暮年的流浪 美国无家可归者正在老去

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.

洛杉矶――他们拄着拐杖或助行器，步履蹒跚，又或是坐着破旧的轮椅，在穷街(Skid Row)沿步行街而下，途经肮脏的睡袋、倾斜的帐篷和成堆成堆的垃圾。即便是温暖的春天，他们也穿着褴褛的冬衣在街头徘徊。他们担心老年疾病，担心自己在无人帮助的境地下死去，因为子女们早已淡出了他们的生活。

“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.”

“老了以后一切都很难，”65岁的肯·席尔瓦斯(Ken Sylvas)说，他自从2001年被肉类加工厂辞退后就再也没有工作，目前正在和酗酒作斗争。“我得坐轮椅，身体有病，在疗养院住了两个月。我整晚都坐着公共汽车来回游荡。”

The homeless in America are getting old.

美国的无家可归者正在变老。

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.

根据住屋和城市发展部(Department of Housing and Urban Development)统计，据可获得的最新数据，2014年，50岁以上的街头流浪者为30.6万名，比2007年上升了20%。他们占全国无家可归人口的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.

这一人口分布变化可以同18岁到30岁无家可归人口显著但并不是那么剧烈的增长相对照，这些人大部分是在大衰退(Great Recession)时期进入工作市场，目前占无家可归人口的24%。和婴儿潮一代一样，这些年轻人成长在经济下滑的年代，要面对紧张的住屋状况和工作市场。其中很多人都曾是领养儿童或离家出走儿童，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.

但是老龄无家可归人口的增加对社会服务机构与正在和贫困危机作战的政府构成了极为艰巨的挑战。“有健康和各种麻烦问题的婴儿潮一代如果流浪街头，会非常难以照顾，”圣公会牧师爱丽丝·卡拉汉(Alice Callaghan)说，她在洛杉矶做无家可归者工作已经做了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.

分析人士称，许多街头无家可归的老年人已经在街头流浪了三四十年的时间，是20世纪70年代末到80年代初经济衰退造成的，当时联邦住屋计划开支消减，可卡因毒品泛滥。这些无家可归者往往有一段复杂的历史，包括入狱、进入精神病院，乃至进入戒毒所，最终流落街头。

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。在他们所处的人生阶段，有人为在亚利桑那养老还是在佛罗里达养老而争论；而他们却在最近一次经济衰退中失业，被迫体验无家可归的滋味。有些人的固定收入无法在洛杉矶一类地方支付房屋租金——在洛杉矶，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岁的霍勒斯·阿尔隆格(Horace Allong)说，他负担不起一室一厅的房屋，如今住在克罗克街头的帐篷里。阿尔隆格两年前和妻子离婚，从新奥尔良来到洛杉矶，他说，来到这里两周后，他丢失了钱包和所有证件，也无法找工作。

“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.”

“这是我第一次流浪街头，于是我就开始学习，”他说。“穷街和任何地方都不一样。穷街是另一个世界。”

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.

全国各地的无家可归者们面临的问题各不相同。根据住屋和城市发展部统计的数据，从2014年到2015年，全国无家可归者的人数减少了2%。有些社区（包括菲尼克斯与拉斯维加斯）宣布，已经彻底解决了复员老兵的无家可归问题，这也是美国政府的首要目标。

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.

但是在洛杉矶、纽约、檀香山与旧金山等正在进行升级改造、房屋价格不断上升的那些大城市，无家可归者人数仍在上升。据报道，去年洛杉矶的无家可归人口增加了5.7%，这个数据已经持续两年急剧上升。根据住屋和城市发展部，去年，这个国家的无家可归人口中，有20%生活在加利福尼亚州。

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.

在整个南加州，从威尼斯(Venice)到圣费尔南多山谷(San Fernando Valley)，到处都有无家可归者们成群结队地住在街角的帐篷阵、立交桥下冒出的社区中，乃至洛杉矶河干涸的河床上。圣塔莫尼卡大街两侧到处都是他们的睡袋与各种随身物品。

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.

随着这些醒目的无家可归现象，也引来关于强行乞讨、公共场所便溺、扰乱社会治安行为的抱怨，以及毒品交易和轻罪率的上升。

“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.

“人们有种感觉，有些社区出现了多年未见的、新的无家可归问题，”宾夕法尼亚大学社会政策教授丹尼斯·P·卡尔海恩(Dennis P. Culhane)说。

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.

洛杉矶、西雅图与夏威夷备受指责的官员们宣布事态进入紧急状态，推出各种针对无家可归现象的措施，承诺增加对低成本住屋计划的投入。檀香山推出一项禁令，禁止在怀基基一带的路边躺坐。旧金山已清理若干帐篷营地，但它们又在城市的其他地方冒出来。西雅图试图增加经过设计的帐篷营地，由社会服务组织监管。

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.

无论是大城市还是小城市，都有无家可归人口老龄化的问题，但或许在穷街最为严重——这条街坐落于洛杉矶下城繁华的经济中心东南，是一处道路呈棋盘状的街区，这里一年四季温度均衡，有不少教会组织和诊所，这个国家的许多穷人都长期驻扎在这里。

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，在每周有三个早上为无家可归者提供食品的“嬉皮厨房”(Hippie Kitchen)外，排队等候的长龙延伸了半个街区，一直排到第六街，一群头发花白的男女等待着由豆子和沙拉组成的早餐。

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岁的金·克劳福德(Kin Crawford)说他长久以来同酗酒和毒瘾作战，早就找不到工作了。“如今，我睡在别人家的车库里，”他说。“我在街头遇到的最大挑战？就是上厕所。简直太疯狂了。还有就是找地方存放自己的东西。”

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.

这是一个流动性很强的人群，很难进行准确的计数和分类。有些人可能很享受脱离稳定状态，暂停工作，跟朋友一起拼床睡。但最首要的是，这些进入老年的男女已经进入一个他们不能也不愿打破的模式。

“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.

“我们看到有些人年复一年地在街头流浪，”洛杉矶内城法律中心公共政策部门的负责人杰里·琼斯(Jerry Jones)说。

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.”

席尔瓦斯说，嬉皮厨房外排的队越来越长，路边的帐篷也越来越多。“情况愈来愈坏，”他说。“你能看得出来，有很多年纪更老的人。”

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.

老年人所面临的问题迫使无家可归者们的代言人与相关政府机构重新考虑这个人群所需要的服务：不仅仅是三餐、住所与康复机构那么简单。

“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.”

“为婴儿潮一代所提供的服务计划是为解决长期需求所设计的，如精神健康、滥用有害物品等，”南加利福尼亚社会工作学院副教授本杰明·亨伍德(Benjamin Henwood)说。“但是它们不是为解决老龄化问题设计的，这是今后数年内无家可归者处理方案所要面临的一大问题。”