USAging Awarded Grant Aimed at Preventing and Reducing Homelessness Among Older Adults
December 5, 2024
Contact: Bethany Coulter, bcoulter@usaging.org and 202.872.0888
WASHINGTON, DC—USAging has been awarded a grant from Next50, a national foundation based in Colorado that supports efforts to improve the lives of older adults and their caregivers. This funding will allow USAging to build on its work advancing innovative solutions so that older adults have the support they need to stably age in their homes. USAging will lead the 18-month project with the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
The fastest-growing age group of people experiencing homelessness in the United States are older adults. Without effective interventions, homelessness among older adults is on track to triple between 2017–2030. This trend is a major concern for USAging and its members, the nation’s network of Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs), which offer services to help older adults manage and improve their health and well-being in a way that preserves their independence and dignity.
Through this grant, USAging and the National Alliance to End Homelessness will generate a set of successful strategies and best practices for the development of strong, effective partnerships to address older adult homelessness between AAAs and Continuums of Care (CoCs), which address homelessness across a community or region.
“AAAs and CoCs are both essential to improving how our systems help older adults experiencing or at risk of homelessness. By working together, AAAs and CoCs can effectively prevent and respond to homelessness among older adults.” said USAging CEO Sandy Markwood. “This grant allows us to identify the best possible ways that AAAs and CoCs can collaborate to help older adults navigate the two systems, reduce the time they spend unhoused, and, critically, avoid homelessness in the first place.”
“Despite the life-saving work that frontline homeless service providers do each day, these systems simply are not currently designed or resourced to address the unique needs of an aging population,” said Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “The National Alliance to End Homelessness is deeply grateful for this opportunity to collaborate with USAging so that our systems can better assist older adults who are unhoused and better prevent older adults from being forced into homelessness.”
“It’s expensive to age in this country,” said Peter Kaldes, President & CEO of Next50. “That’s why we seek partners like USAging and the National Alliance to End Homelessness that will change the status quo and help create a world that values aging.”
USAging has a growing portfolio of projects to advance innovative solutions so older adults can have both a place to call home and access to supportive services to stably age in place. One such project produced a set of homeless case studies, some of which featured AAA–CoC partnerships. USAging CEO Sandy Markwood elevated national attention to this urgent situation in this article for the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
# # #
About USAging
USAging is the national association representing and supporting the network of Area Agencies on Aging and advocating for the Title VI Native American Aging Programs. Our members help older adults and people with disabilities throughout the United States live with optimal health, well-being, independence and dignity in their homes and communities. For more information, visit usaging.org and follow @theUSAging on Facebook, X and Instagram.
About the National Alliance to End Homelessness
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is a nonpartisan organization committed to preventing and ending homelessness in the United States.
About Next50
Next50 is a Colorado-based national foundation that works toward a society that values aging and makes growing older an empowering, fulfilling experience. Today, our systems in the U.S. don’t prioritize our economic well-being as we age, which causes widespread economic hardship for older adults and their families. That’s why we focus on funding innovative and equitable programs that create economic opportunity for older adults, especially in low-income communities and communities of color. We fund programming in three key areas: ending age-related bias and discrimination; advancing digital equity so technology is available to all; and making it possible for people to age where they want to live. To learn more, visit www.Next50foundation.org.