Corrections Ministries / Deacon John Cord

Finding compassionate solutions for health care for our elderly homeless

I recently spent a day at our local homeless shelter in Seymour. There was an elderly couple in the lunch area watching television. I asked them why they were there, and their answer was shocking. They had been evicted from their apartment of 17 years.

They explained the landlord raised the rent, and their Social Security check was no longer enough. Here they were—the gentleman with a walker and the wife with hearing aids—in a homeless shelter. They both worked their entire life. He was a construction worker, and she cleaned houses. Their son was in prison, and they had nowhere to go.

I asked Megan, the executive director of the shelter, about them. She told me they are more frequently seeing the elderly who have been evicted at the shelter. The rapid increase in rental rates has created this new problem. There are not enough government-funded apartments. Housing subsidies are hard to find right now. So, shelters are filling with older people.

There is an even greater problem. Our elderly homeless need long-term health care. However, most cities cannot provide the services they need at no cost. Medicaid will pay for short convalescent care. But it typically won’t pay for long-term care.

Many of the elderly homeless need surgery, such as a hip replacement. But their doctors might be hesitant to do the surgery if they are not sure the person can convalesce in a safe environment.

The aging of the homeless has become a real problem across the state. But so has the aging of our prison population. More than one-third of men and women incarcerated in Indiana are older than 55.

Several years ago, during the “War on Drugs” and “Get Tough on Crime” periods in society, many were sentenced for life. These folks are aging. The Indiana Department of Corrections is finding itself needing to create more space and services for the elderly and infirm.

There is some light on the horizon for both of these issues. Senate Bill 291 (SB 291), called the “Compassionate Release Bill,” is moving its way through the state legislature. This bill will give a pathway to release an elderly inmate if they meet certain criteria, such as have a record of good behavior and posing no risk if they return home. It stalled during the last session, but we are hopeful that it will move forward in 2025.

For the elderly homeless, no-cost respite care centers are starting to pop up across the country. An organization called the National Institute for Medical Respite Care (www.nimrc.org) assists these organizations to find funding and become certified. In Indiana, we now have three certified non-profit no-cost respite care centers for the homeless. In Indianapolis, the Gennesaret Center has 12 beds and provides a full range of convalescent care (www.gennesaret.org). There are also respite care centers for the homeless in Lafayette and in Evansville.

As people on the margins age, we need to work to find compassionate solutions for them. Please support SB 291 and please help your community find compassionate solutions for health care for our elderly homeless.
 

(Deacon John Cord is the coordinator of Corrections Ministry for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. For more information on supporting the office’s re-entry ministry, contact Deacon Cord at 317-432-6604 or e-mail jcord@archindy.org.) †