Members of the baby boomer generation—individuals born between 1946 and 1964—will all be age 65 or older in 2030, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
American Community Survey five-year estimates from the Census Bureau show the median age nationally was 38.4 in 2021. In The Woodlands, that number was 40.4, up from 39.7 in 2016. In Shenandoah, the median age reached 60.6 in 2021, up from 46.9 five years before.
With a larger senior population facing increasing needs, more people may begin to depend on resources available in their communities to maintain a quality of life, according to organizations such as Houston-Galveston Area Council’s Area Agency on Aging, or AAA. Meanwhile, in February, Meals on Wheels Montgomery County, or MOWMC, saw demand for services such as senior transportation more than double in the southern part of the county compared to five years ago, and it provided a record number of rides in March, according to the nonprofit.
“The population of older adults is going to grow as the baby boomers get older. So, it’s something that we’ve known for a long time, but still, we can be limited on the resources available,” said Mallory Freitag Hejja, administrator of the H-GAC Area Agency on Aging.
Transportation needs
A growing need for transportation resources among seniors can be seen in increasing requests for those services.
Shenandoah Mayor John Escoto said the city provides $5,000 annually to the MOWMC transportation program to get seniors to appointments and other needs.
“One issue that came up from some residents and relatives was transportation back and forth, when children weren’t able to transport them,” Escoto said.
In February, MOWMC reports the service provided 1,737 rides within the county, an increase from 1,362 in February 2018. That increase was the highest in south Montgomery County, which more than doubled from 416 to 954, according to MOWMC. It increased to an all-time high of 1,028 in south Montgomery County in March.
The growth in seniors has started to make the organization focus on more ways to serve seniors who are without family to provide care, according to MOWMC Director Summer Day.
“We’ve ... had clients that are medically compromised and can’t get to help, and we realize they’re not answering the door and we will call the hospital district for a welfare check,” Day said. “So, it’s also an extra layer of protection for the seniors.”
Sandy Gorczynsk, who lost her leg in 2020, said she relies on the service for transportation.
“It’s been wonderful,” she said. “I get out of my apartment. If I didn’t come get on the bus, I would probably go crazy at home.”
However, other transportation challenges remain. Although The Woodlands area has access to several medical centers and hospitals, many seniors have appointments in downtown Houston, and MOWMC only operates within Montgomery County, according to Maria Garza, program coordinator for the AAA’s Conroe office, which serves Montgomery County. AAA receives calls through the 211 hotline operated by United Way Greater Houston.
“We are having a high volume of calls for the Montgomery County area regarding transportation,” Garza said. “One of our most critical unmet needs is transportation across county lines.”
End to pandemic-era benefits
Two other areas of immediate concern for agencies serving seniors are the cessation of several pandemic-specific practices relating to federal benefits in early 2023.
For example, those receiving Medicaid benefits or assistance with paying Medicare premiums have not had to renew those benefits since 2020. Continuous Medicaid coverage ended March 31, according to Texas Health and Human Services. THHS has started a campaign to ensure seniors are aware of this, and AAA is fielding many local calls on the matter, Freitag Hejja said.
“Right now, Texas Health and Human Services is sending people who are on benefits a yellow envelope that says action required,” she said in a March 24 interview. “They’re really at risk of losing [them] and having to reapply. So ... our benefits counselors are doing some outreach campaigns.”
Many seniors who depend on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan benefits found their monthly allotments cut to prepandemic levels as of March 1, adding to the strain on resources, according to Freitag Hejja.
“Our seniors, if they were on SNAP, they were getting the maximum amount; it was around $281 a month,” Freitag Hejja said. “[Now] if they are living alone, and they have low incomes, it’s $23 a month on top of food costs.”
In addition to MOWMC, the Montgomery Food Bank and Keep Us Fed Montgomery County provide nutrition options for seniors. The food bank reported an increase from serving 830,000 meals per month in 2021 to 1 million per month in 2022, and Keep Us Fed reported it hit a milestone of 6 million pounds of food distributed since 2015 in March.
Day said these services provide more for seniors than meals, and MOWMC also provided needed socialization.
“It’s a very holistic approach for caring for seniors; it’s more than a meal. We arrive and become their family and their first resource when they need something,” Day said.
Filling the gap
To help provide for the aging population, several measures are underway across the county and state.
At the local level, on March 28, Montgomery County Commissioners Court approved raising the homestead exemption for residents age 65 and older who already have an exemption from $35,000 to $50,000. This follows other area governmental bodies such as The Woodlands, which raised the exemption for homeowners age 65 and owner from $25,000 to $40,000 in 2022.
According to Tax Assessor-Collector Tammy McRae, the new county exemption represents an overall taxpayer savings of $2.7 million, based on 2022 data. Montgomery County currently has just over 49,500 accounts for residents over age 65 for homestead exemptions, she said.
“The appraisal district is automatically supported to add the [age] 65 [and over] exemption when you turn age 65. I always tell everyone [to] go ahead and apply anyway just to ensure that you get it,” McRae said at the March 28 meeting.
The Woodlands area has also seen a slate of new facilities open directed toward seniors. The area has eight facilities providing affordable housing to seniors, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and a total of 34 assisted-living facilities in the region, according to THHS. However, new openings have focused on memory care facilities.
Three new facilities have opened in The Woodlands since 2021—Acorn Manor Assisted Living, The Heritage Memory Care and Villas of Sycamore Creek Ranch The Woodlands. In addition, Oak Ridge Memory Care will open in Oak Ridge North later this year, the first in that area, according to information from the facility.
Statewide, several bills are before the Texas Legislature this year pertaining to senior needs. Advocacy organizations such as AARP Texas have highlighted bills such as Senate Bill 1629, calling for nursing home reform; House Bill 728, calling for the creation of an Interagency Council on Aging; SB 273, which would revise SNAP to allow more seniors to qualify; and HB 2983, which would increase access to medically tailored meals through Medicaid.
“There’s been such a shortage lately of direct care workers,” Freitag Hejja said. “I know that there are quite a few bills being put forth right now to increase pay for direct care workers, especially when they’re funded through Texas Health and Human Services programs. So hopefully ... that might make a little bit of an impact.”
Editor's note: The name of the Houston-Galveston Area Council has been corrected in this story from Harris to Houston.
