Black and Latina homeless women's experiences in skid row: Opportunities for health policy changes

Background: An increasing number of older Americans are experiencing hunger, poverty, and housing insecurity.  Four years ago, almost 45,000 seniors were homeless; by midcentury, this figure may rise to 100,000. Today, roughly one-third of all homeless families have a family member over 60 years of age with multiple physical, mental and social needs. In Los Angeles, the “homeless capital of America”, over 80,000 are homeless on any given night, over 60% are Black males and almost 24% are Latinos. But little is known of older minority women and their experiences with aging and homelessness.

Methods:  We used a community based participatory research approach for exploring the experiences of Black and Latina women in skid row. Through surveys and audio taped interviews in Spanish and English, 20 older Black and Latinas shared how they navigate issues of race/ethnicity, gender, culture, language, health and housing policies. Via their personal narratives, we are able to compare and contrast their networks and strategies for managing life in skid row. 

Results/Conclusions: The narratives show different perspectives for how the sample of Black women learn to navigate the system and how the Latina women increasingly struggle to gain entry into the system. Their stories present a portrait of structural and cultural inequities, and a system in need for interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration with teams of stakeholders from diverse economic, housing, health, culture/language, and community policy expertise.