By Marjorie A. Gordon-DeLee, MA ( December 12, 2018)
Today (December 12, 2018), I received an application from Christopher Towers low-income apartments for Senior Citizens. There are thirteen sheets of paper to complete in the application process to include the verification sheet for the previous Landlord.
If the apartment is for Senior Citizens only over the age of 62, then the application should be designed specifically. There should not be a generic application that applies to everyone applying for subsidize assistance. More than likely there will be no more that two Senior Citizens living in one apartment over the age of 62, so why have a section for four people to complete to include minors under the age of 18? The application really needs to be less confusing for the Senior Citizen to complete.
I briefly spoke with the Director during my visit to Christopher Towers Apartment to pick up my application, asked how long would the process be after submitting my application, and he was unable to provide me with an exact time frame. I then asked the Director, if I was homeless at that moment and needed an apartment immediately what information could he provided me with and h was unable to provide adequate information to me on that question. He mentions a shelter downtown Columbia, but had no further information to provide me with if I was a homeless Senior Citizen seeking assistance.
I also contacted six other Senior Citizen low-income apartment complexes as well. Three of the six Senior Apartment complexes informed me that there were waiting list that extended to one (1) year before an apartment might become available for a Senior Citizen. The Columbia Housing Authority stated on their answering machine that there were 20,000 applications waiting for housing and that there was no emergency housing available.
There were also two Senior Citizen low-income apartments that I call, Ashbury Arms Apartments and Brookland-West Columbia and Housing Development Corp. where I left messages around 12:00 on today and have not received a return call back as of yet (now 2:07 pm). Changes must be made in the manner in which assistance is provided to our Senior Citizens in these communities.
With the 80 Million Baby Boomers in America now, this is not acceptable and Congress need to be aware that in Columbia, South Carolina alone, we have a major problem with providing our Senior Citizens with a facility so that they can maintain their independence in their later years. As research has concluded, due to maintaining better healthy through the incorporation of heathy foods such as vegetables and fruits into our diets as Senior Citizens and in exercising more, remaining active in the workforce, we as Senior Citizens are living longer and required access to more living accommodations.
The Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Aging (LGOA) reported on “The Silver Tsunami” on their website that:
As baby boomers age, our state's older population is growing rapidly, and there aren't enough services to meet the demand.
· The senior population will double by the year 2030 to 1.8 million
· 11.5% of our state's seniors live in poverty
· Over a third of seniors live on Social Security alone, some as little as $710 per month
· 51% of people aged 55 years and older have less than $50,000 saved for retirement
Reference:
S. C. Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Aging. Retrieved December 12, 2018 from https://aging.sc.gov/about
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