Residents of the Rocco Impreveduto Towers and neighboring Kroll Heights, two of Secaucus’ three senior homes, were once hard pressed to find available parking spaces in the facilities’ lots.
Parking spaces are much easier to find these days, however.
“A lot of people have gotten rid of their cars,” said Impreveduto Towers resident Carole Acropolis. “They can’t afford the gas or the insurance.”
Call it a sign of the times.
Nationwide, rising fuel and food prices have impacted the elderly particularly hard and local senior citizens admit they are making tough choices to stretch their social security and pension checks to the end of the month.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food costs rose nearly 5 percent over the last year, and gas prices hover at $3.71 a gallon nationally, according to AAA.
“Food is very, very high,” said Marie Rushitaj, a widow who also lives in Impreveduto Towers. “For $80 I used to be able to get everything – my food, canned goods, paper [products]. Now I have to go over $100 to get all my food and everything else I need.”
Sometimes, she said, she spends as much as $124 on groceries.
“And I feel sorry for the people that have to pay for their medicines,” added Rushitaj, who gets both Medicare and Medicaid. “When I hear how much they have to pay, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost Medicaid.”
According to residents, one woman in Impreveduto Towers died recently from diabetic shock after she abruptly stopped her dialysis treatments. They claim she ended her treatment because she could no longer afford the required co-payment.
Juggling bills
“My Social Security is very high because I worked for many years,” said Acropolis. “When I get my money the first thing I do is buy food and I pay my bills. My money would usually last 30 days. The days before my check came, I wouldn’t have a lot. But I could get by.”
Acropolis said that she must now either delay paying some bills to get her money to last through the month, or go without money several days before her Social Security check arrives.
Although seniors get an annual cost of living adjustment to their Social Security checks – 2.3 to 3 percent each year – Rushitaj said these increases do not keep up with expenses.
Much of their annual increase, she said, is eaten up by rent, so it cannot be applied to other rising costs.
Residents who live in the three senior centers – Rocco Impreveduto Towers, Kroll Heights, and the Elms – must be recertified each year to ensure they meet eligibility requirements. (In total, 300 residents live in Secaucus’ senior housing.) As part of the recertification, Social Services looks at their income and renews their rent accordingly. Residents are required to pay 30 percent of their income, after medical and some utility costs are deducted.
Higher income translates into higher rent. Rent can range from less than $200 to more than $800.
“Whatever we get in increases, they take from us in rent,” said Rushitaj. “We don’t get ahead.”
Service agencies stretched thin
A national study released by the AARP in May found that people ages 65 and older appear to be weathering the bad economy better than younger groups. Still, according to the study, 59 percent of seniors over 65 are finding it more difficult to buy such necessities as food, medicine, and fuel, and 47 percent reported that paying for utilities is a challenge.
Social service agencies, facing budget shortfalls of their own, are finding it hard to keep up with increased demand. “The cost of senior nutrition programs has far exceeded the funding for those programs,” said Edward Benoit, executive director of the Hudson County Office on Aging, based in Secaucus. “State and federal funding for [senior] nutrition programs has been flat for at least 10 years.”
The Office on Aging contracts with provider agencies, which in turn provide the meals to residents. Among the provider agencies that the office works with is the North Hudson Regional Council of Mayors, which provides meals at the Secaucus Senior Center on Centre Avenue.
“Over the last five or six years, service providers have noticed that their annual resources didn’t go as far as they used to, but because of the economy in the last year, it’s really been noticeable. For example, I’ve already gotten a letter from North Hudson Regional saying that they need another $100,000 for meals [to get them through the end of] the year.”
(Interestingly, another nutrition program, Meals on Wheels, which delivers 45 meals a day in Secaucus, has not experienced an increase in demand over the last year, according to Department of Social Services Director Lisa Snedeker.)
The Office on Aging also runs Transcend, a transportation service that shuttles the elderly and disabled to medical appointments and meal programs. The service is offered free of charge to passengers who make reservations days in advance. As gas prices have increased, Hudson County municipalities that once offered similar services have either scrapped their senior shuttles, or are expected to end them soon, leaving Transcend to pick up the slack.
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