Oak Parker Featured in National Aging Issues Campaign

Millions of older Americans are just one financial setback away from calamity.

That's the idea behind the One Away: Campaign For Elderly Economic Security, a major effort to highlight the unsettling realities of senior citizens' pocketbooks — an estimated 13 million live on $21,780 a year or less, according to National Council on Aging statistics.

AgeOptions, a not-for-profit headquartered in Oak Park which develops and funds programs and coordinates community-based senior services for adults age 60 and over, is one of 14 nationwide aging agencies participating in the One Way campaign, which makes use of web video and personal stories to raise awareness of economic pitfalls faced by senior citizens. 

The agency's first video contribution highlights the plight of "Andre," a 61-year-old Oak Parker who's Social Security payments weren't nearly enough to cover part of his mortgage and other living expenses. 

Eventually, he said his home fell into foreclosure, which forced him to live in his car. He then tried staying in a shelter but eventually returned to sleeping in his car's backseat.

"I didn't want to ask anybody for help...my brother, my sisters, nothing like that," he says in the video. "I withdrew from my family. I had low self-esteem."

Maribeth Stein, an AgeOptions outreach specialist, said in a news release struggling senior citizens' lack of communication is commonplace.

“This situation is so new and frightening that they don’t know where to go for help. A missed mortgage payment or the inability to pay property taxes can put them in jeopardy of home foreclosure," she said. "This often results in a downward spiral and the inability to afford other necessities like food, medication and transportation." 

Officials with AgeOptions said Andre eventually learned of the federal Title V program, which paired him with the Proviso Leyden Council for Community Action, and that agency hooked him up with a motel room. It's a move Andre said helped him eventually secure an apartment and a chance at landing a job.

"[My confidence] is at a high, an all time high," he says in the video.

Aging Issues at a Glance

• 270,377 of Illinois adults age 60 and over live at 125% of the Federal Poverty Level
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that 7.8% of Americans age 65 and over who live alone had food insecurity in 2009. Applied to Illinois, it would mean that 35,577 older adults went hungry in 2009.

Source: The U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 American Community Survey