Editor’s Note: In three installments, Sister Janet’s new assistant, Miss Erica Bohm, will develop a series on the plight of the elderly. Miss Bohm is in charge of mobilizing parish response to the needs of the elderly in our city.

Senior citizens form a group whose needs have gone unnoticed and unmet for too long. There is, however, a growing concern about these members of society. This programming year, the Office of Urban Affairs is emphasizing the plight of senior citizens, and we plan to work with parish groups in settling up programs to meet the needs of the elderly.

So that Bulletin readers may have a clearer picture of the status of the elderly, we are going to run a series of articles outlining existing programs for the elderly and their needs.

Much of the information set forth here has been drawn from two sources: The Housing Aid to the Aged Project (HAAP), a federal demonstration and research project under Fulton County’s Department and Family and Children Services (funded from fall 1970-spring 1973) and the Golden Age Information and Referral Service (GAIRS).

The Housing Aid to the Aged Project’s purpose was to improve the living standards of old age public assistance recipients, especially in the area of housing problems, but casework often included health, recreation, transportation and legal problems. Golden Age Information and Referral Service aims to solve problems through the use of community resources: the client calls in with a specific problem and is referred to an appropriate agency.

The HAAP staff had assumed there was a relationship between the frequency and intensity of their clients’ problems and the fact that these clients lived in poor depressed neighborhoods. Interestingly enough, GAIRS, a majority of whose clients are not classified as “low income,” reports that its clients are sharing the same problem as the low income HAAP clients.

The results, then, indicate the presence of similar problems for elderly in all socio-economic groups, a most significant finding in terms of planning service delivery and in our very approach to the understanding of this neglected group.

Let’s take a look at the income levels of HAAP and GAIRS clients. The former may receive a maximum of $99 a month through Old Age Assistance. Even when social security is added to that (decreasing, then, the amount of public assistance grants), these clients still remain far below the federally established poverty level. Furthermore, public assistance recipients are limited to an $800 reserve sum, leaving little to fall back upon in emergencies.

GAIRS does not require financial statements from its clients, but some of the time this information is learned anyway. Of these known incomes 38% are “low,” or on welfare, 62% are “moderate,” “high,” or “receiving social security.” While receiving social security clients cannot be separated from the moderate and high clients, GAIRS assumes that if these clients – as well as the third whose income level is unknown – had financial problems, such money matters would have been mentioned along with the other reasons that prompted the call. Also, the neighborhoods in which GAIRS clients are concentrated suggested a rather comfortable financial situation.

Another assumption initially held by GAIRS staff was their clients’ ability to rely upon their middle class neighbors and relatives as resources, unlike the HAAP clients. Again, the difference in economic and residential positions of the two groups lead one to assume different needs. But the astonishing results indicate a common inability to meet common needs.

Next we will look at statistics identifying the needs of senior citizens, and then explore each need area in some depth.