Santa Monica : New Data on the Elderly

A $35,000 study has found fewer than the expected number of elderly residents in Santa Monica who are frail, isolated or at risk.

The study, by Facts Consolidated in Los Angeles, concluded that at any given time only 56 elderly residents of the city could be classified as being in a life-threatening situation.

“What we thought was a great problem isn’t as great a problem as we thought,” said Leonard Gross, chairman of the city’s Commission on Older Americans. “By and large, we found that the elderly in Santa Monica are very happy.”

Gross said the city provides adequate services for the elderly, but many people are unaware of them.

He said the commission will take several months to analyze the data before proposing programs to the City Council.

“We have data on the elderly that we have never had before,” Gross said. “I think we got a hell of a value for our $35,000.”

Among the new information is that the largest concentration of people over 60 years old is north of Montana Avenue, one-third of all households have elderly residents and 20% of the elderly population is over 80 years old.