Groups target aging homeless

MAT-SU — On the Friday morning before Labor Day, a tall, thin man wearing a flannel shirt and worn jeans walked into Dennie Jaques’ office at the Wasilla Senior Center and filled out a housing form.

The man, who was 67, had been living in a camper shell atop his older-model black pickup. Jaques, marketing manager Diana Straub and executive director Sondra Kaplan gave the man something to eat and tried in vain to find him a place to stay.

“Federal and state funding regulations have our hands so tied we couldn’t offer him an apartment even if there was one available,” Kaplan said. “He didn’t have enough income. Isn’t that sad? You don’t even make enough money to be considered needy?”

The man returned to his truck that day with enough food to tide him through the holiday weekend. He’s returned since then to eat lunch at the center.

“He says one meal a day is enough for him,” Jaques said.

Homelessness for seniors is a growing problem in Mat-Su. The area is Alaska’s fastest-growing community and the senior population here has grown almost as explosively as baby boomers move into retirement age.

The number of seniors leaving Alaska in recent years has been roughly equal to the number arriving, according to the Alaska Commission on Aging, yet Alaska in 2008 still had the fastest-growing senior population of the 50 states, with an increase of almost 50 percent among people 65 and older.

About 7.7 percent of Mat-Su’s residents are 65 or older — slightly higher than the state average of 7.6 percent, according to 2009 U.S. Census Bureau statistics. Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development figures state the number of 65-and-older seniors will likely grow to 16 percent of Alaska’s population by 2030.

Churches, schools and other social-service organizations in the Valley already provide a tight network of referrals, assistance and outreach for women and children who need help. Reaching homeless seniors is more difficult, however, because they end up “couch-surfing” in the homes of family members or friends, living in their cars or trucks or camping.

Organizations such as United Way of Mat-Su, Mat-Su Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, and the Palmer, Wasilla and Mid-Valley senior centers are just a few entities trying to ramp up efforts to find seniors who need help.

“I do think that health issues are more prevalent in the senior population — the ability to be mobile, get things, go to the food pantries, do the most basic kind of survival skills, like camping out,” said Stephanie Allen, executive director of United Way of Mat-Su. “It’s harder for the senior population to be able to withstand elements.”

Mid-Valley Senior Center estimates there are currently 170 homeless seniors living in the Valley, but the Mat-Su Coalition hopes to clarify that number at a Jan. 26, 2011, event it is coordinating. Organizers will attempt to reach out to homeless people living in the borough, get them to the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla, count them and connect them with services and supplies they need.

“We ask for grants based on those numbers,” said Stephanie Campbell, programs coordinator for the organization, which tries to find permanent living arrangements for homeless people. “If we can’t support in data what we’re asking for, we don’t get the money. We’ve got to show we’ve got the numbers there, that we have the need.”

Campbell says the problem of homelessness among seniors is underaddressed. “It’s in the fabric of our community,” she said. “We don’t see it, observe it. Some people say it’s a good thing, but they’re still members of our community and they need our help.”

Lorie Rounds, executive director of the 250-member Mid-Valley Senior Center, is doing everything possible to ease the plight of the seniors who need help. The center is launching fund-raising efforts to feed a senior for a day or week. “Wintertime is coming,” she said. “We want to find these people who are hungry and homeless to see what we can do to feed them. Now we have a transportation department up and running so we can bring them in.”

Mid-Valley prepares so-called 1,228 congregate and 1,041 home-delivered meals Mondays through Fridays, for $17.88 per meal. The state reimburses 60 cents per meal for people who are 60 or older. People who can’t afford to pay for a meal can still eat, at no cost, Rounds said.

“If you have a heart, you’re not going to turn them away,” she said. “These people paved the way for us. We believe in random acts of kindness because someday we’re all going to be there.”