At age 68, “Joy” has an undeniable energy and charisma that defies her age.
Just a few years ago, Joy was living a very normal life. She glows with pride as she talks about her upbringing. She was daddy’s girl. She was raised with conviction, and strength, and she wasn’t afraid to show it.
Joy worked hard, doing industrial work for over 20 years. She finally retired after an industrial accident left her with severe vision impairment and an injured shoulder.
Still, after retirement, Joy was enjoying life as a typical woman in her 60s: gardening, shopping, suntans, and salons. She had a home, a garage, a garden, and family ties.
Then in 2022, Joy was kicked out of her home after a major family conflict. At the age of 65, she was suddenly homeless, with no support, no shelter, and no belongings—just the clothes on her back. “I didn’t know how to be homeless,” she remembers.
For 3 years, Joy slipped through the cracks and struggled to find community resources. She was disabled, but not disabled enough for assisted living. She couldn’t qualify for many resources because she was on Medicare, not Medicaid.
“I didn’t fit into the mold. I was just elderly,” Joy reflects. “Elderly are a vulnerable demographic, and there aren’t many resources.” She remembers going into a local organization for help and seeing all the seniors there, struggling.
It’s a harsh reality for many older adults: about half of all homeless Americans are age 50 or older. It’s now the fastest-growing age group experiencing homelessness.
Since Joy couldn’t qualify for local resources, she spent long, cold nights sleeping outside on the ground. It’s a harrowing experience for anyone, let alone a vulnerable senior woman.
“I slept outside, wherever I could. On the ground, in a doorway, anyplace. But I never really slept. Rested, but never actually slept. You don’t sleep at night. You lay there and listen to the footsteps. During the day, you listen. At night, you listen. Did they stop? Did they slow down?” Some stopped, shook her, offered her money. Some attempted to “take” her. Some just wanted to harass her.
“Nights were the worst because of the blindness,” she recalls. “You couldn’t see who was coming up to you. These were the times that men tried to take me.”
Still, Joy says the hardest part of daily existence was hunger. In her former life, she never had to think about where the next meal was coming from. Now, “the new ‘normal’ was eating out of a dumpster.”
Joy’s situation finally started to change when she moved into the Salvation Army’s HOPE Village. And 9 months later, she was accepted into a unit at Sunrise Village, HOSWWA’s newest affordable housing complex.
With shelter and case management, she was finally able to undergo surgery on her eye, and she will get ongoing treatment to help restore some of her vision. And most importantly, she can safely live out her golden years in secure, affordable housing.
For Joy, housing was a bridge out of darkness, in more ways than one. Today, Joy says she is “eternally grateful” to have a roof over her head. Finally, she can sleep. It’s a place she can feel safe and not have to “listen.”
