Don’t Mix Homelessness With Wine

Unlike wine, homelessness doesn’t get better as it ages. A recent study shows that there is an increase in older people within the homeless population.

This is not surprising. In the early 1980’s, the number of people becoming homeless exploded. In 1985, there were 25,000 people who were homeless in Los Angeles County (so says a study released by a County Task Force on Homelessness that year.) Today, that number has nearly tripled. Homelessness has not been reduced.

And so while homelessness has aged, so has the people. Those 40 year old men and women—mostly men, says the study—back in the 1980’s are now 65 years old and older today.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to conclude that if a society does not take care of its homeless population over a span of 25 years, the homeless population will get older.

This is just another fact that insults a society that allows its citizens to sleep on the streets—and as we know now, allows them to age in disgrace.

(Pic from http://www.westfieldspalmcourt.com/)