Homelessness outreach service observes increase in elderly with no home

Housing First Ōtautahi's new Outreach Rapid Response (ORR) service is providing support for people experiencing short-term homelessness.

In their first week on the streets, the team encountered 19 people newly on the streets, including an 87-year-old woman, a 70 year old, and a 17 year old.

Housing First Ōtautahi and ORR Manager Nic Fleming said they are increasingly seeing older people living on the streets, and a variety of reasons why they end up homeless.

"They have been living with family, and then family have moved away or gone into hospital. Or there has been trauma with some kind of issue in the family, or people passing away and they haven't known where to go.

"Sometimes they don't want to live in a rest home, or they are still using or an addict and don't want to go into a rest home. But where do they go?

Click here to read the RNZ article