A Price of Growing Old : Rising Cost of Housing Is Driving Many Elderly From Scenes of Their Youth

Betty Butterworth has lived in Manhattan Beach for 28 years. Her husband, Bill, built their home nearly 40 years ago when bean fields and chicken ranches covered much of what is now an affluent city.

The Butterworths, like their neighborhood, are growing old. Bill, 67, works part time as a carpenter, but he can’t do the heavy lifting he used to. Betty, 64, says she hasn’t been feeling well, and she is concerned about her husband’s health, too.

“If anything should happen to Bill, I couldn’t take care of the house,” she said. “If we were to move, we would have to go inland to get property we could afford. But our friends are here. You don’t know anybody when you move to a new area.”

The Butterworths, and thousands of other elderly residents in the South Bay, are wondering where they will spend their final years. And to their horror, many are discovering that the communities where they built their homes, raised their families and invested their time and energy have little to offer them.

Elderly residents from the South Bay’s affluent beach cities to its working-class, harbor-front neighborhoods are being priced out of the housing market in their cities, or in some cases, have no choice but to live in crime-ridden neighborhoods where they fear for their lives.

And as the area, like the entire nation, grows older in the next few years, the housing squeeze is expected to get worse before it gets better--despite hard-fought victories in numerous cities to provide housing for their elderly.

In exclusive areas like Manhattan Beach and the Palos Verdes Peninsula, where real estate values have increased tenfold and more in the past two decades, many elderly residents of low or moderate means are looking to other cities to provide housing. These senior citizens, many of whom have rented homes or no longer can bear the burden of owning a house, are finding that they cannot afford to move within their own cities--even with the cash they get from selling their property.

Several efforts to build apartments with affordable rents for seniors in Manhattan Beach have failed, in large part because of the high cost of land and community resistance to government subsidies. Similar constraints have led officials in Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates and Rolling Hills to give federal community block grant funds to neighboring Lomita in the hope that elderly residents will take advantage of subsidized senior projects in that city, which is known for its efforts to accommodate the elderly.

“One of the biggest problems I get across my desk is people whose apartment rents have escalated so high that there is no way they can stay in the area,” said Marilyn Aldrich, project director of South Bay Senior Services, a nonprofit group in Torrance that links the elderly with community services in 10 South Bay cities, including the beach and peninsula cities. “We had one lady in here from Manhattan Beach who lives on $533 a month. Once you pay rent, that doesn’t leave anything for clothes, transportation or the daily newspaper.”

The gray flight from the South Bay, Aldrich and other people who work with the elderly say, is robbing the area of an entire generation of seniors who worked hard to build their communities and now “aren’t being invited to the party,” as one senior activist put it.

The move from familiar surroundings--even if it means moving to another community within the South Bay--can also be traumatic and depressing for some elderly residents, social workers who assist the elderly say. Many never recuperate.

“These people aren’t corn,” said Reinhold H. Klein, a consultant in Gardena who has assisted nonprofit groups with dozens of senior and other subsidized housing projects in the Los Angeles area since 1958. “You can’t take them out in the country and plant them. They are people, and they will bear up emotionally, physically and in every other way in familiar surroundings with their family and friends.”

In less affluent communities, such as Inglewood, Carson, Gardena and San Pedro, the outlook for elderly residents is not much better. Officials in those areas have cooperated with government agencies and private foundations in building hundreds of federally subsidized apartments for senior citizens with low or moderate incomes. Even so, thousands of needy elderly residents have been turned away or, when lucky, placed on waiting lists--some for as long as five years.

At South Park Manor, a 126-unit federally subsidized complex that opened last December in Gardena, 350 people are on the waiting list, and the project is no longer accepting applications. To the south in Harbor City, more than 350 people applied for 100 openings when the federally subsidized Vista Lee Rosa complex opened 16 months ago.

“We probably get five calls a day right now” from interested people, said Judy Ruud, who works at South Park Manor.

The waiting lists for low-income senior housing in wealthier areas are long, too. In Redondo Beach, the 8-year-old Casa de Los Amigos, a 136-unit complex run by Christ Episcopal Church, stopped accepting applications two years ago when the waiting list hit 600, said Thelma Smith, resident manager. The list is now 400.

$216 Monthly Rent

The project, financed by a low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and built on land donated by the city, is reserved exclusively for needy seniors and the handicapped, and charges as little as $216 a month rent.

“People come in every day or call on the phone,” Smith said. “There are a lot of them out there who are in dire need of housing.”

In some of the poorest communities in the South Bay, particularly in several neighborhoods in the harbor area, elderly residents dependent upon Social Security or a small pension have more than long waiting lists to contend with. Many live in substandard housing in crime-ridden neighborhoods.

In some cases, the only openings available to them are in county or city-run projects for the poor of all ages--such as Dana Strand Village in Wilmington or Rancho San Pedro in San Pedro--that have serious crime problems.

‘Deathly Afraid’

“Many of them who live in those projects do so at the expense of being very fearful, sometimes for their lives,” said Kate Acuna, who handles senior services for Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who represents the harbor area. “Seniors are deathly afraid of them because many times they are made victims. The problem magnifies especially for the female senior citizen. She is afraid to even pull her shade up.”

Victor Valdez, administrator of the 12-story Harbor Tower in downtown San Pedro, said he is confronted with a constant stream of frightened elderly residents from the harbor area desperately searching for a secure building.

“We have a waiting list that is two or three years long, but sometimes we make exceptions to the rule,” said Valdez, who has run the federally subsidized 180-unit tower since it opened in 1976. “There are some who are living in substandard housing, are handicapped, or are homeless. . . . Their life is miserable. I wish I had more apartments to accommodate them.”

Dorothy O’Hara, an 82-year-old tower resident who has lived there since it opened and has served as president of the residents association, said security at the building, which is not far from some rough neighborhoods in downtown San Pedro, is the most appealing aspect of the project to most residents.

“You have to go to the hospital to die, because the angel of death couldn’t get in here without a key,” said O’Hara, who lives on a little over $500 a month in Social Security.

Dangerous Neighborhood

Varie Davison, a fellow resident who moved in last year, said her neighborhood just a block from the project was so infested with drug dealers she could barely sleep.

“It was horrible,” said Davison, who is only 57 but qualified for the tower because of a disability. Under federal guidelines, senior projects subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are also available to handicapped people.

“There were shootings and stealing,” she said. “The boy next door got shot. Since I moved, it has been a whole different world.”

In recent years, the housing shortage among the elderly throughout the South Bay has caught the attention of residents and city officials in several cities:

- In El Segundo, voters agreed to forgo a $2.5-million tax rebate and the City Council provided a loan for an additional $1.5 million for a three-story apartment building for seniors. The building, scheduled to open next March, is one of the few senior projects in Los Angeles County funded entirely with city revenues.

Lower Rents

Apartments in the 97-unit project will rent for about half the market price for similar apartments in the city, officials said. The city has been inundated with inquiries from hundreds of prospective tenants and their families, and the City Council has established a seven-member housing board to review applications and administer the project once it is completed.

- In Torrance, construction of two senior projects recently approved by the City Council is expected to begin this month on city-owned lots that will be leased to the developer for $1 each a year. The long-delayed projects--the city has been trying to provide senior housing for seven years--will be located at the corners of Ocean Avenue and 226th Street, and Cravens Avenue and El Prado.

The developer, Thomas Safran and Associates, will build a total of 114 units that will rent for as low as $350 a month with city subsidies. The city will use tax revenues from the Meadow Park commercial-residential redevelopment project and other projects to help bring down the rents.

- In Redondo Beach, city and school district officials hammered out an agreement in February that calls for the construction of more than 300 units for the elderly at two closed elementary schools. The City Council voted last month to change the zoning at Andrews and McCandless schools, which will be leased to the city by the school district. About 20% of the units will be reserved for low-income seniors, city officials said.

One of the Redondo projects will provide what is known as congregate care, meaning residents will live in apartments but they will not be totally independent. The apartments will have small kitchens, but residents will eat most of their meals in a common dining room. The complex will also provide housekeeping, transportation and minor medical care.

Rents are higher in congregate facilities--usually at least double what residents pay at other projects--but city officials said marketing studies show there is a need for such housing in the beach cities.

Subsidized Indirectly

The city will indirectly subsidize the projects by allowing higher densities than the city code allows. Money generated by the city’s redevelopment areas, which under state law must be used in part to provide low- and moderate-income housing, may also be used to subsidize the projects, said Sue Haller, the city’s director of intergovernmental programs.

- In Lomita, one project recently opened--Lomita Manor, a 78-unit building on Walnut Avenue--and a second project--Lomita Kiwanis Gardens on Ebony Lane--has just been completed. Both projects are subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. City officials, who pride themselves on their compassion for the elderly, are searching for a third site for low-income housing and have approved a condominium project expected to appeal to middle-class seniors.

A crucial issue in debates over several senior projects built, approved or, in some cases, rejected in recent years has been that of local control. By voting to finance the project in El Segundo with city revenues, for example, residents there ensured that El Segundo seniors always will be given priority for vacancies. Under state and federal laws, all eligible seniors--no matter where they live--must be considered equally for openings when certain state or federal funds are used to pay for a project.

Such concerns led the Hawthorne City Council last month to turn down a $500,000 interest-free loan already approved by the state Department of Housing and Community Development for a proposed 53-unit apartment building for the elderly in that city.

Proposals Rejected

In Manhattan Beach, which has yet to build a project despite seven years of lobbying by some residents, fears that state or federally subsidized apartments might attract low-income elderly from outside the city have helped defeat several proposals, said Millie Anderson, president of the board of the Manhattan Beach Senior Housing Foundation, a group working to get affordable apartments in the city. Anderson said many residents have protested that subsidized projects would lower property values in adjoining neighborhoods by bringing in poor people.

With or without the new projects, the housing shortage for seniors in all parts of the South Bay is probably going to get worse, according to senior activists and others involved in providing housing for the elderly in the South Bay. The competition for senior housing in the next few years is expected to grow keener, as more South Bay residents enter their 60s and begin to search for housing alternatives.

Elderly residents--those who are at least 65 years old--will comprise 13% or more of the population by 1990 in five South Bay cities, according to projections by the National Planning Data Corp., a New York company that studies population trends. Five other cities and San Pedro, which is part of the city of Los Angeles, will have populations with more than 10% seniors, the company estimates.

By contrast, about 7.6% of the South Bay’s 750,000 residents were 65 or older in 1980 and only Lomita and San Pedro exceeded the 10% mark, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Number to Double

In the 10 years from 1980 to 1990, the forecasting company estimates, senior populations will double in Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates and Rancho Palos Verdes. Other cities that are expected to experience large increases include El Segundo, Gardena, Hawthorne, Manhattan Beach and Torrance.

The statistics, by defining the elderly as those who are at least 65, understate the actual impact of the aging population on the senior housing market. Senior apartments subsidized by the state and federal governments, and most private developments as well, admit residents as young as 62.

“At some point there will be a terrible housing crunch,” said Klein, the Gardena-based consultant. “The older people can’t cut it, and they are being forced to leave their communities to go to areas where the land costs and development costs aren’t as high.”

The graying of the South Bay, in part, is a microcosm of a nationwide aging process. The median age of Americans in 1990 is expected to be 33.2--more than three years older than in 1980. In 1990, 13.1% of the nation’s population will be 65 or older, compared to 11.3% in 1980, according to projections made by the Donnelly Marketing Information Service.

Fewer Than National Average

The state of California and Los Angeles County have fewer elderly residents as a percentage of their populations than does the nation as a whole, but their residents reflect the same aging process nonetheless. By 1990, about 12.3% of county residents will be 65 or older, compared to 9.9% in 1980, according to the projections.

What distinguishes the South Bay from the county, state and country, however, is the dramatic increase in the number of elderly projected in several communities. Torrance, for example, the South Bay’s largest city, was well below the national average in 1980 (with 8.5% of its population 65 or older), but is projected to exceed the average by 1990 (with 13.7%). Large increase are projected for other predominately middle- and upper-class cities, such as the Peninsula cities and Manhattan Beach.

The most dramatic increases, according to the projections, are expected to occur in the wealthier South Bay cities, largely because tax laws and escalating property values have encouraged long-time residents to remain in their homes while pricing most young families out of the market, local officials said. At the same time, new buyers in these cities tend to be older people who have earned enough to afford the expensive homes.

“Our housing stock doesn’t turn over as fast as that in a typical community,” said Steve Emslie, planning director for Rolling Hills Estates, an affluent city that strives to retain a rural atmosphere. “People are well established, their house is close to being paid for, and their mortgage is nowhere near where it would be if they bought today.”

Luxury Units Wanted

But even the rich get old, and many of them seek smaller, more manageable accommodations in the area--and the market is responding. Local real estate and development companies report the South Bay has a lucrative market for luxury senior housing.

Pacific Inn, a 134-apartment retirement complex, for example, is scheduled to open in September on Torrance Boulevard in Torrance. The project is being built by a private company, American Senior Inns, which is based in Costa Mesa.

Rent at Pacific Inn ranges from $1,350 a month for a studio to $2,250 a month for a two-bedroom apartment with two bathrooms. Suzette M. Cecchini, who heads marketing for the project, said 52 apartments have already been reserved, primarily by residents from Torrance, the beach cities and the peninsula.

“There are people in the area who do have money and have been successful,” Cecchini said.

Plush Accommodations

While not operating for a profit, one of the plushest and most expensive senior developments in the South Bay is The Canterbury, a 127-apartment retirement center operated by the Episcopal Archdiocese of Los Angeles on five acres in Rancho Palos Verdes.

The $14-million project, which offers a panoramic view of the Los Angeles basin from its rooftop recreation center, includes a lap swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, an aerobics room, a library, a billiards room, private garages, housekeeping and linen services. Last week, workers were measuring one of the garages to see if it would hold the Rolls Royce of a prospective resident.

Unlike the Pacific Inn and other expensive retirement homes, The Canterbury offers “continuing care” to its residents. While most of the 100 residents live independently in apartments, The Canterbury offers a personal nursing service and also has a licensed 28-bed nursing home for residents who can no longer take care of themselves.

“It is a concept that more developers and people getting into senior housing are developing these days,” said Martha McGaughy, administrator of the center. “It gets around the business of older people constantly having to move, which is the most traumatic thing that can happen to them.”

Lump-Sum Payment

All of this, however, comes at a price. To move into The Canterbury, residents must pay a lump sum “accommodation fee” ranging from $63,500 to $99,000, which is amortized over 15 years. If the resident dies or moves, the unamortized portion of the fee is refunded. In addition, residents pay $800 a month for meals and services.

“All that we have here is aimed at helping the residents stay independent as long as possible,” McGaughy said. “But when they need nursing care, they are able to stay in familiar surroundings and keep their friends.”

But elderly residents in affluent cities who don’t have the resources to move into expensive retirement communities like The Canterbury are facing particularly hard times because most of their cities don’t provide subsidized housing and many of them have not psychologically dealt with their relative poverty, some senior activists say.

In Manhattan Beach, for example, the Manhattan Beach Senior Housing Foundation has been struggling to persuade some residents and officials that there really are needy senior citizens in the city, said Anderson, the board president.

Well-to-Do Image

“There has been kind of an image situation here where they didn’t want to admit that they are as bad off as they are,” Anderson said. “They had pride, and there is a bit of stigma to admitting that you don’t have money in Manhattan Beach. There is a certain level of education and money in this city and it is hard to stick your neck out and admit you don’t have it.”

The foundation has been conducting a survey of the elderly in the city, and of the first 81 responses, 23 residents said they earned less than $600 a month, Anderson said.

“We are rather shocked in what we are finding in the poverty level of seniors,” she said.

Anderson hopes her foundation will come up with some housing before the end of the decade--and before many of the city’s elderly residents are forced to leave. Last month, the City Council agreed to set up an ad-hoc task force that is searching for land for such housing.

Services to Elderly

Long-term stability in the senior housing market throughout the South Bay, however, probably won’t come through occasional city-sponsored projects, experts from the housing and senior-services industries say. Aldrich, of South Bay Senior Services, for example, said the key is to keep the elderly in their homes or apartments as long as possible by providing them with services at their doorsteps.

Workers from the nonprofit group visit about 100 seniors a month, she said, linking them with groups that provide everything from meals, shopping services and housekeeping to roommate referrals. In addition, the group gets about 12,000 calls or visits a year from seniors seeking assistance, she said.

Dean Shetler, executive vice president of the California Association for Homes for the Aging, a 25-year-old organization of nonprofit groups that provide housing for the elderly, said the elderly should expect less government involvement in the senior housing market in the future. In areas like Los Angeles County, he said, there will also be opposing forces--one aggravating the housing crunch and one easing it.

On the one hand, the continuing influx of poor immigrants, particularly from Central America, Asia, Mexico and from other regions of the United States, will place new strains on the market for affordable housing, he said.

“You have a national migration of poverty-stricken folk looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and at some time, they age in that setting,” he said. “Because they are poor, they become less mobile and more in need of assistance than those folks who have resources.”

Some Better Prepared

On the other hand, as the baby-boomers begin to get older, he said, many of them will be better prepared to care for themselves in retirement.

“Most of that group have gainful employment, have made conscious decisions to invest their resources and are planning for their future,” Shetler said. “Those seniors of tomorrow will be better prepared financially, healthwise and public-policy-wise to care for themselves.”

But for some elderly residents, like Evaline Gill, who is already 79, the era of the well-off baby boomer will come decades too late. Gill, a retired school teacher, is one of many elderly people who are leaving their cities because they cannot afford escalating rents. Gill, a Manhattan Beach widow, moved farther inland last December, across the border into northern Redondo Beach.

“It doesn’t make you feel very happy when you have lived someplace all your life, raised your children and know all the people, and then you have to face the fact that there is no longer anything available to you,” Gill said. “You want to take care of yourself and you don’t want to be a burden on your children, and if that means moving out of the city, well, that is what you have to do.”

PERCENT OF RESIDENTS 65 YEARS AND OLDER

projection City/residents 65 and older* 1980 1985 est. 1990 Palos Verdes Estates/1,044 7.3 10.2 14.9 Rolling Hills/147 7.2 10.0 14.5 Torrance/11,050 8.5 10.6 13.7 Lomita/1,980 10.5 11.9 13.1 El Segundo/1,109 8.1 10.2 13.0 Gardena/4,266 9.4 10.9 12.9 Rolling Hills Estates/401 5.2 7.4 12.5 Hawthorne/4,528 8.0 9.7 11.9 San Pedro/7,784 11.4 11.2 11.8 Rancho Palos Verdes/1,695 4.6 7.1 11.7 Manhattan Beach/1,803 5.7 7.6 10.1 Redondo Beach/3,825 6.7 8.0 9.9 Carson/4,388 5.4 7.0 9.1 Harbor City/965 6.3 7.2 8.2 Hermosa Beach/1,077 6.0 6.9 8.1 Inglewood/7,860 8.3 9.0 9.5 Lawndale/1,412 6.0 7.1 8.4 Harbor Gateway/907 5.3 6.3 7.6 Wilmington/2,736 7.0 6.8 7.2 Lennox/963 5.2 5.7 6.1

* 1980 Census

Source: National Planning Data Corporation