Building capacity to support older people experiencing homelessness

Aging in the right place involves supporting older adults to live as long as possible in their homes and communities. It also recognizes that where an older person lives must match their lifestyles and vulnerabilities for them to age optimally. Despite this, Canada’s older homeless population is increasing at alarming rates and remains largely invisible in research, policy and practice. The Aging in the Right Place Partnership seeks to improve shelter and housing options for older people experiencing homelessness.

Project scope and expected outcomes

The Aging in the Right Place Partnership

Over the last 5 years, we have researched 11 promising practices supporting older people experiencing homelessness in Montréal, Calgary and Vancouver. “Promising practices” are solutions that have not been rigorously evaluated but show potential for supporting older people experiencing homelessness. Our initial research showed that there is no single housing or shelter solution to meet the heterogenous needs of older adults experiencing or at-risk for homelessness. Thus, we conducted program evaluations at a diverse set of shelter and housing programs, revealing unique findings at different sites.

Building on these evaluations, we developed a conceptual model for how to support aging in the right place for older adults experiencing homelessness, which highlights the role of the built and natural environment, affordable and stable housing options, individualized onsite and offsite services, a sense of place attachment, social integration and political/economic factors.

One of the key findings of our research is the need for older adults to have options for accessible, affordable housing with access to urban districts as well as the natural environment, enabled by accessible transportation.

Over the next 3 years, we will conduct 2 additional program evaluations — in one site serving women and gender minorities and another serving rural populations. We will conduct further cross-site analyses and develop recommendations to address the needs of specific sub-populations of older adults impacted by homelessness. We will also investigate how discrimination disrupts aging in the right place and how to combat stigma towards older people experiencing homelessness. Drawing on these findings, we will develop local, provincial, and national recommendations to support aging in the right place for older adults experiencing homelessness.

Improving housing outcomes for older people experiencing homelessness

The AIRP Partnership is one of 5 research programs that comprise the Collaborative Housing Research Network. As part of the Network, AIRP responds to several National Housing Strategy priority areas. This includes Housing for those in Greatest Need, Sustainable Housing and Communities and Community Housing Sustainability.

Over the next 3 years, the program will seek to accomplish this through 3 main objectives:

1. Ongoing evaluation and innovative analysis of promising practices of shelter or housing for older people experiencing homelessness to identify which promote aging in the right place, their characteristics, and the groups for which they work. Building on our previous research, we will make comprehensive recommendations for expanding promising practices locally or enabling their adaptation in other communities.
2. Continue to train a new generation of scholars. AIRP trainees from the last 5 years are now making innovative contributions to the field, including as co-investigators on our renewal project and researchers at other institutions. AIRP scholars will continue to develop advanced research skills and lines of inquiry on homelessness, housing and aging research.
3. Facilitate knowledge mobilization (KM) around promising practices for older people experiencing homelessness in Canada and internationaly. Building on our previous community and scholarly engagement, we will facilitate knowledge mobilization through our project website and quarterly newsletters, webinars, multiple forms of media, photo exhibits and scholarly publications and conferences. We will also produce a policy brief and recommendations around aging in the right place for older adults experiencing homelessness.

New empirical insight

Over the past 5 years, we have engaged with our 40+ local, national and international partners and lived expertise advisors, community partners and lived expertise advisors have met regularly with AIRP research teams to advise on the development of our AIRP conceptual model and other research findings. These partners will help us to continue producing new empirical insight into housing, aging and support for older people experiencing homelessness. The program’s focus on evaluating evidence-based interventions for older people experiencing homelessness is making significant contributions to the academic literature.

Since the program includes non-academic partners, we will continue to build partnerships across disciplines throughout the research. The knowledge generated is bridging the gap between research and impact on housing. The Partnership’s findings can also inform the National Housing Strategy through evidence-based policy that promotes aging in the right place.