An Independent Senator has said his office is “inundated” with older people who are homeless. Senator Tom Clonan also told the Oireachtas health committee on Wednesday that a woman who visited his office several weeks ago had since died by suicide. The committee was examining health strategy in relation to the ageing population and the development of care options other than nursing homes. Prof Rose Anne Kenny, principal investigator of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, said being homeless “accelerated ageing”, even for those in their 20s and 30s. [ A couch is what Ireland’s homeless children say they want mostOpens in new window ]“They are 20 years older biologically than they should be, according to the number on their birth cert,” she said. Prof Kenny said in the first tranche of data, which started 20 years ago, only 7 per cent of those aged 50 and older were in rented accommodation. “That’s more than doubled in that period of time and it will continue to get worse,” she said. “In my clinical practice, there’s nothing worse than somebody sitting in front of you who is ill – you can manage that – but [say] ‘I can’t, once I retire, afford my rent and I have to leave my community’. That’s a problem.”Camille Loftus, head of advocacy and public affairs at Age Action, said 43 per cent of people who lived in the private rental sector were aged 40 or older, according to the latest census in 2022. “Most of those will not get access to a mortgage. They will reach older age without secure or affordable homes,” she said. “We get contacted increasingly by health professionals who say, ‘I am treating a gentleman, who is older, who is not in secure housing and I am really worried about the impact of housing on his health. What is available out there?’” Loftus stressed the need for a housing strategy that will manage the State’s ageing and older population. Alone chief executive Seán Moynihan said the number of older people countrywide over 65 is set to exceed one million by 2030, with demand for nursing home beds projected to grow by up to 80 per cent by 2040. Homeless people have set up camp on a busy motorway interchange in North County Dublin. “Although people are living longer, they spend an average of six years in poor health and yet our health system continues to treat long-term residential care as the default response to ageing, at enormous cost to the State and to older people,” he said. Prof Kenny also said the Republic is among the fastest-ageing countries in Europe.Approximately 20 per cent of the population was born outside the State, she said. Among those aged between 25 and 44, about one-third were born abroad, compared with an estimated 10 per cent of those aged 65 and over. “As this latter proportion is expected to rise substantially over the next two decades, health needs will continue to evolve in response to demographic change,” she said. “This underscores the importance of regularly updating data sets to ensure they accurately reflect the changing population. With ageing comes more illness.”