LOS ANGELES: According to statistics gathered, from 2011-12 to 2013-14 the number of women aged 55 years and over accessing specialist homelessness services increased by 26 per cent.
But this only accounts for the women who actually sought help from a homeless support service. A university report commissioned by a foundation indicates homeless older women are “likely to be statistically invisible in data systems” because they aren’t readily countable.
They are usually not sleeping rough, the report says, but instead “are more likely to be staying with friends, living in a car, living under the threat of violence in their home or physically ‘hiding’…”