More seniors are becoming homeless, and experts say the trend is likely to worsen | PBS NewsHour

Experts the PBS NewsHour spoke with disagree on the extent to which President Ronald Reagan's policies impacted the current crisis of elderly homelessness, but all agree his administration played at least some part. Among the contributing factors was the era's anti-welfare rhetoric, which demonized people relying on the nation's social safety net, Culhane said. That social perspective was political red meat for Republican politicians, who spent the next decade-plus constricting it. 

Under Reagan's policies, the nation's affordable housing supply began to shrink. Today, 73 percent of extremely low-income renters — defined as households whose incomes are at or below the poverty line or 30 percent of their area's median income — pay more than half of their income for housing, according to the Center on Budget and Priority Policies. 

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, across the country, there are only 36 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households. Some states, such as Nevada and California, have fewer than 25 affordable rental homes available for every 100 extremely low-income renter households; only nine states have more than 50 available for every 100 households...

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/more-seniors-are-becoming-homeless-and-experts-say-the-trend-is-likely-to-worsen