In San Francisco where more than 30% of unhoused people are older than 50, there’s very little specialized care for unhoused people with serious age-related illnesses. But, the pandemic provided an unlikely opportunity to pave the way toward housing as health care.

Last spring, due to COVID-19 the city leased 25 tourist hotels to house the most vulnerable. Now, the hotels are closing and the city is transitioning some residents into what’s called “permanent supportive housing.” In this story, we meet a doctor who thinks this transition is an opportunity to combine housing and healthcare.

The pandemic’s shelter-in-place hotels offered a temporary solution for aging seniors with thorough nursing care and three meals a day. But, if the city and state want to take care of a growing number of homeless seniors, advocates say they’re going to have to find a way to pay for it. In this story, we look at one county that’s been piloting a possible solution.