San Francisco’s Homeless Population Aging

Researchers in San Francisco have found the city’s homeless population is aging, and experts say health problems among the homeless are likely to increase.

The new research at The University of California at San Francisco found the median age of San Francisco’s homeless population has increased from 37 to 46 over the past 14 years.

We have been doing the sampling the same way since 1990, and we are seeing a cohort that has been older every time we have looked and that does not seem to be regenerating itself, said Judith A. Hahn, assistant professor of medicine at the UCSF Epidemiology and Prevention Interventions Center at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center.

Hahn also cited worsening health status of the homeless over this time period. Some are issues that are commonly associated with homelessness, such as alcoholism and drug abuse. But with the aging homeless population also comes problems faced by many aging individuals, such as hypertension and diabetes.

The findings are published in the July 2006 issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.