As the UK’s housing crisis continues to deepen, charities are sounding the alarm about a growing number of people over the age of 60 facing homelessness. The situation has reached the country’s oldest generation, with more and more pensioners seeking help for housing insecurity.
Housing charities have reported seeing cases of people over 60 developing health problems from being forced to sleep in their cars for months, having to sleep on camp beds in emergency shelters, and seeking homelessness support even while suffering from illnesses such as cancer. Marie Dennehy, a senior service manager at St Mungo’s, said they have seen a significant increase in over-65s, often with complex health problems, coming to them for emergency housing support over the past two years.
“We’ve got a guy in the service at the moment who’s 87 – it’s madness,” Dennehy said. “We never used to see the number of pensioners we’re seeing now.” She explained that council cuts and the lack of social housing mean that single homeless applicants, even the elderly, are not being prioritised for properties.
Dan Holland, from the Salvation Army’s homelessness services team, said that 10% of people living in the charity’s residential accommodation were over 55, and they were seeing a large number of people in the older age category coming to them for help. “Not as many people now have a mortgage that they’ve paid off and a roof over their head that they can call their own. Lots more people are renting, relying on housing benefit which has been frozen, so it’s not rocket science, eventually they will end up experiencing homelessness,” he said.
One such case is that of Raymond, 63, who ended up sleeping in his car for seven weeks after becoming homeless following the breakdown of his marriage. He approached the council at least six times for help and was told he was not a priority, before he ended up living at a Salvation Army centre in the north-west. “My legs were bad, they were really swelling up because it was only a small car so I couldn’t stretch my leg. I was sleeping on the seat and my body was just getting in a mess,” he said.
Research from Crisis found that one in five (17%) older people said they wanted to retire but could not because of their housing costs, while the number of older people facing homelessness in England has risen more than 50% in the past five years. There has also been a 35% increase in the number of over-55s in temporary accommodation since March 2022.
Experts say the problem has been exacerbated by the country’s now deeply entrenched housing crisis, which has resulted in home ownership becoming increasingly out of reach and forced people to rent into their later years, leaving them vulnerable to eviction or unsustainable rent increases. Ben Twomey, the chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “Soaring rents were locking people into renting for decades, forcing older people to live in homes unsuitable for their needs and damaging to their health, while pushing some into homelessness.”
Edith, a 61-year-old renter in Huntingdon, said she was increasingly fearful for the future, having been forced to move twice in recent years due to her landlords selling up and rent rises that she could no longer afford. “It worries me that I may have to move every three or four years, and getting older, there comes a point when everything gets more difficult, more tiring,” she said.
The government has yet to publish its long-term housing strategy, which has been delayed until March next year, but experts say prioritising older people is essential. “Even a reformed private rented sector doesn’t really work for older people. We get a lot of calls from people who have had to leave private rented homes as they’re just priced out, and they can’t find anywhere else,” said Isabelle Miles, housing policy manager at Age UK.