County supervisors were briefed on the survey results Tuesday when they approved the county’s Area Agency on Aging plan for 2024-28.
Older residents in Marin have grown increasingly concerned about financial security and financial crimes over the last four years, according to a county survey.
The survey, which involved 412 residents in November and December, was commissioned by the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services.
County supervisors were briefed on the survey results Tuesday when they approved the county’s Area Agency on Aging plan for 2024-28. An area agency on aging (AAA) is a public or private nonprofit entity designated by the state to address the needs and concerns of older people at the regional and local levels.
Federal and state laws require the local Area Agency on Aging to create an plan every four years. Marin supervisors serve as the governing board of Marin’s AAA.
“We typically receive about $2 million in federal Older Americans Act funding on an annual basis,” Jenay Cottrell, program manager of the Marin AAA, told supervisors. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have received approximately another $3 million in COVID relief funds, the last of which will expire in September 2024.”
The survey, which was conducted by Davis Research LLC, found that 29% of the respondents were concerned about financial security. When Marin seniors were surveyed in 2019, only 13% of respondents cited financial security as a concern.
“Financial security had the biggest increase,” Cottrell said.
The second biggest change compared with the previous survey was the number of respondents who cited concerns over financial crime, financial abuse and scams. Twenty-six percent of respondents cited this category as a concern, compared to 13% in 2019.
Cottrell said concern regarding crime was even higher among African American seniors, at 51%. African American residents account for 1.5% of Marin’s senior population.
Davis Research oversampled Black, Asian, Latino and rural older adults to increase confidence in the findings for those groups. Latinos account for 6% of Marin’s senior population, and that proportion is projected to reach 12% over the next decade.
The survey concern that ranked the highest, however, was climate change. Sixty-four percent named that as a worry, up 6% from 2019.
In second place was “affording in-home care/assisted living,” a new category that didn’t appear on the 2019 survey. Forty-one percent of respondents named that as a concern.
Cottrell said the needs assessment also uncovered rising feelings of depression among Marin seniors and a desire for increased socialization.
During the public comment period, Luke Barnsmoore, strategy director for Front Porch Community Services, said homelessness is a growing problem for seniors. Barnsmoore, who serves on the county’s Homeless Policy Steering Committee, said that 48% of the nation’s homeless population is over the age of 50 and 41% became homeless after they turned 50.
“These are folks who had been stably housed, stably employed and contributing to our community who are becoming homeless because the cost of living is rising faster than their Social Security or disability payments,” Barnsmoore said. “Here in Marin, for example, we had a 10% increase in first-time homelessness among 50-plus adults between 2019 and 2021.”
The Area Agency on Aging plan for 2024-28 that supervisors approved on Tuesday includes four goals: actively advocating for the critical needs of older adults and caregivers; increasing awareness about and access to services and resources, with special attention to Black and Latino residents; partnering with community organizations to address financial security; and increasing opportunities for social engagement.
Absent from the discussion was any mention of elevating Marin County Aging and Adult Services, or AAS, to a division level within the Department of Health and Human Services.
That was the recommendation made by Githens & Associates, a consultant the county paid $125,000 to produce an integrated aging services study. The results of the study were presented to county supervisors in February 2023.
A Marin County Civil Grand Jury report last May — titled “The Coming Wave of Older Adults — Is Marin Prepared?” repeated the recommendation. The report noted that even though more than 30% of Marin’s population is over age 60, the AAS budget constituted just 2.3% of the $236 million Department of Health and Human Services budget in the previous fiscal year.
The grand jury stated in April that county supervisors have decided not to elevate the AAS because doing so “would create a scenario where social services dollars could no longer support existing staffing costs.” The county estimated the move would result in increased annual costs of $700,000 to $1 million.
The county’s director of Aging and Adult Services, Lee Pullen, decamped in March. Pullen is now director of Aging and Adult Services for San Mateo County. Pullen could not be reached for comment.
Marc Meulman, San Mateo’s deputy chief of health, wrote in an email, “In San Mateo County, AAS is a division of San Mateo County Health, and has been for decades. We are unable to comment on another county’s organizational structure or budget impacts related to how their Aging and Adult Services (AAS) is structured within its organization.”
Regarding Pullen’s departure on March 22, Lisa Warhuus, the new director of the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services, said, “I think it was the same week that I started here in the county.”
Warhuus said that behind the scenes she is continuing to discuss the issue of elevating AAS with the county’s Commission on Aging. Warhuus met with members of the commission on March 29, but Lee Notowich, who heads the commission, said later that the funding issue remains murky.
Warhuss said that, in broad strokes, “it would require some new positions in order to create a division that is on par with others, and it would also eliminate our abilities to draw down social services dollars that we rely upon.”
