Squeeze Those Turnips...

especially the OLD ONES...

All homeless are not drug addicts. Some are simply OLD. In fact, the largest entry group to homeless are those 50-or-older.

Look around: rising property taxes, unaffordable rent, medical expenses, chronic illness, physical limitations, loss of a spouse and inflation. It hits those on fixed incomes harder than any other group.

What options do seniors have on a fixed and limited income? There are virtually no services, benefits, or support systems as you age. Many people have no family — especially so with that 1970’s brainwashing of the Women’s Liberation ‘career not baby-making’. No one cautioned that to be an independent woman means no support group in the later years. Getting old sucks.

Once your hair turns white, you become invisible.

The typical social security monthly payment (for someone born in the 1950s) is around $1k a month. Only, it is less since Medicare takes it’s $200 bite. (The standard 2026 monthly Part B is $202.90, this does not include any additions for Part B or Medicare Advantage/Part D or Medigap plan.) Supplemental plans can cost an additional $30 to more than $300 a month.

No, Medicare doesn’t pay for deductibles, co-pays, or services not covered. Things such as dental bills, glasses, prescription drugs, ambulance services, a non-participating provider, or the treatment denied will result in a big bill.

With Medicare, if you suffer a serious illness, costs can skyrocket hundreds-of-thousands of dollars — that the government won’t pay.

Example: Part A deductible — standard Medicare, no frills — requires a senior to pay $1,676 for an in-hospital stay, in 2025. Many costly Medigap plans have a $3,500. deductible.

The average rent in Port Angeles is between $1,200 and $1,950 per month so even if a senior would like to downsize, it’s impossible. So, many seniors locally live in homes purchased in the 1970s and 1980s. Paid off, but still requiring utilities and property taxes to be paid. The average property tax in Port Angeles City is about $4,000 a year (slightly less in the county). That means, more than $300 a month.

Our City of Port Angeles utility bills are convoluted. The elected say “electricity hasn’t gone up that much” True, the actual cost of the watt of power consumed, has not increased much, and it’s comparable to other providers, perhaps lower than some other providers charge.

What has increased are the fixed fees the City tacks on: Electricity Base $34.41; Medic 1 (split into two fees) $13.28; Water Base $46.88 or $62.91 (determined by the the size of the water pipe feeding the house); CSO (combined sewer overflow) $13.92; Wastewater Base $62.91, and trash pickup ($32.31 semi-weekly, or $45.13 weekly). Add these up, and you have somewhere between $203.11 to $231.96 monthly PLUS a $4.17 utility tax, BEFORE the actual electric utility or water used is charged. Total bills (depending on time of year) average between $350 and $400 per month (although for many, much higher).

(Low-income customers MAY apply and get up to a 35% discount, if they apply and are approved.)

The napkin math: $1,000 minus Medicare’s mandatory $200, minus monthly property tax $300, minus utility bill of $300. Whats left is $200 a month for food, vehicle fees (insurance, gas, oil, repairs, tires), basic necessities (shoes, clothing, medicine), paying credit card interest, and whatever else (cable? cell phone? coffee with friends). How about replacing that leaky roof? A burst pipe?

Unfortunately, some people use the strategy of credit cards to fill any budget gaps, which only makes their financial situation more tenuous with the added monthly minimum interest fees and astronomical interest rates.

Very few single woman (that I know) managed to save substantial retirement funds, nor receive pensions. Widowed women may have a few dollars more. Divorced women may be eligible to get additional benefits from an ex-spouse (depending if marriage lasted a decade or more). Still, not a “windfall”. In old age they’ve slipped into outright poverty.

The Consumer Price Index has outpaced general inflation (up 23.6%) over the last five years. (The cost of living increases to Social Security are wiped out by Medicare increases.) Food costs have increased 30% in the last five years. It’s even higher/more dire out here on the Olympic Peninsula because our state keeps added new Climate Commitment fuel taxes that increase everything (because of increased trucking fuel costs) in our remote area.

Yet, our City, County and State don’t care. The message: “Hurry up, die, get to probate!”

Squeeze those turnips! — the government response.

Our small, local government overlords keep raising taxes, adding new taxes. In Port Angeles the City Council regularly vote to increase base fees, raise taxes, and find new ways to fine us. Our county keeps adding, including new property fees. Sure $5.00 a year isn’t much per parcel. Is it? “Its a cup of coffee at Starbucks.” Some Commissioner said.

Translation: updated bourgeois “Let them eat cake”.

As fixed incomes fall further behind the cost of living, older adults are being pushed into homelessness. Seniors already make up a rapidly growing share of the overall homeless population. One-in-five homeless are aged 55+. This number increased by 300% between 2004 and 2017.

How much do you want to BET that the Port Angeles City Council will avoid any discussion of how THEIR ACTIONS have caused/will cause this? Lets blame drugs on all homelessness.

Many Port Angeles seniors used Short Term Rentals for supplemental income, yet the Council never offered any concessions to seniors when creating the rules, nor any breaks on fees. The County gives free drug kits to the drug dependent, but nothing to seniors with hardships.

Does anyone elected ever consider how fragile a seniors budget is? Do they care?

The reality: by 2030 the number of homeless single, older adults will account for half of all homeless. Lets address this now….