Shutdown Puts Funds for Seniors In Jeopardy

Nursing home oversight, in-home care, transportation, and Meals on Wheels are just some of the programs ARC funds for seniors in metro Atlanta. Fifty-six percent of that money comes from the federal government through the Older Americans Act Fund.

Kathryn Lawler manages ARC’s aging and health resources division. She says the organization’s accountants have been working almost around the clock since the shutdown started to try to spread the resources in case the federal government fails to send promised funds. “To move things around so that we aren’t shutting a senior center tomorrow, we aren’t turning off the meal service tomorrow, is not a simple thing,” Lawler told WABE.  ”And I think that is something that’s often lost in this conversation that’s going on about the shutdown.”

The Meals on Wheels program funds more than 80,000 meals a month in the ten-county metro Atlanta region. 

Lawler says she is just as concerned about the prospect of the shutdown ending as continuing. “If the resolution of this immediate problem also results in significant cuts, then we have whole ‘nother ball game.”

Lawler says ARC already lost 8% of its federal funds for seniors because of sequestration.