For Homeless Seniors, Getting Into Stable Housing Takes a Village — And a Lot of Luck
“COLUMBIA FALLS, Mont. — Over two years ago, Kim Hilton and his partner walked out of their home for the final time. The house had sold, and the new landlord raised the rent.
They couldn’t afford it. Their Social Security payments couldn’t cover the cost of any apartments in northwestern Montana’s Flathead Valley.
Hilton’s partner was able to move into her daughter’s studio apartment. There wasn’t enough space for Hilton, so they reluctantly split up.
At 68 years old, he moved into his truck — a forest-green Chevy Avalanche.
Hilton quickly found out how hard it would be to survive. Hilton has diabetes. That first night, his insulin froze, rendering it useless.
Things didn’t get any easier that winter. On the coldest nights, temperatures dropped to about minus 20 degrees. Hilton kept the truck running, but eventually his fuel pump failed. He was on his own in the cold.
Hilton is incredibly optimistic, but in that moment, he said, his spirit broke.
“I just said I want to go to sleep and not wake up and I won’t have to worry about anything. I’ll just sit here and be a little popsicle in the truck,” Hilton recalled.
Hilton was one of tens of thousands of seniors in the U.S. who became homeless for the first time in 2022. A dramatic increase in the number of homeless seniors nationwide is overwhelming services for unhoused people.”
Read more at Kaiser Health News.