Lexington’s fastest growing homeless population? Our grandmothers and grandfathers.
Until last year, Bonnie Davis lived with her daughter at an affordable apartment in Lexington, paying her way with her federal social security and disability payments.
Davis, 65, struggles with schizoaffective disorder, and her health meant she took low-paying jobs, so her social security payments are minimal to begin with. Then, last March, while Davis was briefly in the hospital, her daughter died. When Davis got out, her landlord evicted her, and ever since she’s found shelter at the Catholic Action Center on Industry Drive. Using her walker to get around, she’s relied on public transportation to look for apartments that accept federal Section 8 subsidies but hasn’t been able to find anything open.
“Everything is so expensive, especially if it’s halfway decent, especially for the elderly” she said. “We need extra help.”
Davis is one of a growing number of senior citizens in Lexington getting squeezed at the juncture of Lexington’s increasingly high housing costs and the much more static federal benefits on which they depend. According to the city, the percentage of seniors aged 62 and above without permanent housing has jumped between fiscal years 2015 and 2019, from 3.98 percent of the total population to 5.79 percent.
“That’s the group we’re most worried about,” said Polly Ruddick, director of the city’s Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention. “We have a lack of affordable housing and Social Security has not increased at the same rate as market housing. When you can no longer pay market rate, you’re coming into the system.”
Nor does it look like things will change any time soon. The Trump administration has proposed a $45 billion cut to disability benefits to children and adults in its next budget. The proposal probably would not pass the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, but it gives us an idea of where the priorities are. Elections have consequences and this one is much more interested in giving tax cuts to rich people than in helping our homeless seniors.
‘That’s the heartbreak’
Those consequences fall on grandmothers and grandfathers who can’t be dismissed the way we do many other folks at the Catholic Action Center and other shelters; they don’t have drug problems, they’re not alcoholics, they haven’t been in prison. They worked hard, and just at the time when they needed the most help, it wasn’t there.
That wasn’t true until about 15 years ago, said Ginny Ramsey, founder of the Catholic Action Center, when Social Security could cover housing’s costs. Anecdotally, she’s seen more of the center’s clients skew older and older every year.
“It is such a shame that in the United States of America, our senior citizens are being almost thrown out as they age, if they don’t have resources and family,” she said. “They’re left to struggle alone and often that leads to the road of homelessness. If we were to honor those who have come before us and have built this community, they wouldn’t be left out. That’s the heartbreak.”
Take Joe Jackson, 76. He pulled himself up by his bootstraps for many years, working as a coal miner in Knox County. He went on disability after being crushed in a rock fall. He moved to Garrard County and worker at a car dealership. His wife died, and he moved to an apartment at St. James Apartments. He had a fall, went to the hospital and when he came back, his key no longer worked. He was homeless.
“God gives me the strength to go on,” he said.
Linda Cassada, 59, lost her husband and moved to Lexington. She has two children in Ohio, but they are raising children and can’t help her, she said. She’s also on a walker. “I want to be in a place where there are other people around,” she said.
Sherrie Peterson got divorced in northern Kentucky, drove to Lexington and lived in her car before it got too cold. She gets about $700 in social security benefits, but a recent apartment she looked at costs $525 a month with the subsidy she qualifies for. That would leave her $175 a month for food, medicine and all of life’s other necessities.
Her kids are unable to help, she said. “I can’t get any help from anyone,” she said. “We have to rely on a place like this.”
The demand far outweighs supply, although Lexington’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund is helping fund the construction and rehabilitation of numerous units designated for seniors at or below 60 percent of area median income in Lexington. That’s about $31,320 for one person and $35,760 for a two person household, said Rick McQuady, director of the city’s Office of Affordable Housing.
Most imminent is 71 units behind the Meadowthorpe shopping area, which already has a long waiting list. Another 100 new units are being planned at two developments, one at Christian Towers and one near Polo Boulevard. Plus, the fund is helping with rehabilitation of at least 300 units at apartment complexes around town.
“They will help, but there is near constant demand,” McQuady said.
Jennifer Andrews is the social service coordinator at the Salvation Army, and sees the same problems as Ramsey. She’s taking care of a 73-year-old woman with dementia and Parkinson’s, who was evicted from her apartment because she couldn’t pay the rent. She can’t remember the last time she went to the doctor. Andrews is trying to figure out her medical situation so she can get her into a nursing home that may or may not have room for her. And there’s 10 more women just like her.
“The price of what it costs to live in Lexington and what our seniors make is not equal,” she said. “The safety nets are just not working.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2020 at 10:16 AM.
