By Dale Bryant
Citing funding uncertainties, Family Services Association of Santa Clara Valley has withdrawn from efforts to build a senior center in Los Gatos.
Live Oak Adult Day Services is going ahead with a scaled-down version to meet its own need for expansion. The two social-service agencies last September announced plans to spearhead a campaign to raise funds for a comprehensive senior center.
Live Oak currently runs a program for frail elderly, as well as administrative offices for satellite programs in west San Jose and Gilroy, at the First Methodist Church on Church Street in Los Gatos.
The proposed new building, to be built at 550 Hubbell Way on property owned by a social group called the Los Gatos-Saratoga Senior Citizens, will include a community room and kitchen. But the building will not be a comprehensive senior center as originally planned. The senior group that currently occupies the facility has made a condition of the transfer of property that the group can continue to use the facility for its weekly meetings.
Marilyn Rumelhart, president of Family Services Association, placed the blame for the agency's financial uncertainty on Washington, D.C., and the lack of a federal budget. Title III of the Older Americans Act, which provides funding for the agency's case-management services for frail elderly, has not yet been refunded. Calling it a "political football," Rumelhart said federal monies for case management are being funded month to month.
"I expect it will be refunded," she said, "but I also think there will be retroactive funding cuts." With so much uncertainty in this key area, Rumelhart said her board felt it couldn't continue a commitment to a capital fund drive. "From an overhead perspective, providing well-senior services [at the proposed center] only made sense if we had case management for the frail elderly."
The timing was "unfortunate," she told the Los Gatos Weekly-Times. "In another year, we might have been able to commit to a capital campaign, but Live Oak was ready to go, and our funding is up in the air."
Leta Friedlander, Live Oak executive director, said architect John Lien, who did preliminary plans for the earlier two-story senior center, is working on a one-story structure of some 5,000 square feet. Officials in the town's Planning Department had told Lien when they saw his earlier plans that lack of adequate parking for such a large facility--particularly because of the community room--would have been problematic.
"To accommodate the two agencies," Friedlander said, "would have required an elaborate building on a small lot."
Her board, she said, is enthusiastic about proceeding with the capital campaign. "Live Oak has a $500,000 annual budget, so we're really a small player," Friedlander said. "But the need for our program is growing, and we need a permanent home."
Right now, she said, she shares a tiny office with four other staff. "There's absolutely no privacy. You can hardly hear yourself think."
She said that churches have been hospitable to Live Oak's program, but, she added, "Churches aren't always available."
With the population aging, the need for services, such as adult daycare, are increasing rapidly. "There's a great demand for more centers, but we can't open any more without more administration," she said.
She said the agency hopes to have an agreement for transfer of ownership signed with the Los Gatos- Saratoga Seniors soon. Within a month, the agency expects to begin a drive to raise some $700,000 for construction of the building.
Family Services Association will continue to provide case management and other senior services at the Neighborhood Center in spite of funding uncertainties. "I'm cautiously optimistic that there will be no interruption in service because of the funding situation," Rumelhart told the Weekly-Times.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, February 21, 1996.
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