The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Their Daily Bread: Members of the Willow Glen Senior Center enjoy their lunch, provided through a county-funded program. Some low-income seniors must forgo donating the suggested $1.50 for the meal.

Willow Glen seniors find life on fixed incomes challenging

For some, haircuts and housecleaning are too expensive

By Christine Frey

While raising her three sons, Helen, who asked that her real name not be used, spent most of the family income on their food and clothing. She didn't have much surplus money to get her hair done or redecorate the house. Now that she and her husband are retired, Helen, 76, saves her monthly $200 Social Security check for herself. However, her lifestyle hasn't changed much.

Still unable to pay the prices charged by many Willow Glen beauty salons, Helen waits weeks between haircuts. She admits that she is sometimes embarrassed by the shagginess of her hair.

Nor can she afford to redecorate her house. Helen wants to remove the carpet; the dust it collects aggravates her allergies. But she has not be able to save enough money to do so.

In order to supplement her monthly Social Security check--which pays for health-care products and birthday presents for her four grandchildren--Helen works an hour a day for a Realtor.

Helen's story is not unique. Cory Kent, a social worker for the Older Adult Program of Adult and Child Guidance Center Family Service, covers the Willow Glen, Almaden and Monterey Highway areas and sees senior citizens struggle with affording the "real basic activities of daily living."

During her five years of working with the elderly, she has encountered many who do not have the means to hire someone to clean their house or buy their groceries. In some cases, those unable to write out checks because of poor eyesight cannot even afford to have someone pay their bills. "People have actually had to make the choice between medicine and having nutritious food in the house," she says.

According to the American Association of Retired People's 1997A Profile of Older Americans, about 3.4 million people over age 65 lived below the poverty level in 1996. Another 2.4 million were classified as "near-poor."

Despite the perception of Willow Glen as affluent, Kent says the area's elderly residents tend to be "cash-poor and house-rich." Like Helen, who has lived in the area for 35 years, many local senior citizens bought their houses years ago. The value of their homes has since risen, but the amount of money in their pocketbooks has not.

"I would say that [seniors with financial problems are] pretty common," Kent says.

Kent visits the Willow Glen Senior Center a few times a month to provide financial, health and family counseling. Most of the people she sees have difficulty improving their financial situations, and heath reasons prevent them from working. She says clients there tell her they would work if they could.

Kent's services, which are free, are just one of several offered at the senior center at minimal or no cost. The Health Insurance Counsel Advisory Program provides free information on Medicare, MediCal and private supplemental insurance, and Senior Adult Legal Assistance counsels seniors free of charge.

The center also runs a county-funded nutrition program that serves 100 lunches five days a week. Although the suggested donation is $1.50 for seniors, center co-director Pam Wagner-Rosales says, "If they can pay, they do. If they can't, they don't have to."

Anywhere from 75 to 110 seniors have lunch at the center each day, says nutrition program volunteer Jean Solari. She says the program offers a healthy affordable meal for those on a tight budget. "A lot of people don't have an excess of money," she says.

Helen's sister, Margaret, who also asked that her real name not be used, has had her daughter manage her financial affairs since her husband died about a year ago. Although Margaret, 79, knows that she is financially "comfortable," she worries about her future. "I know I'm not wealthy," she says with tears in her eyes. "I don't have anything of value. The only thing I had of value was my husband."

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