Florida Seniors Face Rising Homelessness Risk

Florida seniors make up a growing portion of the state’s unhoused population as the housing crisis continues, reports David Jones for WESH. 

“According to data from the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, an umbrella organization for homeless advocacy groups across Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties, 664 homeless people counted in January were age 55 and over,” a number that has been growing since 2023 in a region where rents have jumped 38.5 percent since 2017.

Residents of manufactured homes, long a reliable source of affordable housing for seniors, are finding themselves faced with steep land rent hikes as more mobile home parks are bought out by institutional investors. Meanwhile, “Rents in the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford metropolitan area, consisting of Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake Counties, averaged $1,553 in April, according to ApartmentList.com.” According to Martha Are, CEO of the Homeless Services Network, “We continue to see more seniors on the streets, and there’s some national estimates that say the numbers could increase as much, over a 15-year period, the number of seniors could triple.”