Emerging Elderly Female Homelessness in Tucson, Arizona

Abstract

The population of unsheltered homeless in Tucson have been growing steadily in recent years. An emerging group that is at a high risk of encountering homelessness is elderly women. Research in this paper will investigate how the City of Tucson is prioritizing and combating elderly female homelessness. Many are facing this problem for the first time in their lives at the ages of 55+. This concerning information leads to the questions of what can be done to prevent the issue from starting as this group is not one that is facing chronic homelessness. There is a major concern with the availability of affordable housing in Tucson. Many of women who are becoming homeless at these older ages are dealing with increasing rent or loosing loved ones whom they were splitting bills with. Increasing affordable housing city-wise has the potential to prevent many elderly women from being homeless to begin with. The City of Tucson is aware of the issue of homelessness, but not enough programs are currently in place to help marginalized groups. While there are millions of funding allocated to several organizations there are not clear goals or quantities for each. Houston is an example of a city that has successfully decreased the homeless population by having nonprofit organizations and city funded public services work together for a common solution. This is a solution that could be helpful in Tucson as the homeless population remains at a steady number.