This Saturday we had the opportunity to tour four affordable housing options for seniors in San Diego. It was interesting to see the various creative ways in which organizations and individuals are trying to help solve the senior housing crisis, and it definitely made me think more about what I can do to help.
The first residence we toured was the Potiker Family Senior Residence. We got to tour a resident’s unit, and saw that the studios are fairly small but have enough room for a bed, table, TV stand, full bathroom, and mini kitchen. The unit belonged to Mr. Plunkett, who was enjoying his birthday this day. He was extremely grateful that we came and visited with him, and demonstrated that despite the small size of the unit, the most important thing is that he has somewhere stable to stay. This sentiment was echoed in the next establishment we toured: The Sara Francis Hometel. This was a single-room occupancy hotel, and was fairly old and cramped. The manager mentioned that this is one of the most lenient SROs in San Diego in terms of accepting residents with few questions asked. Because of this, those that may not find the opportunity elsewhere are able to live here: some residents have in fact lived there for over 20 years! Again, a resident, Bertha, was generous enough to let us take a look at the room that she and her husband shared. It was smaller than the Potiker Center, and they had to share a bathroom with another resident. However, there was enough room for a bed, a small sink, and some things, and both Bertha and her husband said that they were extremely grateful to be there. The following two residences were similarly heartwarming; in general, residents are happy to have a place to stay, no matter the state of the residence so long as it is safe and stable. The idea that so many seniors are constantly being shuffled around and displaced really touched me; I can’t imagine living the last years of my life having nowhere to land. I am so happy that programs like the ones we visited exist, and that more are cropping up. But as most of the tour guides told us, what they are doing is only a drop in the bucket, and much more needs to be done. This week our class period was mainly focused on planning a prom event for the residents of the West Center in February. We started class by brainstorming potential ideas for themes (the Roaring Twenties, disco, enchanted forest, etc.) After discussing and voting on potential options, we went with a fairy tale theme, which should be a lot of fun!
After we voted, we broke off into individual committees to plan various aspects of the prom. The committee I chose was the food/drinks committee, because I feel that my skills and interests would be best suited there. Generally, my committee decided to have some meal-like food that residents can take home for dinner (since they will have just eaten lunch at the time of the prom). We also chose to have some healthy savory snacks, which we felt many parties do not have. We also thought it could be fun to have a sort of mock-tail bar with thematic drinks, and so we have brainstormed a few (like the Cinderella, the Snow White, etc.) Finally, we thought it could be fun to focus on a dessert bar with a bunch of mini desserts that attendees can pick up and eat quickly. Given the overall budget of $300, we decided that we will probably order Costco pizza for the meal since it is fairly cheap, put together our own snack plates with fruits, veggies, crackers, cheese, etc., get each drink component individually and have a bar tender, and bake the desserts among ourselves. This way, we can have a large variety of items with minimal cost. Overall, I’m really looking forward to the planning of the event as well as the event itself, because it seems like it will be really touching and meaningful. Add photos (optional) I thoroughly enjoyed the retreat this past weekend. I thought it was a really nice way to get introduced both to the concepts of the class as well as my peers in a fun and relaxing way. Although I’m generally not a huge fan of icebreaker-type exercises, I thought the ones chosen for the retreat were pretty enjoyable and didn’t put too much pressure on us to act outgoing.
I also really appreciated the lecturettes by both professors. They broadly covered some of the basics of aging in the US (and globally). I went away from the lectures feeling inspired and excited to move forward with the class and learn more. The lecture later on in the day from Trish was also really fascinating. I appreciated how she walked through some of the basic steps of the mini memoir process, because she brought up some issues we may face in interviewing our EP that I may not have thought of myself; it helped me feel more prepared. I also appreciated that she included the photos of our EPs as well as some of the reasons we chose them, because it was nice to get a sense of what my peers are doing with the project as well. The last two components of the retreat, the coastal walk and thought exercise, were my favorite parts of the day. Taking some of the ideas discussed earlier in the day, I found it really interesting to think forward to when I’m older, both in terms of navigating the world physically and mentally. I don’t think that many 21-year-olds have the opportunity to think so far in the future in such an intentional and guided way, so I feel really lucky to have gotten to do those exercises, as well as to be in the class in general where I know I will learn so much more. |
Rachael AlbertsArchives
June 2020
Categories |