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Buffalo’s Black older adults face their own share of health, economic inequities

Paula Newsome, 62, a resident of the Westminster Commons affordable housing complex, participates in an Aging Mastery Program class Feb. 14, 2022.
Tom Dinki
/
WBFO News
Paula Newsome, 62, a resident of the Westminster Commons affordable housing complex, participates in an Aging Mastery Program class Feb. 14, 2022.

About a dozen older adults recently gathered for a Valentine’s Day social at the Westminster Community House, a former immigrant settlement house turned community center on Buffalo’s predominately Black East Side.

Aside from the heart-shaped balloons and ice cream, there was also an informational table about health insurance coverage and navigating the complex Medicaid system.

“I had no understanding about Medicaid-Medicare, [supplemental security income]. I've been working all my life so I just knew I got insurance through my job,” said Paula Newsome, one of the older adults at the Valentine’s Day social. “Coming in here now, I get it. I get it.”

Newsome and the other older adults were there as part of the community house’s weekly Aging Mastery Program. The classes have been a big help for Newsome, 62, who has lived in the connecting 84-unit senior affordable housing complex, Westminster Commons, since it opened last summer. She needed to downsize after medical problems left her unable to work or manage a house, and thought the Aging Mastery Program could help her make sense of her new situation.

Daysi Ball, Buffalo Federation of Neighborhood Centers senior services director, leads the Aging Mastery Program at the Westminster Community House Feb. 14, 2022.
Tom Dinki
/
WBFO News
Daysi Ball, Buffalo Federation of Neighborhood Centers senior services director, leads the Aging Mastery Program at the Westminster Community House Feb. 14, 2022.

“So the apartment, the classes here, everything is helping me get back to normal,” she said.

The director of the Aging Mastery program, Daysi Ball, said Buffalo Federation of Neighborhood Centers, the nonprofit that runs both the community house and connecting affordable housing complex, wanted older adults like Newsome to have a place to get advice.

“Whether you're living in this building or you're living in the City of Buffalo proper, we want to be able to be that resource for you,” she said. “You can come here, and we'll try to help you navigate these complex situations.”

And Black older adults face disproportionately complex situations.

Areport last year by the National Caucus and Center on Black Aging found Black older Americans are more likely to have chronic health conditions and die prematurely than white older Americans, while at the same time, they're less likely to have large retirement savings and own their own home. They’re even more likely to end up in substandard nursing homes.

In Buffalo, where 37% of U.S.-born older adults are Black, the largest share of any city in New York state, those inequities are also present.

“On the East Side of Buffalo, you have some of the worst health outcomes in the United States of America,” said Pastor George Nicholas, chairperson of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity.

His center is looking to buck troubling trends in the city, like predominantly Black zip codes that the state has designated ascancer clusters and where life expectancy is as low as 60 years old.

Nicholas said the key to that will be tackling the social determinants of health, defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as environment, education, economics, health care and community. Black people often lag behind white people in these categories throughout their lives due to systemic racism, so they end up sicker and poorer as they get older.

“As the aging process goes on, those disparities are very pronounced,” Nicholas said. “I think it’s about looking at creating innovative solutions that will address root causes.”

The Westminster Community House is a former immigrant settlement house turned community center on Buffalo's East Side. Connected to the building is Westminster Commons, an 84-unit senior affordable housing complex.
Tom Dinki
/
WBFO News
The Westminster Community House is a former immigrant settlement house turned community center on Buffalo's East Side. Connected to the building is Westminster Commons, an 84-unit senior affordable housing complex.

It’s also crucial to make sure Black older adults don’t lose whatever wealth they do have. The Center for Elder Law and Justice, a Buffalo nonprofit legal agency, holds annual estate planning clinics targeted at Black older adults, as they’re less likely to have wills.

“I think it is really important that those communities understand that what they have should be transferred to the next generation,” said the agency’s CEO, Karen Nicholson.

CELJ is particularly focused on making sure Buffalo’s Black older adults don’t lose their home equity, especially in the Fruit Belt neighborhood where the city’s medical corridor is expanding.

“There's a whole community there that's being displaced, and it's really important that they understand the value of the assets that they have and not sell their properties for less than they're worth,” Nicholson said.

There’s been increased attention on inequities at the local, state and federal levels. Erie County created anOffice of Health Equity in this year’s budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul included an equity agenda in her recent State of the State, while President Joe Biden created a national health equity task force last year.

Nicholas has found it encouraging.

“And so while I'm concerned with the current conditions of Black people, and specifically seniors, I'm also encouraged because I see some movement and some efforts to address those issues,” he said.

For Newsome, she’s appreciative of being able to age in her own neighborhood at the community house. She has fond childhood memories of participating in girl scouts and roller skating there.

“I'm hoping that all the things that they want to do with the building, I hope that it does come,” she said. “Everything that they want to have for not just seniors, just people, especially people of color.”

Tom Dinki joined WBFO in August 2019 to cover issues affecting older adults.
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