By William Kelly
San Diego’s adult older population is a rapidly increasing percentage of the city’s residents.
Recent professional studies at the city, county, state and national level duplicate the warnings of a looming national aging crisis that cannot be ignored.
The older adult population is increasing fastest in the western U.S., and lacking proper planning, shortfalls in available, accessible and affordable housing, health care, transportation and underfunded social safety nets will soon negatively impact the quality of life in every age group and neighborhood.
San Diego’s Paul Downey, a widely recognized authority on aging, reported that one out of four homeless San Diegans is aged 60 or greater and the number of San Diegans over the age of 60 will double by 2030 to one in four residents.
The Elder Index also tells us that two out of five [40 percent] seniors lack enough money to meet their housing, food, health care and transportation needs.
Other sources show one out of every four adult San Diegans is currently caring for one or more senior relatives and that one out of four homeless persons is a veteran.
Our mayor and City Council are ultimately responsible for city policies, ordinances, laws, projects and budgets impacting all San Diegans. The City of San Diego Senior Affairs Advisory Board (SAAB) was given the responsibility of informing and advising them of the needs of older adults as they carry out that responsibility. Recognizing both the diversity and commonality of each City Council district, SAAB is visiting each district and conducting an anonymous 10-15 minute voluntary survey of adults aged 49 or greater.
The geographic, economic, financial, cultural, social, physical and mental health, family and other factors of San Diego’s diverse population are what determines the priority levels of concern for each of us, younger and older alike. Accordingly, there are no one-size-fits-all strategies to address the challenges before us.
The information being collected will underscore older adult priority concerns down to the neighborhood level. Mapping the results and overlaying that map with one of existing transportation, shopping, medical care facilities, services, programs, recreation/entertainment facilities, and housing inventory and costs will highlight deficiencies by neighborhood and district.
As a result, your participation in the survey is critical to achieving viable San Diego solutions that identify and address the challenges.
San Diego can and is attempting to head off a potential human disaster; but government, nonprofits, businesses, community organizations and SAAB member volunteers cannot do the job without the valuable information you provide by completing the survey.
Help us help you and each other. Take the survey.
Remember: The alternative to working together as a community now to heed the warning signs, is waiting until we reach crisis levels, and far more drastic steps — at even greater cost and negative impact on the lives of every San Diegan — will be then necessary.
Thank you for your participation.
For cost and time efficiency, please take the SAAB survey online at:
English version: surveymonkey.com/s/SeniorAffairs
Spanish version: surveymonkey.com/s/SAABenEspanol
For a paper copy, call 619-236-6362 or mail a request to:
Attn: Senior Survey
San Diego Office of ADA Compliance
1200 Third Avenue, Suite 924
San Diego, CA 92101
For more information about SAAB, visit their website at sandiego.gov/saab.
—William Kelly can be reached at [email protected]. Please do not forward the surveys to him, since it will only delay the time it takes to get to the right people.
