San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
HOMELESS SENIORS ISSUE BECOMING A CRISIS
Advocates looking for ways to assist growing population
A recent report that shows a high number of homeless people living outdoors or in shelters was alarming but not surprising to Paul Downey.
“It doesn’t get a lot of talk, but the fact is that a significant cohort of the homeless population is now seniors,” said Downey, president and CEO of Serving Seniors. “We’re seeing this around the country.”
In September, the Regional Task Force on the Homeless released an annual report that showed 27 percent of people on the street and 24 percent in shelters were 55 years old or older. Of those seniors who were not in shelters, 55 percent said they had a physical disability and half said they had a chronic health condition.
Downey said it’s time cities take steps to help homeless seniors, with the first being to get them off the street. That hasn’t always been easy, however, because many seniors are reluctant to go to conventional shelters, he said.
“It’s a tough place for them,” he said. “They’re vulnerable. They’re physically afraid. There’s safety concerns.”
While permanent housing is the ultimate goal, Downey said he would like San Diego to do a better job accommodating seniors who need shelters. One idea is to open a shelter that would specifically serve from 180 to 240 seniors, a plan he acknowledges could take years to realize. A faster and more-likely scenario could be to set aside 25 percent of existing shelters for seniors.
Those shelter beds would not have top bunks and would be close to restrooms, Downey said. In other accommodations, pathways should be wide enough for walkers and wheelchairs, showers should have grab bars and anti-slip f loors, and signs should be large and easy to read.
Bob Mcelroy, president and CEO of the Alpha Project, said Downey’s suggestion has merit.
“They’re the most vulnerable and most preyed upon,” he said, adding that he believes seniors make up more than 25 percent of the homeless population. “They get Social Security checks, people befriend them, and they steal their money. They get victimized a lot. If I could have a special place for seniors, that would be great.”
The Alpha Project provides services for homeless people and oversees a section of the large city-run temporary shelter at the San Diego Convention Center. Some time in December, that shelter will close and the Alpha Project will return to overseeing two large tented bridge shelters, sonamed because they are intended to serve as a bridge between homelessness and permanent housing.
Mcelroy said he already had clustered seniors together at Alpha Project shelters, in part because they have more in common with one another than the rest of the shelter population.
Deacon Jim Vargas, president and CEO of Father Joe’s Village, said he has seen the homeless senior population grow from 40 percent to 60 percent at the nonprofit’s Paul Mirabile Center.
Vargas is not convinced a seniors-only shelter is necessary, however. At shelters with a mix of ages, Vargas said younger clients tend to help older people. If a shelter were 100 percent seniors, he said the staff could be overwhelmed trying to care for them without the help of younger clients.
In 2019, researchers at UC Los Angeles, the University of Pennsylvania, New York University and Boston University released a study that projected the number of homeless seniors would triple in the next decade. An estimated 40,000 people 65 and older are homeless nationwide.
The data was based on surveys taken during a January count that found 7,619 homeless people throughout the county, including 3,971 who were without shelter. Other data from Serving Seniors shows a 9 percent increase in unsheltered seniors in 2018, with 35 percent of people on the street 55 or older, equating to 1,700 people.
The Elder Index, developed by UCLA’S Center for Health Policy Research, found that 41 percent of San Diego seniors do not have enough income to pay for basic housing, food, health care and transportation.
“It’s largely economic,” Downey said about the increase in older homeless people. “Of the people we see, there are some who have mental illness or drug and alcohol problems, but the most common things we see is loss of a job in the late 50s or 60s, and they can’t get reemployed at the level of wages they had,” he said. “Or, there was illness of a spouse that took their life’s savings, or one passes away and the other is surviving only on Social Security.”
Serving Seniors, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, provides services to 8,500 seniors annually, with 85 percent of clients living on slightly more than $1,000 a month. It also operates 412 units of affordable senior housing with support services, and another 117unit project is under construction in City Heights. The nonprofit also provides transitional housing for clients to stay 90 to 120 days while case workers help them find permanent homes.
With a $100,000 grant received in July from the Hearst Foundation, Serving Seniors is conducting a needs assessment of homeless seniors in the county with a plan to take the findings and recommendations to the Regional Task Force on the Homeless after it is completed next June. Downey said the study also will look at other areas, including San Francisco, which has its own senior shelter, to find best practices already in place. The study comes in a year when many of the programs Serving Seniors offers have been upended because of the coronavirus outbreak. The nonprofit’s flagship Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center at 1525 Fourth Ave. still is open, but things have dramatically changed.
“Pre-pandemic, this was a very busy place,” said Jennifer Sinnott, vice president of health and social services for Serving Seniors. “A lot of laughter. A lot of joy. You could hear life-changing stories.”
Seniors used to eat breakfast and lunch at the center. Some spent the night outside to be first in line, while seniors who were not homeless may have walked over from a nearby singleroom occupancy hotel where they lived. A March calendar showing what meals would be served each day still hangs on the wall like a time capsule, a reminder of life before the shutdown.
Downey said the nonprofit typically would serve about 725,000 meals annually. It’s now on pace to serve 2 million after a major rampup to help feed shut-in seniors during the pandemic.
In the past, two-thirds of those meals would be served at the 11 centers Serving Seniors operates from Oceanside to San Ysidro, and about one-third were delivered to people’s homes. Meals are no longer served at most centers, and 98 percent are delivered to homes. About 250 still are served to homeless people at the Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center.
The kitchen at the center can’t prepare enough hot dishes to meet the need, so most meals are delivered in cardboard boxes containing packaged food. Inside what once was a large dining room, volunteers work an assembly line by picking nonperishable packaged food from milk crates and filling cardboard boxes.
The boxes are taken to another room that used to host meetings, classes and other activities. Now it is filled with pallets, each containing 40 stacked boxes ready for delivery.
Another room where seniors used to gather to socialize, watch TV or have their blood pressure checked now is used to assemble the boxes. A sign stating that all activities have been canceled hangs near the door to what once was a game room.
Seniors who used to come for yoga, chess, Scrabble, arts and crafts, dance classes, birthday parties and workshops on travel, trivia or current events now are likely sitting alone at home, Sinnott said.
Kimberly Jenks, director of philanthropy for Serving Seniors, said community members have responded to a donation drive to help the shut-in seniors. In the lobby, tables are filled with colorful bags stuffed with toiletries and other essentials that donors have selected from a wish list posted on Serving Seniors’ website, https:// servingseniors.org. Many of the bags contain personal decorations and even cards of encouragement for the recipients.
“Senior isolation is real,” Jenks said about how meaningful the cards are to many clients.
While the Wellness Center isn’t what it used to be, many of the services still continue. A dental office has reopened in a reduced capacity, a psychiatrist with an office on-site sees patients remotely, and case workers also continue to work with clients either over the phone or computer platforms. For people who need a one-onone contact, a table behind plexiglass has been set up next to the emergency exit on Fourth Avenue.
The nonprofit also continues to find permanent homes for clients.
Jerry Walker, 61, didn’t want to say how long he had been on the street, but it had been a while. He had worked as a floor installer, but said jobs got harder to find as he got older.
A friend told him about Serving Seniors early this year, and he was surprised at the amount of resources available to him under one roof.
“I’m very grateful for Serving Seniors,” he said. “This shouldn’t be a secret. If I’d have known about them earlier, I probably wouldn’t have been homeless for so long.”
Walker moved into one of the nonprofit’s transitional housing units earlier this year, making his life more stable as he searched for a permanent home. He was scheduled to move into a new home Friday.
“They really helped me,” he said. “I like where I’m at, and I’m going to be there a long time.”
gary.warth@sduniontribune.com