Housing crisis reaches UK’s oldest generations as high private rents and lack of social housing hits pensioners
The housing crisis has reached the country’s oldest generations, charities have warned, with a growing number of people over the age of 60 seeking help for homelessness.
Housing charities said they had seen cases of people over-60 developing health problems from being forced to sleep in their car for months, having to sleep on camp beds in emergency shelters and seeking homelessness support even while suffering illnesses such as cancer.
Marie Dennehy, a senior service manager at St Mungo’s, said they had seen an 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,” she said. “We never used to see the number of pensioners we’re seeing now.”
