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Sonia Aery, California Coalition for Rural Housing
- 3. The Invitation OrganizationName: OrganizationalContact Name: TelephoneNumber: % Residents' Meeting EmailAddress: #Units Senior LocalityName StreetAddress ProjectType Council(Y/N) Frequency ProjectName: ProjectName: ProjectName: ProjectName: ProjectName: ProjectName: ProjectName: ProjectName: ProjectName: ProjectName:
- 5. The Assessment Current Services • On-site • Off-site • Vendors • Frequency Resident Characteristics • Demographics • Info Needs Site Capacity • Community Room • Computers • Seating • Tables
- 11. Santa Paulan Senior Apartments
- 12. The Reserve at Napa
- 13. Walnut Terrace Senior Apartments
Editor's Notes
- Thank you all so much for your interest and enthusiasm for our program. My name is Sonia Aery. I am the Director of Asset-Building programs for the California Coalition for Rural Housing or, CCRH, which is one of the oldest statewide nonprofit housing coalitions in the country.Our Coalitionis made up of many member organizations who are typically developers and advocates for affordable homes in rural areas. Many of our developer members own or operate properties that are either exclusively for older adults or are predominantly occupied by older adults.We are one of 15 organizations across the country who are grantees in the National Neighbors Silver program. The purpose of NNS is to build economic security and preserve wealth for older Americans.Our goal for this program was, and still is, of course, to empower, organize, and support economically vulnerable older adult renters through advocacy and direct service (in the form of educational workshops). Each of the 15 grantees in the NNS program has their own idea of how to promote economic security and financial empowerment among older adults, and this is our approach to it.
- Our NNS initiative has evolved through three phases, as you can see here.The first was, of course, the invitation to all of our developer members to participate in the program.The second phase is the assessment of the partner. This is where we begin to determine the feasibility of a partnership between our staff and our partner’s staff. To an extent, we are still in this phase with some of our partners.Finally, in the third phase, we implement the program in partnership with our selected member organizations.
- Because we wanted to get a sense of what we were working with, we sent out a very short survey to each of our developer members. We asked for the number of units at each of their properties, what percentage of those units housed older adults, and whether the property had a tenant’s association or resident council. Luckily, we have a great relationship with our members. So, this coalition infrastructure works well because our members have faith that we will produce quality work and will provide a great resource or service to their residents.
- So, our members told us that they had about 64 properties statewide, which amounted to about 3,400 units! That’s a lot of people!Keep in mind, all of these properties are specifically for economically vulnerable older adults who are renting. So, many of these residents are on a very fixed income and have little, if anything, to spare each month. That is a lot of people we could help but, being a nonprofit, we only have so many resources we can dedicate to this program. So, we had to decide which properties we could reach given our limited capacity. We also, of course, want to provide and produce something of value.This brings us to the next phase…
- …Which is the assessment of the member organization.We visited our member organizations at their office to understand the dynamics of their properties. These are a few of the organization’s characteristics that we wanted to know more about. This would also give us an idea of how much additional work we would have to do to hold an event at a property, for example. We wanted to know what resources they already had and what we would have to bring to the equation.So, once we begin to understand what we have to work with, we can more effectively work with our partners to produce something of value.
- We developed this equation of sorts to streamline the way that we offer this program to residents while allowing us to obtain valuable information for our grantor and our partners, who I will talk about in a minute. Using this model for implementation, we get valuable quantitative information through a resident survey. We also get valuable qualitative information through roundtable discussions or, focus groups, that we conduct at the property with residents in attendance. Based on the information we obtain from the surveys and the round tables, we can offer a financial education workshop to the residents.
- First, we have developed a two-page, mostly multiple-choice resident survey to get a snapshot of what economically vulnerable older adult renters are experiencing with banks and with financial abuse or exploitation.
- This is the cover page to the survey. The top half explains the purpose of the survey a bit. The bottom half can be ripped off. This is where residents can input their apartment number to win a raffle prize. Because this part gets ripped separated from the survey, we’re able to maintain confidentiality but still provide an incentive to participate.
- This is the first page of the two page survey. It is 11 questions long. We ask very basic information: What banking services has the person used in the last year? Has the person used a check-cashing service and how was that experience? Like I said before, the survey is completely confidential, and people can skip questions if they don’t want to answer.
- Numbers are essential to an argument for change on a systemic level, but we also want to bring awareness to the fact that real people are being affected by these policies and services that may be ignorant to the needs and concerns of older adults. A large part of creating meaningful and holistic change in such a large institution as banking is having a comprehensive argument for the change you know is right. And this is our attempt to bring about that change.So, in addition to the survey, we are holding roundtable discussions at a minimum of eight properties. We anticipate that these discussions will allow residents to tell their stories (if they have a banking story) in a way that a survey cannot possibly capture. We incentivize participation by raffling off a gift card to a nearby grocery store for the residents. We also provide appetizers as the discussion lasts about two hours.
- This was our first roundtable discussion. It was held at one of our member properties in Napa, CA.So, here’s how we’re conducting our discussions: We have between 15-25 older adults in attendance.We start out with introductions and explain who we are, what the purpose of the program is, and the agenda for the event.Then we break out into discussion groups of 3-5 people.Each group gets a different scenario. So one scenario might be that Mr. X has won a fake lottery. Another might be that Bank Y is participating in a financial abuse prevention course for its tellers. So, each group discusses their scenario: What they thought of the scenario, what they would have liked to have happened, what could banks do to help a certain situation, things like that.
- So, based on the information we obtain through the surveys and the roundtable discussions, we are planning to come back to the properties to conduct one or two financial education workshops on topics of interest to the residents there. This is our next step, once we get a couple more roundtable discussions under our belt.
- So that is our age-friendly banking initiative. Surveys for quantitative information, discussions for qualitative information, and workshops to help empower people to take control of their finances and not be so afraid. Throughout this whole process, we’re trying to identify NNS Ambassadors. Ambassadors are community leaders who are concerned about the economic security of older adults and are interested in helping to strengthen their community’s financial well-being. Ambassadors are not paid, but do receive free training on how to be an advocate for older adults in their community.
- So I mentioned before that conducting resident surveys gives us valuable information we can share with our partners. So, for a few different reasons, we have these two amazing partners: Citi Community Development and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Because older adult issues are more and more popular these days, we were able to obtain a large grant from Citi that will sustain our work for at least the next year and a half.The Federal Reserve System is also getting more and more concerned with older adults and, as a result of that, they have agreed to launch a campaign in support of age-friendly banking. With the information we gather from this program, the Federal Reserve System will hold at least two of their own roundtable discussions with their member banks. One discussion will be held in LA and one in SF, and we will present the results and recommendations of our program to their member banks and have a discussion over what banks are currently doing for older adults, which of their needs are not being met, and what can be done to better meet the needs of older adults. These discussions will be held either at the end of this year or early next year.We’re very excited to announce that our results and recommendations will be published as part of the Federal Reserve System’s quarterly newsletter to it’s bank members. That particular issue will focus on older adult issues within banking and will come out at the end of this year.Finally, we’re partnering with the Elder Financial Protection Network to help with the financial education workshops and possible consulting on the recommendations to the banks.