Being seen and heard

Safety

Seniors from The Coronet participated in Arguello Boulevard Safety Community Walkthrough with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency staff (wearing bright yellow vests) and diverse interest groups (Walk SF, SF Bicycle Coalition, car drivers, people using canes/walkers/wheelchairs) for a lively dialogue on improving safety for all ages and abilities!  According to Walk SF, between 2005 and 2011, at least 17 people have been struck while walking along Arguello; this statistic included an 87-year-old woman who lost her life crossing Arguello and Geary, near The Coronet in 2011 when Institute on Aging opened next door.

The Coronet seniors meet-up with District Supervisor Eric Mar when Walkthrough ended at Rossi Playground near dusk time.  Some of their suggestions to improve safety: audible signaling with countdown timers at crosswalks, at least 5 more seconds for pedestrian crossing, and resting benches along Rossi Playground. 

The Coronet hosted Tai Chi for Arthritis and Fall Prevention for all abilities, with modifications like chair for arthritis and audio description for blind. 

Norman of The Coronet shared health and safety concerns during his visit to a sister senior housing site in East Oakland at Alameda Area Agency on Aging’s Needs Assessment Public Forum.  He expressed appreciation for The Coronet staff who are accessible and responsive to promote the overall well-being of senior residents. Always thoughtful, Norman presented Oakland residents with glittered red heart cutouts that he made in San Francisco!

Poverty

This month’s Senior & Disability Action (SDA) meeting focused on the California State Budget and Increasing SSI (Supplemental Security Income)/SSP (State Supplemental Payment).

Shanti Prasad (center, in photo above) of Alameda County Community Food Bank is part of Californians for SSI (CA4SSI), a statewide coalition of over 200 organizations across the aging, disability rights, housing and homeless, anti-hunger and anti-poverty sectors.  CA4SSI seeks to prioritize SSI/SSP funding in the 2016-17 budget to lift more than 1 million Californians out of poverty.  
During the 2009 recession, the annual cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) for SSI/SSP was repealed.  In addition, the state-funded SSP was cut from $233 per month in 2009 to the federal minimum of $156 per month.  The federal SSI grant is $733 per month, for a combined $889 SSI/SSP grant per month, or just 90% of the federal poverty level.  CA4SSI seeks to repeal the cuts to SSP and to restore the COLA.

SDA member Nelly Echeverria (left, in photo above) shared her experience of trying to survive on SSI/SSP when her rent, which was $600 in 2008, has increased by $120, so there is little leftover to cover costs for healthcare and healthy food (SSI recipients in California are not eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). (2015 MacArthur "Genius" Fellow Matthew Desmond explains how the housing market exploits the poor and keeps them in poverty in his new book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.)

Nelly’s experience is similar to the four women featured in a Justice in Aging video about being poor in old age: 

·         Older women are twice as likely to live in poverty as men due to wage discrimination, low wage jobs, death of a spouse and divorce.

·         26% of Native American, 25% of black and 23% of Hispanic women over age 65 live in poverty.

·         It doesn’t add up: To meet basic needs, it costs an average $23,317 per year for a senior living alone in California; yet, $12,155 is the average yearly social security income for a retired woman. 

·         Healthcare coverage stops when there’s no money for copayments: an older woman spends average $5,036 per year in out-of-pocket health care costs—more than an older man and any other age group. Women age 85+ spend average $8,574.

·         Nearly 1 out of 5 seniors nearing retirement have no retirement savings at all.

Justice in Aging has been working with Congress on SSI Restoration Act. 

According to UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, elderly Californians whose income is above the official poverty level but below what is required to maintain a basic quality of life make up the “hidden poor.” This group is almost twice as likely to say they are in poor or fair health; feel depressed; and cannot get timely health care as their wealthier counterparts.  Yet unlike seniors living below the poverty line, they often don't qualify for safety-net programs and services that would help ease financial burdens such as health care expenses.

San Francisco housing advocate Tommi Avicolli Mecca provided the following perspective in Who Wants to be an Old Queen? 

“I chose to work for nonprofits and businesses that reflected my political views, so I never earned tremendous amounts of money…Thankfully, I can look back at my work life and say that I contributed something worthwhile to society. But a good conscience doesn’t mean a hill of beans when it comes time to pay the rent or go grocery shopping with a Social Security check that doesn’t stretch far enough. Add on some sickness that needs constant medication and I could be seriously screwed. As so many other seniors are…getting old is the scariest thing I’ve faced in my life.”

Advice 

Book release party for the late Susan O’Malley’s Advice From My 80-Year-Old Self: Real Words of Wisdom from People Ages 7 to 88, at San Francisco Arts Commission Main Gallery.

 

How to give a pep talk: pay attention, ask questions, open your heart, listen actively. 

O’Malley’s poster art at Muni bus shelter on Market Street in San Francisco. O'Malley had asked passersby in Berkeley, "If you had an opportunity to meet your 80-year-old self, what do you think he/she would tell you?"  My response: "Say what you need to say before it's too late, and don't just suck it up."

Maintaining chi flow with magnolias in full bloom at The Coronet.