Federal Grant to Aid Elderly Victims of Earthquake : Services: Agencies will use the $7 million to address the special needs of senior citizens, including housing, food and mental health.

Earthquake relief workers who aid the elderly were jubilant Thursday after learning that a $7-million federal grant is on the way to Southern California to keep alive financially strapped programs for senior citizens victimized by the Northridge temblor.

“It’s wonderful,” said Lynn Bayer, director of the Los Angeles County Agency on Aging. “This is the first time that we’ve had (earthquake relief) money that’s specifically designated for the elderly.”

The federal money comes just in time, Bayer said, and will allow relief agencies to pay for services already delivered and continue programs until June 30, 1995.

Since the devastating quake struck on Jan. 17, programs administered by public and private agencies have helped about 25,000 senior citizens.

“We’ve been telling our projects to hold on because the money is coming,” she said. “But we’ve been slowing down a little, fearing the money wouldn’t come.

“It will allow us to go forward with some confidence,” Bayer continued, “because we haven’t been doing really intense outreach work for fear that we would find more needs than we could ever fill.”

Relief programs for the elderly include cleanup work, relocation, assistance in filing federal aid forms and counseling. Day care and respite for families with elderly parents are also available.

The grant was announced by Fernando Torres-Gil, assistant secretary for aging of the Department of Health and Human Services, during a City Hall news conference hosted by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and attended by Robert Martinez, head of the California Department of Aging. “Older persons are too easily overlooked,” said Torres-Gil, “and their needs tend to take more work and can last much longer because they are the most vulnerable of our citizens during times of earthquakes and other disasters.”

The money, granted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is expected to be available within 10 days and is earmarked for the aid of elderly quake victims in the city and county of Los Angeles and in Ventura County.

The total cost of the planned 18 months of relief work for senior citizens is $9 million, most of which will be covered by the grant.

In the San Fernando Valley, agencies such as the Valley Interfaith Council, the Department of Recreation and Parks and the Organization for the Needs of the Elderly will receive portions of the award, according to Ann Delorise Smith, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Aging.

But some of the money will end up outside the Valley.

“Even though the Valley will receive a sizable amount, other areas were damaged and those seniors in those areas will also be benefiting,” said Smith, noting that people in such areas of Los Angeles as West Adams were also victims of the quake.

News of the award will be greeted warmly by members of the Robert M. Wilkerson Multipurpose Senior Citizens Center on Vanalden Avenue and Nordhoff Street.

Since the quake, which forced the center’s closure, services and classes previously offered to the facility’s 5,000 members have been scattered throughout the community. Meals and some exercise classes are held at a senior citizens center in Canoga Park. Other classes have been held at local parks and churches.

The center is expected to open at the end of this month or early next month, said Jill Kaplan, project director for the Wilkerson Center.

“We’re looking forward to going back,” Kaplan said.

The special needs of older people during a disaster became glaringly evident shortly after the quake. While other victims flocked to Valley parks for food, water and shelter, many seniors lacked transportation or were too frail to venture out.

“Our seniors weren’t there,” Kaplan said. “We had a task force to go look for them.”

They were often found in quake-damaged homes and in shelters, sometimes with no way of getting medication or fulfilling other needs such as obtaining bottled water.

“We got them meals, water, whatever we could to help them survive,” Kaplan said.

Since the quake, the need for some services has increased.

“We have a mental health program and that has doubled,” she said. “People that were mentally healthy before were totally shaken up and need our services.”

Ventura County is to get 9% of the grant, Bayer said. The rest will be divided between Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles. The county will receive 35% of the remainder and the city, where most of the quake damage occurred, will get 65%.

Some of the grant money will help relief workers find housing for senior citizens who are trying to return to the hard-hit San Fernando Valley, Smith said.

“A lot of the seniors are coming back, especially to the Valley,” Smith said, “and some won’t be coming back to anything.”