Homeless encampment sweeps in San Francisco this week bring renewed attention to Social Security policy. It is especially salient given the presidential election season.

Numbers of homeless seniors may seem dire or dramatized depending on one’s home city. Still, it is sensible to conclude that seniors are ending up homeless at far greater rates than they ought to. For a long time now, we have heard warnings that a Social Security dry-up is imminent. This news is not surprising, provocative, or, really, worrisome — it is the expected outcome. The program has been publicly in trouble for at least the last 50 years, yet reports of its worsening effects sound increasingly bleak.