“I don’t know how any senior can handle all of this stuff,” sighs Mary Anne Humphrey, 68, who suffers from limited mobility due to a spinal cord injury.
Humphrey is explaining the endless paperwork, social services, doctor appointments, benefit plans and medications she juggles as a disabled senior.
Fortunately, Humphrey is one of 1,200 San Francisco County residents who have received help over the past five years from a unique Bay Area program that keeps older adults and the disabled living independently: the Community Living Fund.
“They just must be overloaded with the paperwork and ins and outs and ‘sign this’ and ‘do that,’ ” she says. “CLF helps with that, with a real comfort. It takes away a lot of stress.”
Spawned in 2007 by the county, the fund is a collaboration with the city of San Francisco and the local Institute on Aging with a single focus: help San Franciscans survive independently outside the four walls of institutional living.
Read the complete story at California Watch. California Watch, the state’s largest investigative reporting team, is part of the independent, nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. For more, visit www.californiawatch.org.
