5 Key Takeaways from Homebase’s Summit on Older Adult Homelessness
Garen Nigon is a Directing Analyst at Homebase
2026
On March 24th, I had the opportunity to serve as emcee at From Urgency to Action, Homebase’s first summit on the topic of older adult homelessness. Throughout the day, we heard from providers, government agencies, and people with lived experience of homelessness in the Mid-Atlantic region, who have touched this issue in some way. Over the course of the day’s panel presentations and group discussions, I developed a few takeaways, five of which I’ve shared below.
1 - Older adults experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity are a diverse population with a diverse continuum of needs.
Over the course of dozens of interviews in the lead-up to the Summit, our team identified multiple distinct older adult populations experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. These range from older adults at risk of losing their housing due to various circumstances - some unique to this population (see more on this below) - to literally homeless older adults living on the streets or in shelter, and older adults aging in place in permanent supportive housing after an experience of homelessness earlier in life.
Homebase created this visual to describe these distinct populations and collected feedback from participants at the Summit. This version incorporates that feedback and represents our most up-to-date understanding of the complex needs of this population, and the continuum of services available for them.
2 - Program models need to adapt to better meet the needs of older adults. This means changing the physical plant of shelters and supportive housing programs to address mobility challenges and developing new staffing models to address physical and behavioral health needs.
The Summit was an opportunity to spotlight programs in the Mid-Atlantic region that have developed interventions specifically with the older adult population in mind. One of these was the West Side Federation for Senior Supportive Housing (WSFSSH) in New York City. WSFSSH operates a fully integrated site, combining shelter beds, supportive housing, affordable family units, and an on-site Federally Qualified Health Center. Co-location of this full continuum of homeless services allows older adults to receive care at the same place they receive shelter or housing, and reduces the need for disruptive relocation as older adults move from shelter to housing.
WSFSSH Executive Director Paul Freitag gave Summit participants a deep dive into the Valley Lodge shelter, which they describe as “assisted living for formerly homeless people.” This site offers accessible rooms, on-site meal service, medication support, substance-use programming, and strong community-building practices to reduce isolation and promote stability. The Valley Lodge gave us both a comprehensive list of needs for this population (e.g., co-located services, on-site meals, medication support, strategies to combat isolation), as well as active case examples of how to meet those needs.
3 - Physical and behavioral health needs are only one part of the picture. Programs serving people experiencing homelessness need to shift their culture to better serve an intergenerational client population to preserve the dignity of older clients seeking services.
Summit participants heard from a panel of people with lived experience, featuring Jeffrey D. Bingham, Kendall R. Clark, Cynthia English, and DeBorah Gilbert White, Ph.D., moderated by Homebase’s Nicole Goodman Johnson, Esq., MSW. The panelists highlighted many of the themes represented above, including the need for co-located physical and behavioral health services and for staff trained on mobility limitations, cognitive challenges, and the emotional needs of older adults.
The panel also highlighted the culture shift required to serve older adults in a way that preserves their dignity and autonomy, and honors their life experience. They highlighted the need for peer support and mentorship, as many older adults may trust peers with similar experience more readily than other staff or providers.
Non-authoritative staffing models, such as peer support, are a way to respect older adults’ wisdom and lived experience while providing necessary care. This shift - while significant for more hierarchical and compliance-oriented organizations - is necessary to serve older adults with dignity.
4 - Cross-sector collaboration is necessary and possible. Many successful program models involve collaborations between homeless services systems, healthcare, and aging services.
System-level leaders from throughout the region, representing the housing/homelessness, healthcare, and aging sectors, highlighted how each of their systems responds to the issue of older adult homelessness and the cross-system work that is necessary to serve this population. For example, Heather Sheridan from the Baltimore County Department of Housing and Community Development, the county’s homeless Continuum of Care lead, highlighted the agency’s ongoing efforts to work with the county EMS department to identify and prioritize high utilizers of emergency services for housing and services, and their exploratory efforts to do similar work with the county Department of Aging. Luis Ulerio from the City of Newark highlighted an integrative strategy to renevate public housing units and leverage Medicaid waivers to provide chronically homeless older adults with housing and on-site services that wouldn’t be available in traditional Permanent Supportive Housing.
Participants also heard examples of effective cross-system collaboration at the provider level. In addition to WSFSSH’s example above, several other representatives highlighted their integrated program models. Rebecca Heller from The Bridge in New York City presented on the organization’s Medically Fragile street outreach team, which includes nursing, social work, and occupational therapy staff, as well as a new Medically Enhanced Supportive Housing model that helps bridge the gap between supportive housing and nursing care.
All of these speakers acknowledged the difficulty in breaking down silos between systems, while also emphasizing that it is necessary and possible.
5 - Small program changes will help, but we will need to make big changes at the system level and philosophical changes in the way we provide care in the coming decades.
Many panelists highlighted issues that were new to a cross-sector audience. For example, Dan Hyman from the Senior Law Center in Philadelphia discussed wills and tangled probate issues as a reason many older adults experience housing insecurity. Rachel Belfer, a geriatric psychologist from Janian in New York City, highlighted the unique challenges faced by older adults experiencing memory loss, and the lack of supportive housing to meet these needs. Allison Nickerson from LiveON, a network of aging services providers in New York City, addressed the zoning challenges associated with the colocation of different kinds of shelter, housing, and services. Several panelists, including Jordan Hebron from CivicWorks in Maryland, highlighted the need for home modification programs to keep people housed.
Programs, organizations, and systems of care will need to transform to adequately address these issues.
Despite these significant challenges, my impression was that attendees left the Summit undeterred. We’ve heard multiple accounts of new connections and partnerships being made between participants, and participants shared an interest in participating in next steps and follow-up conversations. Their curiosity and enthusiasm give me confidence that the will exists to make these necessary system transformations.
For more information about older adult homelessness, reach out to our team at olderadults@homebaseccc.org.
Garen Nigon, Homebase Directing Analyst
