Even on a typically quieter day of the week, a Northeast Portland senior center bustled with activity.

About 20 seniors sat in a circle last Thursday – some in wheelchairs or sharing tables with their caregivers – and waved colorful scarves to the strum of a music therapist’s guitar. Others stopped by the pantry to take home fresh vegetables or fill their mugs with coffee.

The phone rang constantly. Jaden Saloum, a center assistant at The Community for Positive Aging, answered requests for legal support, tax help and health assistance. One caller had nothing to ask for, but the conversation lasted 13 minutes anyway. As it ended, the woman on the phone thanked Saloum for listening, saying she lives alone and had no one else to go to.

“It’s a big issue with seniors, the social isolation is huge,” center manager Kaylyn Peterson said.

Groups like The Community for Positive Aging, formerly the Hollywood Senior Center, serve an ever-growing population of retirement-age adults. New numbers released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau underscore the demographic shift underway — one for which researchers say the region is unprepared, even though it could be predicted decades ago.

The numbers show the effect will be magnified in the Portland area, where the 65-and-older population is growing even faster than the U.S. average.

And this is just the start. Oregon’s aging population is not expected to peak until 2050, said Carolyn Aldwin, director of the Program on Aging Studies at Oregon State University.

The state’s low fertility rates combined with rising life expectancy contribute to the trend, said Neal Marquez, forecast manager at Portland State University’s Population Research Center.

Social service strain

The aging population threatens to overwhelm underprepared social services.

Calls to Northwest Pilot Project – a nonprofit that helps low-income seniors in Multnomah County find housing – have tripled in the last three years.

In the same time period, the number of older adults who are homeless in Multnomah County increased by 15%, said Laura Golino de Lovato, executive director of Northwest Pilot Project. Adults over 60 make up a quarter of the homeless population in the county and projections suggest this number will increase, she added.

“There are more people at risk of eviction and there are more older adults who are becoming homeless for the very first time in their lives because the fixed income that they’re on does not cover the increasing rents that they have to pay,” Golino de Lovato said. “We are overwhelmed with calls and requests for support.”

The majority of Golino de Lovato’s clients rely on social security. But because the model is based on earnings over time, people who have worked low-wage jobs their whole lives don’t receive enough to support themselves, she said.

One in five adults aged 50 and older have no retirement savings, according to an AARP survey conducted in January.

The result? “We’ve been operating for almost 55 years,” Golino de Lovato said. “This is definitely the biggest increase in the number of low income, older adults that we’ve seen in Multnomah County in our history.”

Calls and requests to 211info, a statewide social service referral hotline, show that affordable housing is just one piece of the puzzle. Seniors, officials for the program say, routinely reach out for a range of additional services.

“The main thing we’re hearing from older adults is, ‘I worked my whole life and I’ve never had to ask for help before,’” said Dary Nutter, a spokesperson for 211info.

Evolving needs

When Amber Kern-Johnson first started working at The Community for Positive Aging in 2007, things looked different.

The senior center’s executive director remembered the center as a place to relax, dance and socialize and where a group of regulars came to kick back around the pool table.

But the laid-back model couldn’t keep up with seniors’ growing needs. In her 15 years with the organization, Kern-Johnson has seen a significant increase in demand for social services.

“Now, people have serious needs around affordable housing, around food security, around mental health, physical health,” Kern-Johnson said. “Our organization made a very intentional shift to move from more of a traditional senior center to providing more direct service and response to needs because we saw that need.”

The center started an additional free meal service in March for participants 60-years-old and older. Friday’s lunch had almost 50 attendees, which Kern-Johnson said underscored the need for food and community.

“We’re seeing folks whose needs are a lot higher than they have been in the past,” she said.

More than 90% of The Community for Positive Aging’s clients are low-income, with over half living at or below the poverty line of $15,060. Requests to the food pantry have more than doubled in the last year alone.

The center sees up to 5 to 10 new clients requesting specialized assistance each week. Upwards of 80% of case-managed clients are living with disabilities, mobile or cognitive impairments, chronic health conditions, or alone without any natural support.

“We’re seeing more people coming in who are classified as high-need,” Kern-Johnson said.

Resources are stretched thin, though, and the waitlist for clients seeking case-management support is growing.

“We don’t have unlimited staff,” she said. “I see the toll it takes on my team.”

Health care challenges

Mary Kay Brennan arrived early for a storytelling class at the senior center Thursday. As she waited, she greeted Carol Emens and pointed out the new permanent crown on her tooth; the dentist had tried to delay the procedure, but to Brennan’s relief, it got done just in time for a trip to San Diego.

“It’s the little things when you get older, like getting your crown on time,” the 77-year-old said.

Emens, who just had a root canal, said that teeth are only one of the health issues that become common with age. As they waited for class to begin, the two women discussed their friend’s unfortunate accident that resulted in a broken hip.

The problem, 85-year-old Emens said, is that nobody goes into geriatric medicine.

“You go to a general practitioner and she doesn’t really know the foibles of old people, and it is really difficult.”

The growing number of seniors is already overwhelming health care systems, said Aldwin, the Oregon State researcher.

“Some facilities will no longer take new Medicare patients because the health care system folks argue that Medicare systems don’t really cover their costs. That’s a bone of contention between how much Medicare should pay, how much they can pay, and how much the care actually costs,” Aldwin said.

The crisis facing rural Oregon is even worse. Aldwin described it as a “double whammy” – older adults often relocate to rural areas for the lower cost of living while younger adults often move to cities for jobs.

“So you have a smaller population which is older, frailer, and in need of more services and the rural counties don’t have the economic base to support this,” Aldwin said. “It’s going to keep increasing and the problem is going to get worse.”

In Oregon coast city of Gearhart, calls to volunteer firefighters have more than doubled since 2019 with the majority of requests being for slip-and-fall injuries and other medical services, city attorney Peter Watts said.

During the same time period, an increased number of older adults moved to Gearhart from the Portland metro area, creating what Watts called a “critical housing shortage.” The workers who might provide clinical or home care can no longer find an affordable place to live, Watts said, so they leave, or they don’t move to Gearhart in the first place.

Hospitals in Gearhart have had to rely on travel nurses that stay in hotels, he said. “I think they’re really struggling to keep up.”

At some point, Aldwin said, urban centers won’t be able to keep up either.

Contributors to society

The growing senior population will doubtless stress the system, but researchers say it’s easy to overlook the contributions of older Oregonians.

At the Community for Positive Aging gift shop last Thursday, Georjean Wilkerson, 85, wrapped an ornament in purple tissue paper while chatting with a regular customer. Next to her, Madeline Stark, 87, sorted through a box of new donations, dusting off a set of four lemon-printed glasses on the counter.

The two women volunteer every Thursday at the shop – a thrift-style store that features handmade crafts made by seniors. The artists split the proceeds with the senior center.

Stark moved to Portland from Santa Fe three years ago to be closer to her daughter.

“I decided I would come here and see what it’s like and volunteer,” said Stark, who’s also taken classes offered by the center on living with chronic conditions. “It was very welcoming. I was so happy, and I met Georjean and the other women.”

Wilkerson, who was born and raised in Portland, first got involved with the center when she took a class on how to care for her husband, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. “I’ve been coming for over 20 years for different things,” she said.

At least 85% of the center’s 140 active monthly volunteers are 55 and older, Peterson said.

Research has shown that older adults are more likely to create startup companies, support arts and cultural centers, and be active volunteers. Aldwin said the unpaid contributions of older adults are part of what allows the working-age population to contribute to the economy.

There are benefits to an aging population too, Aldwin said. “It’s not all doom and gloom.”

-- Riya Sharma covers Here is Oregon feature stories. Reach her at rsharma@oregonian.com or 503-294-5996.