Older residents living in the communities built and maintained by St. Mary Development in Dayton, Ohio, were afraid to leave home – and had been advised not to. They were concerned about public transportation. They were advised not to go to grocery stores. But they needed food. A number of organizations partnered to get it to them.
 

It's often noted that older adults have the highest rate of homeownership. Almost 80 percent of those age 65 and older own their own home. This statistic presents a sense of stability and security for older adults, but it belies reality for many. A gentleman who regularly checks in at an affordable housing community (where I serve on the board) makes this vivid for me. While waiting for a unit to become available, this man lives in a dilapidated basement apartment with boarded up windows because it's all he can afford.

My mother’s brush with death started out innocuously. She had a persistent “wheezing,” and while—as the days passed by and it turned into a cough—she knew it probably should have gone away by that time, it took too much energy to catch the required two buses to visit her physician. It could wait a little longer, she reasoned.