“We had one household where the participant was eating every other day,” said Lisa Varon, senior analyst with the city of Santa Monica. “We had another household where the participant was trading her parking space for protein powder. We had people who were forgoing medical or dental care that they needed and making really difficult choices. They were all managing to hang on by a just a tiny thread and they were doing it with a lot of dignity the last quarter of their lives.”
Aging in California is becoming less about cruises, the pursuit of hobbies and time with the grandkids under the sun and more about survival. One in five seniors in the state lives in poverty, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Half of the state’s single seniors don’t have enough money to cover basic expenses. And regions like Los Angeles County are seeing a spike in homelessness among seniors.
Santa Monica hopes to stem that trend.
In November, it launched a 14-month experiment by giving cash to nearly two dozen senior men and women struggling to pay their rent in a city that has rent control.
To read more of Amita Sharma's article, visit: https://calmatters.org/article...4d00a1e516-150192613
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