Someone asked us yesterday about demographics in the unhoused populations. They wanted to know what age groups lead the ranks of the unhoused in our community, starting with the most prevalent.
Our answer? From what we’ve seen, taking into account age only, we believe that the age group we see the most are Millennials (Generation Y – those born between 1981 and 1996), followed by Generation X (the so-called ‘Latchkey Generation’ – born between 1965 and1980).
‘Baby Boomers’ (those born between 1946 and 1964) are showing up in larger numbers which to us is alarming. They’re moving in fast and will soon overtake the Latchkey’s if the trend continues, which we don’t see abating given the lack of affordable housing and the fact that many ‘Boomers’ are stuck without pensions and trying to live on Social Security alone.
Frankly, it is disturbing to see so many elderly people in wheelchairs and moving around with walkers. As a society we owe more to our seniors than to let this happen. And it’s shameful if children are allowing this to happen to their parents!