Seniors: Homelessness risk is very real in Tacoma

I want to start by applauding all the efforts being made to end the homelessness problem. But there is one aspect of it that I never hear anyone speak or write about.

A large number of seniors need assisted living. Many have no income other than Social Security/Medicaid, but here in Tacoma there is only one place that will accept them.

I have been researching assisted-living establishments that accept clients of Washington state’s Medicaid COPE program, as I wish to be closer to my son’s family farther south. But I can’t find one place that will take me because I’m on COPE.

If something should happen to the facility where I am now living, many residents would end up on the street. Some of us have families and/or resources that would help us weather the problem. But we are the minority here.

This generation helped to bring about many of the wonderful things that people enjoy these days. Many of them, especially the women, sacrificed a lot to ensure their families would prosper. Now in their declining years they are being abandoned by society.

Shame on us, all of us.

This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 12:47 PM with the headline "Seniors: Homelessness risk is very real in Tacoma."