It is described as the ticking time bomb of the housing crisis.
Many people wonder if they will ever afford to buy a home and how they will pay for rising rents in retirement.
A recent meeting of the National Homeless Action Committee heard that housing charities and advocacy groups are sounding alarm bells over an increasing trend of people in their 60s needing to access emergency accommodation for the first time, with specific reference to Galway.
Galway Simon Community confirmed that it is seeing more and more older people entering homelessness for the first time.
66-year-old Carmel moved to the city from Dublin to be close to her son and grandchild nine years ago but has struggled to find a home.
She qualifies for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) but "landlords won’t accept it", she says, in such a competitive rental market.
Carmel began working as a live-in carer for sick and elderly people to pay her bills, but also as a roof over her head.
However, having injured her shoulder recently, she is no longer able for the physical work of personal care.
Carmel is still living in the home of a previous client because she has "nowhere to go".
With weekly pension payments of "€300 a week" and rent for apartments in Galway of around "€2,000 euro a month", she describes her situation as "impossible" and "soul destroying".
"I never thought I’d be homeless," she told RTÉ’s Drivetime, as she spoke of her constant stress and uncertainty that "feels like a dead end, like I’m never going to have a place where I can relax and call home".
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For Mary Jane, who is 65, it was "absolutely terrifying" to get an eviction notice from the Co Galway flat that she had be renting for seven years.
The former chef raised her daughters in the city, but had to give up restaurant work in recent years due to back problems and found it "hard to get HAP" so she had to move.
When that property was being sold, Mary Jane faced not knowing whether she would be "sleeping in a doorway, or on somebody's floor" or where she would be.
She described her situation as "very frightening" at a time when she had hoped to plan her retirement.
"I never thought I would become homeless" at this age, she added, tearfully, speaking of feeling "constantly sick" and crying at night.
"It was just horrible, you just don't expect it," Mary Jane added.
Across Ireland, 15,580 people are living in emergency accommodation, according to the most recent figures from the Department of Housing, with 244 of them - or 2% - over the age of 65.
Facing homelessness in retirement is "hugely distressing for more and more" people, according to Galway Simon Community.
With more people renting rather than owning their homes, Chief Executive Karen Golden said that when people "reach pension age and their income decreases fairly substantially, they're no longer able to afford the rising rents" in what she described as the "deeply problematic private rental sector".
Galway Simon Community recently developed a block of ten one-bedroom A-rated apartments specifically designed for older people and those with impaired mobility.
The building, on a former derelict site next to its 24/7 emergency hostel facility and support services, receiveved funding support from the Department of Housing through Galway City Council.
According to Ms Golden, the plan is "to provide accessible homes with security for older people who could be otherwise facing homelessness", adding that she "would advocate for more of this type of development in Galway and elsewhere because it is so badly needed".
The ten apartments were occupied within a week of their launch and could have been filled "many times over", according to Galway Simon, as it endeavors to provide a positive outcome for more pensioners in precarious housing situations, including Carmel, who said she does not know "what’s going to happen to her in the future".
Mary Jane was one of the fortunate ones to finally get her "forever home" in the development and is already "planning Christmas" with her grandchildren there.
She spoke of "relief, when you come into somewhere, you know it's safe and secure, and yours for your lifetime" where you can "breathe and relax".
"It’s what we all deserve," she added, and it is "so important to feel that".
