Area Agency On Aging
Christy Cantrell
(800) 510-2020
Hello Christy,
It was wonderful speaking with you yesterday on behalf of Sara. You and your organization do wonderful work for folks like Sara.
As you know, Sara is 76 years old and living alone in a rented apartment in Ventura. She is frustrated, desperate, despondent and scared to death. She has high blood pressure, osteoporosis, cataracts in both her eyes (which she says her medical insurance refuses to cover) and she took a bad fall this last year. Oh, she is going deaf as well.
Until now, her rent has been $850/month, but new property owners have raised her rent to $1,150/month. Her Master Card reset her card limit to $200 without her immediate knowledge and she used this card to make up the difference for her rent. As a result, the new owners charged her a $50 bounced check fee on top of her increase in rent. She says she has less than 2 months before she will be evicted from her home.
I’m told rent control does not exist in Ventura County except for mobile homes in Thousand Oaks, so she has no recourse to the $300/month increase in her rent. That’s a 35% hike in her housing expenses and she doesn’t even have a mortgage!
One of my co-workers and I received a request for help from Sara. Sara knows we are both Realtors and she was hoping we knew of properties she could afford. In the spirit of the season, we have did a county-wide MLS search for anything renting for less than $1,000/month but had no luck. There may be something in the classified’s, but with her fixed income at just over $900/mo, it is unlikely we can improve her situation even if we do find something. She will still need food, clothing, utilities and medical care.
We have been making phone calls to local agencies and charities, but we haven’t had a great deal of success. Admittedly, we are not experienced at finding people like her the most appropriate help, but we have tried to do our best.
Christy, you indicated you have had prior contact with Sara, that she has made some unfortunate choices in health care providers, and in not applying for all the assistance she could be receiving. I’m sure that could be true, but from what Sara has told me, she has always tried to be self-sufficient until now. She’s been proud to take care of herself and slow to ask for public aid. Now that her housing expenses have jumped, she has little time left to change her situation, mostly because she has tried so hard to be independent.
The more I investigate what resources are available to her this time of the year, the more I understand her emotional distress. Many state and county agencies I contacted during this last week, have exhausted their annual budgets. Next year’s budgets are probably going to be much smaller for elderly assistance. Many of the larger agencies such as the Area Housing Authority of the County of Ventura are on holiday until 5 January 2009. Others, such as Section 8 Housing have a 2 to 4 year waiting period after application is made for Elderly Housing Assistance. These folks are without funding or on holiday.
This is evidently a very bad time of the year for finding financial assistance, or guidance. Yet this is typically a time of the year when rents are raised.
I’ve been told by numerous agencies that Sara is not unusual in her plight. Agencies have told me there are literally thousands of seniors asking for help. Evidently, more than a few elderly folks live out their final days on the street. This is euthanasia by default. I find it really hard to understand how this could be, in an area of Southern California that is home to so much individual wealth.
My co-worker and I have heard Sara say she might feel compelled to take her own life. She has said that she doesn’t want to do that, “because she wouldn’t get to see her son in heaven if she did.” But she told me today that the ocean is so near, she might just go there and end her troubles. She has also mentioned that she wishes she could just die in her sleep, that “she is angry at God because he won’t let her end her life that way.”
I’m not a mental health professional but I feel confident in saying that Sara’s stress is probably preventing her from making the right choices for herself.
I’m a member of the giant Baby Boomer generation, and I can foresee a time in the not too distant future, when people like myself will be approaching Sara’s age and mental competence. Obviously, we are going to need to be much better prepared than she. I think my generation’s retirement pardigm needs some major shifting. I’m sure we all need to contribute a bit more of our individual energy and earnings to that future time. We shouldn’t rely on the charity of others to survive, but perhaps we could develop a more efficient, effective and dignified response to elderly care than Sara has received.
In any case, you were extremely helpful today Christy. I appreciate your continued efforts at the “Area Agency on Aging” to help Sara. I also received some very useful and heartfelt guidance from Regina Fitzgerald at “Project Understanding.” My co-worker and I made calls to more than 20 departments and agencies today.
You and Regina and a very nice lady (who’s name I didn’t catch) at the after hours information desk of “Adult Protective Services” offered us very constructive advice and guidance. Your organizations don’t seem to draw much public attention or anything near the appreciation that I’m sure your efforts deserve, but you have thoroughly impressed us. You folks truly are leading the charge on one of our nation’s most unrecognized, immediate challenges.
I’m convinced from what I have seen, that we in America are not at our best when providing for the elderly. I served 23 years in the military and I love my country, but I’m embarrassed at how poorly we treat our seniors.
On behalf of Sara - Thank you Christy
Mark Thorngren
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