Abstract
This paper outlines the parameters of late-life homelessness based on ethnographic research with stakeholders and lived experiences of unhoused people aged 50+ in the urban setting of Montreal, Canada. It discusses the argument put forward in the book Late-life Homelessness: Experiences of Disadvantage and Unequal Aging, namely, that policies and practices (or the lack thereof) produce and shape homelessness across the life course and into late life. The paper is organized according to key project insights about age/eligibility, aging in ‘undesirable’ places, and unmet need that were offered via qualitative interviews with older people and stakeholders in community-based shelter and long-term care settings. Based on these, it argues that late-life homelessness is not only about being or becoming homelessness in later life, but a phenomenon that is created and sustained by disadvantage over time, processes of social exclusion, policy inaction and abandonment. The paper concludes with the need to develop responses geared toward achieving social change including practical solutions for housing, income/food security, safety and support as well as larger efforts to create just, fair and meaningful futures.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2024 Special Focus—Diversity Over Time: Changes in Individual, Organizational, and Place Contexts
KEYWORDS
Homelessness, Aging, Life
