Old and Homeless

 A rhetorical analysis of “I Just Wanna Go Home” by Bryce Dole

            Over a quarter of homeless people are senior citizens. This article addresses that problem, providing facts and statistics as well as personal stories and proposed solutions. As a homeless person nearing 55, I must admit my own biases when it comes to the housing gap in Portland. I see a lot of elderly people in the shelter where I live, some of them in wheelchairs or using walkers. One is 72, and she has been homeless for five years. Another is 74 and came from Iowa. She became homeless because her husband passed away and he was the sole breadwinner in the household. Now she shares a bunk with her son, who is also over 55. Another woman I spoke to, aged 56, was kicked out of her home by her ex-boyfriend. Because she wasn’t fleeing from domestic violence, her options for shelter were limited. These women illustrate the struggle that the article directly addresses.

            The majority of OPB’s audience are college educated, affluent, and between 35 and 64 years old (About OPB). 65% of listeners hold a college degree and 44% earn over $75,000 annually. In other words, these are the people most in the position of donating and otherwise contributing to programs that seek to help older homeless people. The author makes effective use of Logos, Pathos, and Ethos to educate the reader about the realities of being homeless when you are too old to work. It is easy for me to feel empathy for these people because I see and talk to them every day. I know their stories and how they wound up in their position. (I delivered two speeches for my Public Speaking class last semester about the realities of being homeless and the best way to address the problem.)

            The logical appeal informs readers of the nature and extent of the homelessness crisis among senior citizens, using statistics and other data to convince them that this is a real problem to be solved. This is intended to influence the readers to use their voices to help senior citizens facing homelessness and contribute what they can to help solve the problem. Logically, addressing homelessness among the elderly in a practical and realistic way makes perfect sense. More people in stable housing means fewer people on the streets or in shelters, cleaning up our sidewalks and using fewer resources.

            The most prominent appeal is that of Pathos, with stories of real people who live in the kind of extreme poverty that leads to a lack of stable housing. These stories are deeply poignant and put a human face on the crisis. Each person interviewed is a sympathetic character in the narrative. The article is effective in inspiring empathy among their target demographics and making the afflicted citizens heard.

            For Ethos, the article points out that assisting homeless senior citizens is the right thing to do. Homeless people are, above all, people, deserving of basic creature comforts like a place to live. When they made it illegal to sleep in public, the federal government tried to “end homelessness” by sweeping it under the rug and out of sight. This has clearly not worked. It is more ethical to subsidize housing for those living in extreme poverty. It is also pointed out that many older adults live on Social Security, which is never enough to afford rent anywhere in the city. The average cost of a studio apartment in Portland is about $1200 (Apartments.com), while the average SS payment at age 65 is about $1600 (Ponciano). It is obviously ethical to assist those adults via federal subsidies and get them out of shelters and off the streets. The intended audience for this article are the ones most likely to agree with the ethics of the proposed solutions.

            Any rational, empathetic person would read this article and be moved by its content. The true stories should inspire its readers to do what they can to help, whether it is donating money, voting, or encouraging government agencies to funnel funds into programs that work to alleviate the homelessness crisis in this state. The existing policies do not and cannot work; nobody is going to magically find housing just because it is illegal to be homeless. Arresting people for sleeping in public just means they have a place to stay for a week before being tossed back out onto the street, still with nowhere else to go. Sending “cleanup crews” to roust homeless encampments just means the ones living in tents lose half their possessions but still have no stable shelter. Cutting funding for homeless shelters and federal housing subsidies is obviously counterproductive to anyone actually analyzing the issue. The “treatment first” model ignores those who are not using any substances or suffering from mental health issues, even though about half of those living on the street or in shelters do not use drugs of any kind, so what about them? No effort is being made to help working families afford stable housing, even though 40 to 60% of homeless people have jobs that simply don’t pay enough. The income inequality gap has grown while the cost of living continues to rise, meaning more people can’t afford both rent and food. It makes no logical sense to cut funding to realistic and practical solutions while forcing more and more people into the extreme poverty that leads to living in a tent on the sidewalk.

            In conclusion, this article makes good use of the elements of Logos, Pathos, and Ethos to both illustrate the issue and offer real solutions.

 

References:

“About OPB.” Opb, www.opb.org/about/.

“Average Rent in Portland, or - 2023 Rent Prices.” Apartments.com, 13 Nov. 2023, www.apartments.com/rent-market-trends/portland-or/.

Ponciano, Jonathan. “Social Security Benefits at Age 65: How Your Payment Compares to the Average.” Investopedia, 2026, www.investopedia.com/social-security-benefits-at-age-65-how-your-payment-compares-to-the-average-11977649. Accessed 4 July 2026.