‘They forgot about us’: The number of older women who are homeless is up on Treasure Coast

By Angela Rozier

Click here for updates on this story

    FORT PIERCE, Florida (WPBF) — Sixty-nine-year-old Ruth Outlaw has a wish this year.

“I would wish for a place I could stretch out and have a place to sleep,” Outlaw said.

Outlaw is homeless and has been living inside her car for the last five months.

“Sometimes it’s safe and sometimes it’s not because people break in your car and steal stuff,” Outlaw said.

Outlaw said she lost her apartment because it turned out the person she was paying rent to didn’t own the building.

County officials said they are no shelters for unaccompanied adult women on the Treasure Coast and Outlaw feels forgotten.

“They need to look out more for the elderly because there’s not enough help for the elderly. We’re a forgotten generation. They forgot about us,” Outlaw said.

David and Kelly Long run the Angels of Hope Closet Thrift store in Fort Pierce.

They also founded Angels of Hope Outreach, which is a non-profit organization that helps the homeless on the Treasure. The organization lives off of donations and volunteering.

Your neighborhood: Local coverage from WPBF 25 News

They said the number of people needing help has tripled over the last few months and they are seeing more older women.

“The elderly disabled females, we have them out in wheelchairs, we have people who can barely walk, bent over, people living in places,” David Long said.

People are constantly calling and asking for help.

“Our phones start ringing at six in the morning, and it doesn’t stop ringing until 12:30 at night,” Kelly Long said. “He got a call last night, a disabled elderly woman up in Vero, with nowhere to go.”

According to the Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council, a total of 846 persons were counted as homeless in 2022 and 814 persons were counted as homeless in 2021.

Officials are convinced the numbers still reflect a serious under-counting and are aware that more services are needed.

“We have been in communication with the county with regarding to having a female shelter as well,” Rayme Nuckles, executive director of the Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council.”

The council’s mission is to prevent and end homelessness in St. Lucie, Martin and Indian River Counties and to assure that if homelessness happens, it is brief and non-recurring.

Nuckles said he has also seen an increase in the number of older people in the community, mainly females, seeking housing.

“We were just talking about an individual who may have just moved down here, and their 401-K ran out,” Nuckles said. “And their husband passed away and they go from maybe two or three thousand dollars a month to $800 a month then they have to move out of the apartment that they are in.”

Officials plan to conduct a One-Day Point in time count during the last ten days of January and are asking for volunteers.

They say the count time count is a key step in quantifying need.

Anyone interested in volunteering or in need of resources can log on to the website tchelpspot.org

If you would like to reach out to the Angels of Hope Outreach log on to angelsofhopeoutreach.org

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.