SANTA CRUZ — In front of a somber audience gathered at the Civic Auditorium this winter, analyst David Davis said what was, for many in attendance, already a hard-learned truism. He shared that experiencing homelessness “literally takes off years” of your life. Of the approximately 165 names of people who had either died on the streets of Santa Cruz County in 2023 or had died housed after many years spent homeless, 55% were at least 55 years old, according to statistics collected by Davis, an analyst for the Santa Cruz County Homeless Persons Health Project, for the annual homeless memorial.
California, where 28% of the country’s homeless population resides, has seen a decades-long upward march in the percentage of homeless adults aged 50 years or older. In fact, the older population is the state’s fastest growing homeless segment, according to UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative analysis “Toward Dignity: Understanding Older Adult Homelessness.” Santa Cruz County is no exception to what is seen as a national trend, according to information recently released by Santa Cruz County Human Services.
Per results released this month in the latest annual homeless point-in-time and follow-up census, Santa Cruz County experienced a 7% uptick in its senior homeless population, compared to last year. Seniors aged 64 and older represented an estimated 10% of those 1,850 people counted on a single day in January, according to the Santa Cruz County 2024 Homelessnes.