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By Will Mbah
Candidate for Somerville City Councilor at Large
willmbah.com

I have been following with interest the discussions of the Council on Aging, which is preparing to launch a Survey of Somerville Seniors in the fall. The Council has engaged the University of Massachusetts Gerontology Institute to help design and administer the study. They hope to involve at least 1,500 households and gather data about the status and needs of the population over 65.

This work will be especially useful to guide the next stages of services organization and delivery, as the process of COVID-recovery comes to an end.

Pre-COVID planning

Prior to COVID, in 2018 and 2019, the Council on Aging and its partner agencies and organizations were delivering and expanding an array of programs and services that had been designed to address particular needs of seniors for health care, affordable housing, transportation and social well-being. The three Senior Centers at Holland Street, Cross Street and Broadway and at New Washington, Cobble Hill were busy every week with social, physical exercise, cultural and entertainment activities and with counseling and connection to all of the relevant support services.

Then COVID disrupted all the plans and schedules.

Seniors were heavily impacted, not only directly by the disease, but by the isolation of quarantining and the loss of friends and family members. Some older works lost jobs and income; many retirees had difficulty keeping up with the costs of housing, food and medical care. Almost everyone had their routines of work, social engagements and volunteer activities interrupted with resulting isolation and disorientation.

The Council and its allied agencies quickly organized the emergency programs in 2020 and 2021. Then, as recovery got underway in 2022 and 2023, they began to re-organize new hybrid services. Federal ARPA and state recovery grants have provided much of the funding for this current stage of program re-building, but next year the accounts will end and the city will need to decide which programs and services can be sustained and what proportions city budget, grant and other revenues will be available. The Survey of Somerville Seniors will be the primary source of data on which to base these decisions.

What data do we already have and what trends are the agencies tracking?

The total population of Somerville residents over 65 has been estimated at about 7,530 (9.3%) based on the 2020 census. About 40% of seniors live alone. The distribution of all seniors in households of different income has been reported before COVID in the city’s HUD Four-year Action Plan 2018-2022, as follows:

These data embody two primary indicators of well-being – that is, household income and housing affordability.

First, among the “baby boom” generation of 62-75-year-olds, there is shown a balanced split between affluent seniors (1,640 households in the two higher income categories) and seniors with limited income (1,555 households in the two categories under 50% AMI). The median income (AMI) in Somerville in 2018 was over $94,000. Second, among the older generation over 75, a heavier proportion was in the two lower-income categories — 1,585 households (59%).

The HUD Plan used these numbers to calculate the needs of seniors for housing assistance. It found that 465 of these households were paying more than 50% of monthly income for housing and 990 households were paying more than 30%. Of course, these households with seniors were only a part of the households with all age groups that were over-burdened by housing costs – more than 8,700 in total.

The follow-up annual HUD Action Plan 2021-2022 showed that a total of 262 households in all categories (out of the 8,700) had received rent or mortgage subsidy or emergency repair payments, from the available federal funds. The city itself had assisted more low-income households with emergency stabilization and eviction-protection grants and services, with inclusionary housing and voucher program opportunities. Nevertheless, the limited numbers in all categories of assistance show that the need is still beyond the capacity.

Today, we can anticipate that the new survey will show a trend of change as baby boomers are moving into the over 75 age group. The higher death rate among the oldest folks during COVID has probably shifted the income balance somewhat in favor of higher income retirees, although in tandem the Median Income in Somerville has risen to $108,000 by 2023.

Key questions that we will be looking for in the fall Senior Survey

This quick analysis of housing need illustrates one of the primary questions that we would expect the up-coming Survey to address: Whether the different services – such as housing assistance, food insecurity, transportation, etc. – are better provided in programs that are generally applicable to all eligible individuals and families, rather than in programs, separately designed and controlled for the elderly?

This is a question that may arise with respect to transportation. In 2022 and 2023, the city has bid and issued two separate contracts for taxi/livery services: one for persons of all ages with disabilities and travel limitations, and another for seniors. The Council on Aging has recently reported that its Senior Taxi Service is receiving 250 calls a month, making it necessary to extend the hours of the receptionist at the senior center.

Both of the taxi/livery services provide rides on call by reservation for routine medical care, groceries and trips to the farm markets. Both are somewhat redundant to the MBTA RIDE, which is available to persons with disabilities who cannot board buses and the T. Seniors without disabilities can also request MBTA free passes. It will be interesting and useful to know how many seniors prefer to use one or the other, or perhaps are strategically choosing among all of them to maximize convenience or scheduling at different days and times.

Next year, when the ARPA funding has ended, it might be more cost effective to have a single program and central call line. Data from the survey, hopefully, will give guidance.