"Pew surveys and economic data have shown the middle class is smaller, poorer, and less optimistic than ever."

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"While the Great Recession destroyed many decent-paying jobs, the recovery has mainly added low-paying ones, according to the National Employment Law Project. And most of the people who became re-employed after losing jobs during the recession are earning less than they used to, according to the U.S. Department of Labor."

As a person in my 50s, the news for those of us who are older and trying to survive the economic climate that Obama inherited from devastation of the Bush Presidency is very disconcerting and alarming.  It also helps me understand why elderly homelessness is increasing and is projected to worsen considerably through 2020....


Arthur Delaney Become a fan arthur@huffingtonpost.com
 

Middle Class Meltdown At DNC

Posted: 09/04/2012 6:49 pm Updated: 09/05/2012 3:00 am

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- As a lawyer, city council member, and former mayor, Jill Duson figured she would not be unemployed for long when she lost her job as director of Portland, Maine's Department of Rehabilitative Services following a change of administration in January 2011.
She was wrong: Duson spent six months unemployed before taking a part-time seasonal sales job at L.L. Bean.
"I've experienced the meltdown of this economy," Duson, 58, said in an interview next to a melting ice sculpture outside the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday. The 2,000-pound sculpture, a project by artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, had spelled "MIDDLE CLASS," but "CLA" was all that remained after three hours in the Carolina sun. (The artists crafted a similar sculpture last week for the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla.)

Melting ice is an apt metaphor for the middle class. Pew surveys and economic data have shown the middle class is smaller, poorer, and less optimistic than ever.
Workers in their 50s are less likely than the overall working population to be unemployed, but more likely to experience prolonged unemployment if they do get laid off -- even if they have advanced degrees.
Duson got educated, married, and had saved money. She said the repercussions of losing one job seemed too severe.
"I was first-generation out of poverty and it didn't take much to push me back," she said. "I've done what I thought I was supposed to do."
Now she's doing what she can. In addition to her retail job and position on the Portland City Council (which she said pays a $5,000 annual stipend), Duson said she's picked up another part-time gig as a city agency's compliance manager.
"Between those three jobs, I will make just about half of what I made before," Duson said.
No wonder: While the Great Recession destroyed many decent-paying jobs, the recovery has mainly added low-paying ones, according to the National Employment Law Project. And most of the people who became re-employed after losing jobs during the recession are earning less than they used to, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Duson and her son, Nathan Davis, a 20-year-old college student, are both delegates to the Democratic National Convention and strong supporters of President Barack Obama. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has contended that Obama can't tell voters they're better off than they were four years ago. HuffPost asked Duson if she's better off.
"Certainly not financially," Duson said. "But in terms of feeling my government is going in the right direction, yes."
Duson has directly benefited from the Obama administration's policies. She was one of the few beneficiaries of the short-lived Emergency Homeowner Loan Program, which offered forgivable loans to homeowners who suffer dramatic reductions in income. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal the program.
"We would have lost our house," Duson said.

Demographics of Homelessness Series: The Rising Elderly Population

National Alliance to End Homelessness Report | April 1, 2010 This is a small excerpt of the report. For more information and to read the full publication, please download the PDF provided There is some troubling evidence that homelessness is beginning to increase among elderly adults. In addition, there are demographic factors — such as the anticipated growth of the elderly population as baby boomers turn 65 years of age and recent reports of increases in the number of homeless adults ages 50 to 64—that suggest a dramatic increase in the elderly homeless population between 2010 and 2020. While the country’s changing demographics may make this finding unsurprising, it has serious implications for providers of homeless services and should be deeply troubling to the policymakers that aim to prevent poverty and homelessness among the elderly through local and federal social welfare programs. This paper provides an assessment of the recent and projected changes in homelessness among the elderly and assesses the ability of public affordable housing programs to handle the projected growth in elderly persons at-risk of housing instability and homelessness. Homelessness Among the Elderly While there is a fair amount known about elders experiencing poverty and about the general homeless population, there is relatively little known about the elderly homeless population. There are some things, however, that we do know: Incidence The elderly population has historically been underrepresented among the homeless population. The limited national homelessness data that have been collected over the past two decades are consistent in revealing that homelessness is much more prevalent among younger adults than among older adults and the elderly. A 1996 national study by the Urban Institute found that, while those over age 55 represented 28 percent of the general adult population, they made up only 8 percent of the homeless population. Changes There is very limited national data on the changing demographics of the homeless population, but the data that do exist show that homelessness among the elderly and older adults is modestly increasing. HUD’s first Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress (AHAR), which covered a three-month period ending in April 2005, estimated that 2.4 percent of sheltered homeless adults were older than 62 years of age.3 HUD’s fourth AHAR, which covered the twelve-month period ending September 2008, showed that 2.8 percent of sheltered homeless adults were older than 62 years of age.4 To the extent that the two data points are comparable, they suggest very modestly increasing representation of the elderly among the homeless. Demographic Changes Among the Elderly There are two primary demographic factors that contribute to the projected increase in homelessness among the elderly. One is the overall growth in the elderly population, which is expected to more than double in size between now and 2050. The other factor is the relative stability in the proportion of the elderly population facing economic vulnerability. Together, these factors signal an increase in elder economic vulnerability and homelessness. The Growing Elderly Population There are more Americans over the age of 65 today than ever before and the number is rapidly increasing. During the past century, the number of elderly people has grown from 3.1 million in 1900 to 37 million in 2008—an increase of over 1,100 percent. The proportion of elderly Americans has also increased since 1900, when adults ages 65 and older made up only 4.1 percent of the population.9 Today, at 37 million, elderly Americans make up 12.6 percent of the population. Economic Vulnerability among the Elderly Poverty among elderly Americans has been relatively low since the 1960s. In 1959, the poverty rate for elder Americans was 35 percent. This fell to approximately 15 percent by 1975, due in large part to increases in government programs such as Social Security. Since that time, poverty rates among the elderly have steadily declined, remaining between 9 and 11 percent for the past decade. According to the 2008 American Community Survey, 9.9 percent of people over 65 years of age had annual incomes below the poverty threshold of $10,326 for a single person and $13,030 for a couple. A measure of even greater economic vulnerability is the proportion of elderly persons in deep poverty — earning only half of the poverty threshold. In 2008, there were over 969,925 elderly persons, or 2.6 percent of the elderly population, in deep poverty. Projected Increase in Homelessness among Elderly In the most recent AHAR, HUD estimates that there were 43,450 sheltered homeless people over the age of 62 in 2008. Because of anticipated increases in the elderly homeless population as the general population ages, a projection of the elderly homeless population is made in this paper. It is based on the following assumptions: The elderly population will increase as projected by the U.S. Census Bureau through 2050. The rate of deep poverty in the elderly population will remain constant at 2 percent through 2050, as it has remained since 1975. The 2008 ratio of 1 sheltered elderly homeless person to every 22 elderly persons in deep poverty remains constant thorough 2050.  As such, homelessness is projected to increase by 33 percent from 44,172 in 2010 to 58,772 in 2020 and will more than double between 2010 and 2050, when over 95,000 elderly persons are projected to be homeless.