NORTHRIDGE : Disaster-Aid Grant Will Help Elderly

Hoping to help a group of people often overlooked after a disaster, the Los Angeles City Council accepted a $3.9-million federal grant Tuesday to help senior citizens recover from the Northridge earthquake.

The money will be distributed to nonprofit organizations that already work with senior citizens, providing such services as transportation, legal aid and housing.

But the community groups, working out of 15 senior citizens centers throughout the city, will also provide disaster aid such as minor home repair work, relocation assistance and help in applying for disaster aid.

The council instructed the Department of Aging to return within 45 days with a report detailing how the department plans to spend the money.

Ann Smith, general manager of the department, said studies of other disasters, such as the Midwest floods and Florida’s Hurricane Andrew, found that senior citizens were generally overlooked by local governments.

“Seniors have special needs and no one really looked at those needs after those disasters,” she said. “With these efforts, we are trying to address this issue.”

For older residents, it is particularly difficult dealing with the stress of filling out complex disaster fund applications while fending off fraudulent contractors who prey on senior citizens, Smith said.

The need appears to be significant. Between Jan. 17 and June 17, the Department of Aging provided services to 12,021 older people who lost homes or property in the quake, or who need emotional or financial support.

The grant was welcome news to the Rev. Alicia Broadous-Duncan, who helps run a senior citizens counseling group at the Pacoima Senior Citizens Multipurpose Center.

“We are excited,” she said. “We are ecstatic because the funds are really needed.”

Broadous-Duncan said her counseling group trains senior citizens to counsel their peers because they can best understand the trauma other older people go through after a disaster.

While the city was inundated with federal and state disaster assistance immediately after the quake, Broadous-Duncan said that help is diminishing, increasing the need for locally funded assistance.

“After the quake, things leveled off and people didn’t realize that they were still (emotionally) shaken,” she said. “It’s like being discombobulated.”