As the Chattanooga Housing Authority’s elderly population increases, authority officials say they want to provide residents with services to help them be safe and independent.

“As more baby boomers enter retirement, there’s going to be much more of a need for services, and we’re trying to get ready,” said Gary Kelley, CHA’s director of resident services.

Board members are expected to approve a contract for supportive services for “frail, elderly and disabled residents” at the housing authority’s monthly board meeting today. The services sought include helping residents with medical needs, grooming, housekeeping and providing rental assistance, Mr. Kelley said.

The housing authority put out a call for bids, but by Monday a proposal from the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults, which has been providing elderly services to CHA residents for more than a decade, was the only one received, housing officials said. The Partnership’s current contract with the CHA ends this year.

Staff photo by Kelly Wegel -- Marilyn Smith, left, Jimmey Talley and Brenda Brock look through clothes in the Good as New Sale in the Boynton Terrace Apartments activity room on Tuesday. The Alexian Brothers Senior Neighbors program sponsors a different activity every day at the center. Housing authority officials want to make sure services such as housekeeping, grooming and assistance with some medical needs also are offered to elderly residents.

Housing authority officials said the contract with the Partnership, if approved, will not exceed $395,846 for 19 months ending Dec. 31, 2009. The contract includes the option to extend up to three additional one-year terms.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide funding for the services, CHA board Chairman Eddie Holmes said.

“We’re trying to bring back services that have been provided in the past,” Mr. Kelley said.

Brenda Brock, a 58-year-old resident of the 16-story Gateway Towers, said she appreciates the activities supplied by the Alexian Brothers Senior Neighbors program, such as rummage sales, crafts and games. But she hopes housing officials are able to attract a service provider that offers residents transportation.

“Transportation is at the top of my wish list,” Ms. Brock said. “Some people are in wheelchairs, but even some of the ones who are not have a hard time getting around on public transportation.”

Mr. Kelley said the housing authority once provided transportation services, but they were cut in the budget recovery process. The housing authority cut services and laid off more than 50 people this year to correct a $4.5 million budget shortfall.

“Hopefully we will be able to figure a way to bring it (transportation services) back again,” Mr. Kelley said. “Social workers can work with residents to help them with transportation needs, but it’s on a limited basis.”

Disabled and senior residents age 50 and older are expected to replace single women with children as the dominant population in Chattanooga’s public-housing sites within the next 10 years, housing officials have said.

For the past 30 years, single mothers have dominated the head-of-household demographic in public housing, officials said. However, the number of residents 50 and older living in Chattanooga’s public housing has increased from 1,031 in 2005 to 1,083 this year, CHA officials said.

Mr. Holmes said senior residents deserve the assistance they need.

“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the elderly,” he said. “They paved the way for the foundation that we have today.”

Seventy-one-year-old Betty Ruth Robinson said some elderly residents may need help but are too proud to ask for it.

“You have some people who don’t like to ask for help, but they need it,” said Ms. Robinson, a housing authority board member and public housing resident in Mary Walker Towers in Alton Park. “They need help purchasing medications and knowing how to take them.”

Ms. Robinson said some able-bodied residents in her eight-story building at Mary Walker Towers serve as floor captains and make daily checks on disabled residents to make sure they are well. Residents let social workers know when help is needed, she said.

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