暮年的流浪 美國無家可歸者正在老去

LOS ANGELES — They lean unsteadily on canes and walkers, or roll along the sidewalks of Skid Row here in beat-up wheelchairs, past soiled sleeping bags, swaying tents and piles of garbage. They wander the streets in tattered winter coats, even in the warmth of spring. They worry about the illnesses of age and how they will approach death without the help of children who long ago drifted from their lives.

洛杉磯――他們拄着柺杖或助行器，步履蹣跚，又或是坐着破舊的輪椅，在窮街(Skid Row)沿步行街而下，途經骯髒的睡袋、傾斜的帳篷和成堆成堆的垃圾。即便是溫暖的春天，他們也穿着襤褸的冬衣在街頭徘徊。他們擔心老年疾病，擔心自己在無人幫助的境地下死去，因爲子女們早已淡出了他們的生活。

“It’s hard when you get older,” said Ken Sylvas, 65, who has struggled with alcoholism and has not worked since he was fired in 2001 from a meatpacking job. “I’m in this wheelchair. I had a seizure and was in a convalescent home for two months. I just ride the bus back and forth all night.”

“老了以後一切都很難，”65歲的肯·席爾瓦斯(Ken Sylvas)說，他自從2001年被肉類加工廠辭退後就再也沒有工作，目前正在和酗酒作鬥爭。“我得坐輪椅，身體有病，在療養院住了兩個月。我整晚都坐着公共汽車來回遊蕩。”

The homeless in America are getting old.

美國的無家可歸者正在變老。

There were 306,000 people over 50 living on the streets in 2014, the most recent data available, a 20 percent jump since 2007, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. They now make up 31 percent of the nation’s homeless population.

根據住房和城市發展部(Department of Housing and Urban Development)統計，據可獲得的最新數據，2014年，50歲以上的街頭流浪者爲30.6萬名，比2007年上升了20%。他們佔全國無家可歸人口的31%。

The demographic shift is mirrored by a noticeable but not as sharp increase among homeless people ages 18 to 30, many who entered the job market during the Great Recession. They make up 24 percent of the homeless population. Like the baby boomers, these young people came of age during an economic downturn, confronting a tight housing and job market. Many of them are former foster children or runaways, or were victims of abuse at home.

這一人口分佈變化可以同18歲到30歲無家可歸人口顯著但並不是那麼劇烈的增長相對照，這些人大部分是在大衰退(Great Recession)時期進入工作市場，目前佔無家可歸人口的24%。和嬰兒潮一代一樣，這些年輕人成長在經濟下滑的年代，要面對緊張的住房狀況和工作市場。其中很多人都曾是領養兒童或離家出走兒童，抑或家庭暴力的受害者。

But it is the emergence of an older homeless population that is creating daunting challenges for social service agencies and governments already struggling with this crisis of poverty. “Baby boomers have health and vulnerability issues that are hard to tend to while living in the streets,” said Alice Callaghan, an Episcopal priest who has spent 35 years working with the homeless in Los Angeles.

但是老齡無家可歸人口的增加對社會服務機構與正在和貧困危機作戰的政府構成了極爲艱鉅的挑戰。“有健康和各種麻煩問題的嬰兒潮一代如果流浪街頭，會非常難以照顧，”聖公會牧師愛麗絲·卡拉漢(Alice Callaghan)說，她在洛杉磯做無家可歸者工作已經做了35年。

Many older homeless people have been on the streets for almost a generation, analysts say, a legacy of the recessions of the late 1970s and early 1980s, federal housing cutbacks and an epidemic of crack cocaine. They bring with them a complicated history that may include a journey from prison to mental health clinic to rehabilitation center and back to the sidewalks.

分析人士稱，許多街頭無家可歸的老年人已經在街頭流浪了三四十年的時間，是20世紀70年代末到80年代初經濟衰退造成的，當時聯邦住房計劃開支消減，可卡因毒品氾濫。這些無家可歸者往往有一段複雜的歷史，包括入獄、進入精神病院，乃至進入戒毒所，最終流落街頭。

Some are more recent arrivals and have been forced — at a time of life when some people their age are debating whether to retire to Arizona or to Florida — to learn the ways of homelessness after losing jobs in the latest economic downturn. And there are some on a fixed income who cannot afford the rent in places like Los Angeles, which has a vacancy rate of less than 3 percent.

有些人是新近加入流浪者行列的。在他們所處的人生階段，有人爲在亞利桑那養老還是在佛羅里達養老而爭論；而他們卻在最近一次經濟衰退中失業，被迫體驗無家可歸的滋味。有些人的固定收入無法在洛杉磯一類地方支付房屋租金——在洛杉磯，空房率不到3%。

Horace Allong, 60, said he could not afford a one-room apartment and lives in a tent on Crocker Street. Allong, who divorced his wife and left New Orleans for Los Angeles two years ago, said he lost his wallet and all of his identification two weeks after he arrived and has not been able to find a job.

60歲的霍勒斯·阿爾隆格(Horace Allong)說，他負擔不起一室一廳的房屋，如今住在克羅克街頭的帳篷裏。阿爾隆格兩年前和妻子離婚，從新奧爾良來到洛杉磯，他說，來到這裏兩週後，他丟失了錢包和所有證件，也無法找工作。

“It’s the first time I’ve been on the streets, so I’m learning,” he said. “There’s nothing like Skid Row. Skid Row is another world.”

“這是我第一次流浪街頭，於是我就開始學習，”他說。“窮街和任何地方都不一樣。窮街是另一個世界。”

The problems with homelessness are hardly uniform across the country. The national homeless population declined by 2 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Renewal. Some communities — including Phoenix and Las Vegas — have declared outright victory in eliminating homelessness among veterans, a top goal of the White House.

全國各地的無家可歸者們面臨的問題各不相同。根據住房和城市發展部統計的數據，從2014年到2015年，全國無家可歸者的人數減少了2%。有些社區（包括菲尼克斯與拉斯維加斯）宣佈，已經徹底解決了復員老兵的無家可歸問題，這也是美國政府的首要目標。

But homelessness is rising in big cities where gentrification is on the march and housing costs are rising, like Los Angeles, New York, Honolulu and San Francisco. Los Angeles reported a 5.7 percent increase in its homeless population last year, the second year in a row it had recorded a jump. More than 20 percent of the nation’s homeless lived in California last year, according to the housing agency.

但是在洛杉磯、紐約、檀香山與舊金山等正在進行升級改造、房屋價格不斷上升的那些大城市，無家可歸者人數仍在上升。據報道，去年洛杉磯的無家可歸人口增加了5.7%，這個數據已經持續兩年急劇上升。根據住房和城市發展部，去年，這個國家的無家可歸人口中，有20%生活在加利福尼亞州。

Across Southern California, the homeless live in tent encampments clustered on corners from Venice to the San Fernando Valley, and in communities sprouting under highway overpasses or in the dry bed of the Los Angeles River. Their sleeping bags and piles of belongings line sidewalks on Santa Monica Boulevard.

在整個南加州，從威尼斯(Venice)到聖費爾南多山谷(San Fernando Valley)，到處都有無家可歸者們成羣結隊地住在街角的帳篷陣、立交橋下冒出的社區中，乃至洛杉磯河干涸的河牀上。聖塔莫尼卡大街兩側到處都是他們的睡袋與各種隨身物品。

Along with these visible signs of homelessness come complaints about aggressive panhandling, public urination and disorderly conduct, as well as a rise in drug dealing and petty crimes.

隨着這些醒目的無家可歸現象，也引來關於強行乞討、公共場所便溺、擾亂社會治安行爲的抱怨，以及毒品交易和輕罪率的上升。

“There is a sense out there that some communities are seeing a new visible homeless problem that they have not seen in many years,” said Dennis P. Culhane, a professor of social policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

“人們有種感覺，有些社區出現了多年未見的、新的無家可歸問題，”賓夕法尼亞大學社會政策教授丹尼斯·P·卡爾海恩(Dennis P. Culhane)說。

Beleaguered officials in Los Angeles, Seattle and Hawaii have declared states of emergency, rolling out measures to combat homelessness and pledging to increase spending on low-cost housing. Honolulu has imposed a prohibition on sitting or lying on sidewalks in the neighborhood of Waikiki. San Francisco has cleared out some encampments, only for them to sprout up in other parts of the city. Seattle has tried to create designated tent camps that are overseen by social service agencies.

洛杉磯、西雅圖與夏威夷備受指責的官員們宣佈事態進入緊急狀態，推出各種針對無家可歸現象的措施，承諾增加對低成本住房計劃的投入。檀香山推出一項禁令，禁止在懷基基一帶的路邊躺坐。舊金山已清理若干帳篷營地，但它們又在城市的其他地方冒出來。西雅圖試圖增加經過設計的帳篷營地，由社會服務組織監管。

The aging of the homeless population is on display in cities large and small, but perhaps in no place more than here on Skid Row, a grid of blocks just southeast of the vibrant economic center of downtown Los Angeles, where many of the nation’s poor have long flocked, drawn by a year-round temperate climate and a cluster of missions and clinics.

無論是大城市還是小城市，都有無家可歸人口老齡化的問題，但或許在窮街最爲嚴重——這條街坐落於洛杉磯下城繁華的經濟中心東南，是一處道路呈棋盤狀的街區，這裏一年四季溫度均衡，有不少教會組織和診所，這個國家的許多窮人都長期駐紮在這裏。

Outside the Hippie Kitchen, which feeds the homeless of Skid Row three mornings a week, the line stretched half a block up Sixth Street on a recent day, a graying gathering of men and women waiting for a breakfast of beans and salad.

前不久，在每週有三個早上爲無家可歸者提供食品的“嬉皮廚房”(Hippie Kitchen)外，排隊等候的長龍延伸了半個街區，一直排到第六街，一羣頭髮花白的男女等待着由豆子和沙拉組成的早餐。

Kin Crawford, 59, said he had fallen out of the job market long ago as he battled alcohol and drug addiction. “Right now, I’m sleeping in someone’s garage,” he said. “My biggest challenge out here? Access to a bathroom. It’s really crazy. That and finding a place to keep your stuff.”

59歲的金·克勞福德(Kin Crawford)說他長久以來同酗酒和毒癮作戰，早就找不到工作了。“如今，我睡在別人家的車庫裏，”他說。“我在街頭遇到的最大挑戰？就是上廁所。簡直太瘋狂了。還有就是找地方存放自己的東西。”

This is a fluid population, defying precise count or categorization. Some might enjoy a stretch of stability, holding down a job for a while or finding a spare bed with a friend. But more than anything, these are men and women who, as they enter old age, have settled into patterns they seem unwilling, or unable, to break.

這是一個流動性很強的人羣，很難進行準確的計數和分類。有些人可能很享受脫離穩定狀態，暫停工作，跟朋友一起拼牀睡。但最首要的是，這些進入老年的男女已經進入一個他們不能也不願打破的模式。

“We are seeing people who have been on the street year after year after year,” said Jerry Jones, the director of public policy at the Inner City Law Center in Los Angeles.

“我們看到有些人年復一年地在街頭流浪，”洛杉磯內城法律中心公共政策部門的負責人傑裏·瓊斯(Jerry Jones)說。

Sylvas said the lines at the Hippie Kitchen were growing longer, and there were more tents on the sidewalks. “It’s getting worse,” he said. “You can see it. A lot more old ones.”

席爾瓦斯說，嬉皮廚房外排的隊越來越長，路邊的帳篷也越來越多。“情況愈來愈壞，”他說。“你能看得出來，有很多年紀更老的人。”

The challenges faced by older people have forced advocates for the homeless and government agencies to reconsider what kinds of services they need: It is not just a meal, a roof and rehabilitation anymore.

老年人所面臨的問題迫使無家可歸者們的代言人與相關政府機構重新考慮這個人羣所需要的服務：不僅僅是三餐、住所與康復機構那麼簡單。

“The programs for baby boomers are designed to address longstanding programs — mental health, substance abuse,” said Benjamin Henwood, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California School of Social Work. “But they are not designed to address the problems of aging, and that is a big problem for homeless treatment in the years ahead.”

“爲嬰兒潮一代所提供的服務計劃是爲解決長期需求所設計的，如精神健康、濫用有害物品等，”南加利福尼亞社會工作學院副教授本傑明·亨伍德(Benjamin Henwood)說。“但是它們不是爲解決老齡化問題設計的，這是今後數年內無家可歸者處理方案所要面臨的一大問題。”