09/11/2026
We are seeing this in real time when we do outreach.
💬 A comment came in this week that we want to unpack, because it contains a really common assumption:
*"The elderly people have no money to spay or neuter their animals, but we can do it for homeless people. SMH."*
We understand the frustration behind this. Seniors on fixed incomes absolutely struggle to afford veterinary care, and that is a real problem that we should all care about.
But the comment rests on a premise we should look at directly.
It assumes "elderly people" and "homeless people" are two separate groups.
They are not.
About one in five people experiencing homelessness in America is 55 or older.
Older adults are the fastest-growing group of people experiencing homelessness in this country. Their numbers are projected to triple between 2017 and 2030.
And the longer trend is extremely alarming. The share of single adults aged 50 or older experiencing homelessness has gone from about 11% in the early 1990s, to roughly 37% in 2003, to nearly 50% in the 2020s.
Why is this happening? For exactly the reason the commenter identified.
Older adults live on fixed incomes. These include things like Social Security and small pensions. When rent goes up, a fixed income does not. Many older adults are already spending more than half their income on housing - this is called being "rent burdened." One rent increase, one medical crisis, one death of a spouse, and they are out on the streets.
The seniors who cannot afford to spay their cat and the seniors sleeping in their cars are frequently the same people, six months apart.
And once older adults become homeless, they tend to stay that way.
Nearly 46% of homeless adults over 55 are unsheltered - outside, in vehicles, in places not meant for human habitation. Shelters often cannot accommodate them: no ramps, no first-floor rooms, no lower bunks, no help with daily living.
Research found that people who first became homeless at age 50 or later were about 60% more likely to die than those who became homeless younger.
So - who do you think we serve?
We have written before about a 79-year-old woman with four cats, sitting on a waiting list for low-income senior housing, trying to survive on about $1,000 a month in Social Security.
She is elderly. She is also unhoused. There is no contradiction. She is one person.
That is not an unusual case for us. It is an increasingly common one.
And here is the last thing.
We agree that housed seniors on fixed incomes need help affording veterinary care. Genuinely. That is why our **Resources page** lists free and low-cost spay/neuter options available to anyone in Thurston County - SNAP vouchers, Purrfect Pals, Meow Cat Rescue, Concern for Animals, and more.
If you know a senior struggling to afford care for their cat, please send them here:
👉 **https://www.olycampkitties.com/resources**
The existence of one group's need does not cancel out another's. There is no set quantity of compassion that gets used up. 🐾
