Homelessness among elders

Michael Larson, a Gonzaga University graduate, founded Humans for Housing and helped produce the 45-minute film “No Place to Grow Old,” which follows three Portland elders who have faced homelessness.

In a screening and talk held in U.P.’s auditorium, Larson said he hopes to have a child someday who will ask him if it was really true that people lived in tents on the side of the road and if people died on the streets and if grandparents had no homes.

Those 55 and older make up the fastest growing segment of the unhoused population. The number is expected to triple by 2030.

Catholic Charities of Oregon houses many seniors in places like Sacred Heart Villa in Southeast Portland and Caritas Plaza in North Portland.

Experts and homeless people in the film explained that decisions made in Portland about housing in decades past has exacerbated homelessness here. A housing shortage has led to high housing costs.

Bronwyn, one of the formerly homeless seniors in the film, explained that in 2015 her rent surged from $850 per month to $1,625. It was that shock that sent her into homelessness, she said. Around the same time, she lost her husband.

Bronwyn, an artist, described living in a tent in Portland as, “The longest camping trip you’ve ever been on when it rained all the time and your tent leaks and you are cold.”

She told the filmmakers, “Hope is so much more than just a word – for some, it’s a lifeline.” She added that her main goal was to avoid dying on the streets.

Experts from Portland State University explained that often Social Security and retirement savings is not enough to afford rent in the Portland market.

Jerry, 60 and homeless, imagined what it would be like to have an apartment with a bathroom. The notion amazed him.

He also explained the conundrum of homelessness: “You need a job to get a place but need a place to get a job.”

Belinda, 56 and unhoused, told filmmakers that the worst part of being homeless is that, “When you get sick, you have no one to help you.”