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The San Diego Union-Tribune: County Senior Centers Lack Resources to Support Growing Elder Population, Study Says

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October 29, 2019

Estimates show 1 in 4 San Diegans will be seniors by 2030

October 29, 2019

By BELLA ROSS

San Diego County’s 28 senior centers are plagued by symptoms of insufficient funding: they have few or no full-time employees, limited operating hours, and many are far from public transportation and are in aging buildings, a recent study says.

If the grim state of San Diego’s senior centers isn’t seen as a problem now, it will be soon.

By 2030, more than a third of San Diego County’s population will be older than 55, totaling about 1.2 million individuals, says a study by the San Diego Seniors Community Foundation.

The county is home to about 671,605 people who are older than 60, according to SANDAG. This means over the next decade the elder population could increase by more than 75 percent.

San Diego’s senior centers are far from being ready to fully address the needs of this growing population, said Bob Kelly, president of the San Diego Seniors Community Foundation. They’re struggling now.

“We haven’t caught up yet, and we’ve got a long way to go,” Kelly said.

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