Literature Review: Housing Options for Older Homeless People

This report reviews the literature on housing and re-housing options for homeless older adults. The first section explains the key terms relevant to this topic. The second section summarizes the types of housing available for precariously housed older adults in Canada. These include alternative and affordable housing, emergency shelters, and residential or long-term care. The third section describes best practices for re-housing older adults, including rapid re-housing, a range of service and support options, client-centred approaches, strong social support networks, and age-appropriate and affordable accommodations. The final section discusses the shift toward ‘housing first’ models in Canadian and international housing policy and reviews case studies of housing initiatives that target Canada’s hard-to-house population.