A report released Wednesday by the John T. Gorman Foundation provides benchmarks for challenges facing Mainers in different regions of the state — namely poverty, social isolation and a lack of suitable housing — with an aim to guiding public policy, targeting philanthropic investments and measuring progress over time.
Overall, the report finds that, with some key exceptions, the well-being of older Mainers is not significantly different than that of their demographic peers in New Hampshire, Vermont or the rest of the country.
“There’s nothing very counterintuitive” in the report, said Tony Cipollone, president and CEO of the John T. Gorman foundation. “But it confirms in a concrete way what we know about Maine’s senior population.”
Maine has the highest median age of any state in the nation and the third-highest percentage of residents 65 and older. Along with state policymakers, nonprofit agencies and private philanthropies such as the John T. Gorman Foundation, communities across the state are developing aging-in-place strategies to help the rapidly growing population of Maine seniors stay in their homes and communities as long as possible.
The new report, compiled by the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy, analyzes data collected between 2008 and 2012 through the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
Among other findings, the report determines that Maine seniors are less likely to be poor than seniors nationwide, but more likely to be poor than seniors in New Hampshire and Vermont. Maine’s percentage of seniors 55 and older living at or below the federal poverty limit is 8.9 percent, compared with 9.5 percent in the U.S., 6 percent in New Hampshire and 6.6 percent in Vermont.
In Maine, 29 percent of seniors are considered low-income, living at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty limit, compared with 27.4 percent in the U.S., 21.1 percent in New Hampshire and 23.5 percent in Vermont.
Within the state, seniors in the Portland area are most likely to be poor or low income, the report shows, while seniors in Penobscot County are least likely. Low-income seniors in all regions are burdened by housing costs that use more than 30 percent of their monthly incomes, and are also more likely to live alone and be unmarried — all predictors of medical, social and/or housing instability. The highest percentage of seniors living alone is found in the northwestern region comprised of Piscataquis, Somerset, Franklin and Oxford counties. The highest percentage of married seniors is found in Penobscot County.
Cipollone said the John T. Gorman Foundation has dedicated $900,000 over the next two years to support nonprofit and community-based aging-in-place programs that provide home repair services, decrease food insecurity, improve access to transportation services and provide companionship for Maine seniors.
At the Eastern Area Agency on Aging in Bangor, executive director Noelle Merrill said the report highlights important issues in the region she serves, especially the lack of safe, affordable housing.
“Every little community in Maine should be looking into developing some housing for people to move into,” she said.
Merrill said the study will be useful for planning the services her agency will provide in for the future. In addition, she said, the John T. Gorman Foundation has awarded her agency $140,000 over the next two years for home maintenance and nutrition programs.
The study, Cipollone said, can be used by local communities, agencies and policymakers to guide programming and investment.
“The better we can do to develop policies and programs that reflect and respond to the reality of what is happening with our seniors, the better off we’ll be as a state,” he said.
The report can be viewed at www.jtgfoundation.org/.
