

sistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services. October 26, 2023.

2 US Department of Housing and Urban Development,

2021 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress, (Part

2).

3 MacNeil, A., & Burnes, D. (2021). Bridging the Gap

between Homelessness in Older Adulthood and Elder Abuse:

Considerations for an Age-Friendly Shelter System. Journal of

Aging & Social Policy, 34(3), 391–400. https://doi.org/10.1080/0

8959420.2021.1973342

4 Olomi, J. M., Wright, N. M., Hasche, L., & DePrince,

A. P. (2019). After older adult maltreatment: Service needs and

barriers. Journal of gerontological social work, 62(7), 749-761.

Housing Instability and Elder Mistreatment:

How a Growing Movement Addresses

Two Intersecting Issues

By Malya Kurzweil Levin, Esq., Assistant Director and General Counsel,

The Weinberg Center for Elder Justice