AGED AND AGING IN THE UNITED STATES TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1959 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON PROBLEMS OF THE AGED AND AGING, The subcommittee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10 a.m., in the Public Museum Auditorium, Grand Rapids, Mich., Senator Patrick V. McNamara presiding. Present: Senator McNamara. Subcommittee staff members present: Sidney Spector, staff director; Harold Sheppard, research director. Committee staff member present: Raymond Hurley, minority staff member. Senator MCNAMARA. The hearing will be in order. We are very happy to welcome the members of the East Grand Rapids High School here this morning. We are glad to have them here this morning to get a firsthand look at a Government operation. I have just received a telegram from my colleague in the Senate Phil Hart and am including it in full in the record at this point. I know Senator Hart would be here if he could. His concern for senior citizens is profound and well recognized in the U.S. Senate, where he has been an outspoken leader in their behalf. (The telegram is as follows:) Senator PAT MCNAMARA, Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.: WASHINGTON, D.C., November 12, 1959. Sincerely regret that I cannot be present for your Grand Rapids hearing. I am confident, however, that the leadership you are now giving Congress in seeking solutions to the problems of our aged and aging is among most important contributions being made in the nation today. This problem has been allowed to become major partly from neglect. Constructive suggestions for Federal action which I have received from Michigan leaders in labor, industry, fraternal and social service groups will no doubt be put into the records. The recommendations your committee makes after its careful study can overcome this neglect and give hope to all of our senior citizens. PHIL HART, U.S. Senator. Senator MCNAMARA. The first witness this morning is Paul Phillips, executive director of the National Urban League of Grand Rapids. Will you come right up here? I see you have a short statement, so we would like you to proceed in your own manner, sir. 1319 STATEMENT OF PAUL PHILLIPS, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, GRAND RAPIDS URBAN LEAGUE Mr. PHILLIPS. Fine. I thought I would leave these statements short so we will have time for questions, if you have any. My name is Paul Phillips. I am the executive secretary of the Grand Rapids Urban League. I am speaking today on the problems of the aged but particularly the problems of the Negro American because his problems, while they are of the same nature as the general problems of the aged, they have peculiar problems also because of some sociological background of the American public. There are 14,000 Negro American citizens in Grand Rapids, approximately 700 of whom are senior citizens, 60 years of age or over. The fact that people are living longer through improved health standards is good, but it is of little human value if people are to suffer from hunger and want in their aging years. NEGRO SENIOR CITIZEN FACED WITH SPECIAL PROBLEMS With reference to the Negro senior citizen in Grand Rapids, his problem is identical to the many problems confronting the aged, but he has the additional and special problems due to lack of educational and economic opportunities in his part. It has been a short or a long 97 years, depending upon one's viewpoint, since the shackles of slavery were cast off. Because of discrimination, the Negro citizen has for many years been confined to the menial, low-paying job category. The denial of equal opportunity for education and training in many sections of our land, has strengthened the barriers to the acquisition of economic independence and self-reliance. It has been within the last 20 years only that any substantial improvement has been made in the economic field with reference to advanced opportunities for the Negro citizen. This has been too short a period in which to build a foundation for an independent and selfreliant future. This means then that many of the Negro aged must rely either upon their children, or their relatives or public assistance, and the Negro citizen, the older Negro citizen has the additional problem of overcoming not only the physical or material handicaps but also the psychological block to self-reliance. For many years the Negro citizen, particularly in the South has been discouraged by the white adult from seeking to become independent. The pattern was and still is to a great extent one of paternalism. This pattern of thinking which has been instilled for many years must now be broken and reversed. I believe that the ideal solution is for the children to assume the responsibility for their aging parents, either by keeping them in the home or by providing for adequate care in private institutions for the aged. Again this presents a problem beyond that of the normal white citizen. A vast number of Negro citizens live in overcrowded housing conditions due to large families and/or the lack of freedom of movement in the search for adequate homes, the latter resulting from racial prejudice and segregation. Hence, for the already overburdened household, to take in aging parents tends to add to the problem. LACK OF INSTITUTIONS FOR NEGRO AGED In Grand Rapids, to our knowledge, there is no institution for the care of the aged where Negroes are accepted, with the exception of the county supported institution for the chronically ill. There are many private institutions for the aged in the city which are for the most part supported by church or private endowments. In the event a Negro might be successful in securing admission to one of these homes the cost would be prohibitive. PROPOSED SOLUTION In my opinion the solution is twofold. In order to meet the present emergency that older people face, a greater amount of Federal or State aid must be given to make it possible to keep the aging parent in the home of his children. The solution for the future of the Negro person is to encourage the present young Negro citizen to provide for his own old age through savings, pension funds, and social security, and we try to encourage and induce the Negro citizen to seek his own future self-reliance. However, no matter how much we urge and how much we push and how much we encourage, much depends, to a great extent, upon himself it is true, upon the extent to which discriminatory economic and educational barriers are erased so that he may be in a position to provide for his own old age. To do this will be difficult enough without the additional handicap of race discrimi nation. Senator MCNAMARA. Thank you very much, Mr. Phillips. Your testimony is certainly helpful to the committee. We are glad to have it. I have just a couple of questions. You mentioned the shortage of facilities that are available to members of the Negro race. What happens to Negro aged who need nursing care? Can the county hospital handle all of those? Mr. PHILLIPS. I might qualify the statement and answer the question this way. With reference to the privately supported agencies, we have no instance on record where there has been discrimination because we have had no experience where the Negro has applied for admission to the private institutions, and I should imagine one reason they haven't applied is because the cost would be prohibitive, so we can only say that there are none. We can't say there would be none if they would apply. Now the convalescent home, we have one home operated by a qualified Negro lady who takes in both white and Negro patients but there are very few homes with the exception of this home with the exception of this one, there might be one or two others who would take in Negro convalescents, so the field is very limited. Mrs. Gullick is the name of the woman locally who has the home and, strange as it seems, half her patients are white. We have made inquiries on other convalescent homes and we run against the problem of admission. Very few, with the exception of one or two will take the Negro convalescents, so that is a problem. Senator MCNAMARA. I don't quite get the answer to my question. You say none have been refused. Mr. PHILLIPS. In a private home, to my knowledge. Senator MCNAMARA. And you concluded by saying they won't be admitted. What were your conclusions? Mr. PHILLIPS. We are talking about the private home for the aged, convalescent homes. We have one in the city operating by a Negro person. Senator MCNAMARA. I understand that. Mr. PHILLIPS. There are very few convalescent homes who will take the chronically ill Negro person. Senator MCNAMARA. I suppose chronically ill white people have a similar problem. Certainly we have found in our hearings throughout the country that 60 percent of people 65 or over have an income of less than a thousand dollars a year, or a thousand dollars a year or less. Perhaps as you pointed out in your statement earlier, Negroes are at a lower level in our economy and therefore the problem is more intensified. Yet they fall in this group with all of our citizens, regardless of race or color, who are in this economically low income group. They all have similar problems. Mr. PHILLIPS. I agree. Senator MCNAMARA. You mentioned some of the conditions in the South. We all know they exist, but I think in Grand Rapids you won't have any evidence of discrimination, as such, for sick people. Mr. PHILLIPS. I would say "No." Senator MCNAMARA. That's very interesting. Mr. PHILLIPS. But to come again, Senator, people from the South are being transferred to Grand Rapids and other northern communities, and that's what I am trying to say. Senator MCNAMARA. They just don't apply in many instances because they are in an environment that doesn't encourage it. Thanks very much. I think your testimony has been very helpful and we appreciate your being here, and appreciate the cooporation of your organization. Mr. PHILLIPS. We have some more here who during the open session would like to talk also. Senator MCNAMARA. All right, thank you. (The prepared statement of Mr. Phillips follows:) PREPARED STATEMENT OF PAUL PHILLIPS There are 14,000 Negro-American citizens in Grand Rapids, approximately 700 of whom are senior citizens, 60 years or age or over. The fact that people are living longer through improved health standards is good, but it is of little human value if people are to suffer from hunger and want in their aging years. With reference to the Negro senior citizen in Grand Rapids, his problem is identical to the many problems confronting the aged, with the addition of special_problems due to lack of educational and economic opportunities in his past. It has been a short or a long 97 years (depending upon one's viewpoint) since the shackles of slavery were cast off. Because of discrimination, the Negro citizen has for many years been confined to the menial, low-paying job category. The denial of equal opportunity for education and training in many sections of our land has strengthened the barriers to the acquisition of economic independence and self-reliance. It has been within the last 20 years that any substantial improvement has been made in the economic field. This has been too short a period in which to build a foundation for an independent and self-reliant future. This means that many of the Negro aged must rely either upon their children, other relatives, or public assistance. I believe that the ideal solution is for the children to assume the responsibility for their aging parents, either by keeping them in the home or by providing for adequate care in private institutions for the aged. Again, this may present a problem beyond that of the normal white citizen. A vast number of Negro citizens live in overcrowded housing conditions due to large families and the lack of freedom of movement in the search for adequate homes, the latter resulting from racial prejudice and segregation. Hence, for the already overburdened household, to take in aging parents tends to add to the problem. In Grand Rapids there is no institution for the care of the aged where Negroes are accepted with the exception of the county-supported institution for the chronically ill. There are many private institutions for the aged in the city which are for the most part supported by church or private endowments. In the event a Negro might be successful in securing admission to one of these homes, the cost would be prohibitive. In my opinion, the solution is twofold. In order to meet the present emergency, a greater amount of Federal or State aid must be given to make it possible to keep the aging parent in the home of his children. The solution for the future is to encourage the present young citizen to provide for his own old age through savings, pension funds, and social security. Future self-reliance for the Negro citizen, however, depends to a great extent upon himself, and upon the extent to which discriminatory economic and educational barriers are erased so that he may be in a position to provide for his own old age. To do this will be difficult enough without the additional handicap of race discrimination. Senator MCNAMARA. The next witness is Francis J. Coomes, executive director, Catholic Charities of Michigan, from Lansing. Do you have a prepared statement? Mr. COOMES. Yes, but I am not going to read it. Senator MCNAMARA. Does the recorder have a copy of your prepared statement? Mr. COOMES. Yes. Senator MCNAMARA. Then it will be made part of the record in its entirety. You may summarize it. STATEMENT OF FRANCIS J. COOMES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF MICHIGAN, LANSING, MICH. Mr. COOMES. The agency I represent, Senator, is a year old today, and we have had an opportunity to conduct a survey which has taken a good look at the facilities that we have in the field of the aged, and, as you probably know, our basic approach to the care of the aged is from an institutional standpoint. In the State we have 13 institutions with a bed capacity, total bed capacity of 1,435. I would like to take a minute to describe these facilities throughout the State, if I may, beginning with the archdiocese of Detroit, which covers an eightcounty area, ranging from Lapeer and St. Clair on the north to Lenawee and Monroe on the south, estimated Catholic population of 1,200,000. Nine of our 13 institutions are located in that area with a bed capacity of 1,000, all of them located in the Wayne-Oakland area. CATHOLIC INSTITUTIONS FOR THE AGED I would just like to highlight a few of these institutions, beginning with Carmel Hall, which was established several years ago-you might remember they renovated the old Hotel Detroiter-with a bed capacity of 525. The concept there was to make all of the facilities available to these people in the downtown area and create an atmosphere of independence and easy mobility. Another concept is Kundig Center which is an old section in Detroit and it has facilities for about 80 people, and the idea here is the hall rents, or the center rents, homes around the area within walking |