Some are reduced to living day to day after years of reduced economic circumstance depletes their savings.
No job? No retirement? No family? No friends? No mentors? No counselors? NO one?
VERY sad indeed.
I always believed that SOMEWHERE along the line those folks did what they WANTED to, rather than what they SHOULD have done. ESPECIALLY in this country.
"Deferred gratification" wasn't a way they cared to live.
No one has to "fall through the cracks" in this country unless s/he INSISTS on it.