1. City of Cleveland Department of Aging

2. Department’s Mission
The Department of Aging is committed to ensuring Cleveland is an age-friendly community by enhancing the quality of life for Cleveland’s seniors and adults with disabilities through advocacy, planning, service coordination and the delivery of needed services.

3. What do we do? Social Services Home Repair and Maintenance
Safety Programs
Special Events

5. Age- Friendly Cleveland’s Vision:
Cleveland seeks to become so age-friendly that current older residents desire to remain, former residents wish to return to the City, and the City can recruit additional older residents based on the age friendly aspects of Cleveland and its neighborhoods.
Mention definition of Age Friendly according to WHO page 6 in the plan

6. Application approved by the World Health Organization in 2014; 1st in OH
Invited by AARP to join AARP Network of Age Friendly Communities in 2015
Assessment Complete in 2015: Eight domain groups
Planning Summit in 2016 with 120 stakeholders
Development of Age Friendly Action Plan completed in 2016
Implementation, Evaluation and Continuous Improvement in 2017 and beyond
Five Part Age Friendly Cycle

7. Community Plan Input from over 1000 older adults
34 members of the Age Friendly Advisory Council
9 member of Executive Committee with representation from City (4), CWRU, Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging, Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging, Fairhill Partners, Senior Transportation Connection
Foundation support from Cleveland Foundation, McGregor Foundation and St. Luke’s Foundation

8. 17.7 percent of Cleveland’s population is aged 60 and over.
Representing 25% of total population of seniors in Cuyahoga County.

9. Ward 1 (Lee-Miles) has the greatest concentration of older adults.

10. More than half of Cleveland’s older adults earned less than $25,000.
Householder Income, Age 65+, Cleveland, Ohio
Householder Income, 65+ %
Less than $10,000
15.5%
$10,000 to $14,999
16.2%
$15,000 to $19,999
13.8%
$20,000 to $24,999
11.0%
$25,000 to $29,999
7.4%
$30,000 to $34,999
5.9%
$35,000 to $39,999
5.2%
$40,000 to $44,999
4.9%
$45,000 to $49,999
2.6%
$50,000 to $59,999
5.1%
$60,000 to $74,999
4.6%
$75,000 to $99,999
4.2%
$100,000 to $124,999
1.5%
$125,000 to $149,999
1.0%
$150,000 to $199,999
0.6%
$200,000 or more
Counts social security and retirement income:
Wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, or tips from all jobs
Self-employment income from own nonfarm business or farm business
Interest, dividends, net rental income, royalty income, or income from estates and trusts
Social Security or Railroad Retirement
Supplemental Security Income
Any public assistance or welfare payments
Retirement, survivor, or disability pensions
Any other sources of income received regularly, such as VA payments, unemployment compensation, child support, or alimony
DO NOT include lump sum payments such as money from an inheritance or the sale of a home.
Source: American Community Survey.

11. Overall, 21.7 percent of Cleveland residents over age 60 live in poverty.
Highest concentration in Wards 3 and 5: Downtown, Central, Kinsman, Fairfax. High all over the city – lowest is 9.2%
Social Security keeps many older adults out of poverty, so 21.7% compared to 35.4% for all ages.

12. One fifth of Cleveland older adults are working or seeking work.

13. for Housing in Cleveland, Ohio
Older adults who rent struggle more than homeowners with unaffordable housing.
Older Adults Paying More than 30% of Income
for Housing in Cleveland, Ohio
37.9%
53.3%
63.8% of non-institutional senior households live in housing units that they own themselves.
Renters struggle more with housing affordability than owners. The median rent for a senior in Cleveland is $533 per month; to afford this rent, a household needs to have an annual income of about $21,400, or $3,808 more than the average annual Social Security benefit.
Source: American Community Survey.

14. More than one-third of Cleveland’s older adults live alone.
39% live alone, 42% live with spouse, 5% in group quarters – most often nursing facilities.
Living alone at greater risk for isolation. Those living alone spread across the city, most heavily concentrated in Ward 5, which also happens to have high senior poverty rate.

15. Compared to seniors nationally, more Cleveland seniors intend to live alone.
Compared to seniors nationally, Cleveland Seniors are more likely to intend to age in place and more prefer living alone. However, they are more concerned about being able to stay in their current home for as long as they’d like. About half of seniors answered yes to the question, “Do you feel your community – meaning the city/town you live in – is doing enough to prepare for the needs of a growing senior population?”
Phone survey of adults 60+ conducted during spring 2014.
In our survey, 80% said it was very important to remain in their home as they age, and 14% said it was somewhat important.
63% said it was very important to remain in their neighborhood as they hage, 28% somewhat important.

16. According to Medical Examiner records, falls are the second most common mode of death for Clevelanders over age 60.
Most Common Mode of Death Among Clevelanders Ages 60+,
Rank
Mode of Death
Number of Deaths 1
Disease of the Circulatory System (e.g. heart failure, stroke, hypertension, etc.)
2,589 2
Fall on the Same Level (a slip, trip, or fall where the individual impacts the survey or an object at the same level or above the survey on which they are standing)
656 3
Neoplasms (Cancer, tumors)
146 4
Disease of the Respiratory System (pneumonia, influenza, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, etc.)
124 5
Therapeutic Complications (predictable complications of appropriate medical therapy) 91
ONLY deaths reported to medical examiner. Represents approximately 68% of all deaths in Cuyahoga County. “Any person dies as a result of criminal or other violent means, by casualty, by suicide or in any suspicious or unusual manner.”
Other includes: Suicides, Homicides, Vehicular Accidents, Violence, Undetermined
Source: Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Death Records,

17. Age Friendly Cleveland Assessment
Focused on identifying needs,
resources, and gaps.
External data sources (Census, 211, etc.)
Comprehensive Representative Survey
Outreach Questionnaire
Focus Groups

18. 283 random sample surveys were returned.
Surveys came back from across the city. (DOTS are randomly placed in their zip code.)
As a reminder, we used the voter registration database from the Ohio Secretary of State to pull our sample.
When compared the demographic information from these respondents to the older adult population as a whole, they line up well – which tells us our sampling worked.

19. The racial and ethnic breakdown of the survey sample mirrors the city.
According to US Census, 4% of older adults in Cleveland are Hispanic of any race. Our respondent pool was 5% Hispanic or Latino. There are about 39% non-Hispanic whites, so we are very pleased with the racial makeup of our sample.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, year Estimates

20. We received feedback across income levels.
NOTE THAT BETWEEN $40-$100K, breakdowns don’t line up. Also, population is for 65+.
Total population 56.5% less than $25,000. Our sample 51.5%. Our sample has smaller share in the high income brackets: 5.2% vs. 7.8% however, could be skewed because 14% said “they’d rather not say”.
Source: American Community Survey.

21. About half of older adults said Cleveland is Age-Friendly.
Only 11% said Cleveland was a poor/very poor place for people to age. Lots think it’s good or excellent, a large # in the moderate – this presents an opportunity to get people to move from neutral to good.
Split into 3 age categories – lower income, more likely to rate it as a poor or very poor place to grow old. Not able to take advantage of City’s amenities, but probably would be much worse without support programs have in place.

22. Outdoor Spaces & Buildings
Assets
Parks
Accessible Public Buildings
Challenges
Sidewalks
Benches
Public Toilets
As we shift into feedback on specific domains – important to note that this represents impression of age-friendly features of Cleveland. In some cases, services or assets may exist, but older adults are not aware of them or do not use them.
Parks are identified by many older adults as an asset.
Poor sidewalk conditions were widely cited as a challenge that poses a safety risk to older adults.

23. Transportation
Transportation is something which is an asset in Cleveland % said “I have no problems getting around”.
Although majority in both age groups drive themselves, younger older adults more likely to do so. Those over age 75 are about twice as likely to be driven by friends or family.
Many respondents indicated more than one transportation method.
5% of those over age 75 said they “don’t go out”.

24. Housing s
Maintaining outside of home more problematic than inside of their home. Home modification – likely needed, but few have actually done it. Or plan to.
We asked a question in the health & Community Services section: “If you had to move out of your home due to health or mobility issues, do you feel confident that you could find a care facility or nursing home to meet your needs?” 56 percent said they were not sure. Only 27.5 percent said yes. Without a clear idea of the community’s options for institutional care, older adults may remaining living along in their home for longer than recommended. Not knowing where to go could contribute to stress.

25. Frequent Participation
Social Participation
Assets
Range of activities
Frequent Participation
Challenges
Cost
Location
Around 40% said that they “rarely or never” participation in social or community events.
But among those that do, there is variation among the types of activities in which they currently participate, or those in which they have interest, there’s a lot of variation.
The 3 most popular activities – in which more than half participate – are not things that agencies organize. The bigger the red, the greater the number of people who said they would like to participate – presents some opportunities.
For this domain in particular, we think it’s less about what is available, and more about outreach, awareness, and encouraging participation by older adults.
And in this domain, in particular, it seemed there were lots of barriers. We got more “not sure” responses in this domain than any other one. Less than half the respondents said they had access to conveniently located venues for entertainment.

26. Respect & Social Inclusion
Nearly half of Cleveland older adults report feeling connected to their communities, and adjustments to the times of activities offered would help increase feelings of connectedness.
Should note – we asked this same question on the outreach survey and we suspect we’ll get different results.

27. Civic Participation & Employment
Health issues & perceived age discrimination were top 2 challenges older adults reported.

28. Communication & Information
Not a surprise – older adults in Cleveland have a variety of preferences about how they receive an consume information about community programs and services, as well as how they communicated with friends, family, and service providers.
Internet usage – one of strongest differences between income groups. 93% highest income have access, 81% middle income, only 49% lower income.

29. Community Supports and Health Services
We asked respondents to indicate their overall health status, and it tracked very closely with information from other sources – just anecdotally, it seems the outreach survey responses are also more negative in this domain. Low income people more likely to rate their overall heatlh as being “poor”.
This chart you see larger grey bars – reflects that many older adults appear to be unsure about the availability of health and community supports, which may indicate the need for more education and outreach.

30. Year One Strategies Senior Companions Falls Prevention Campaign
Medical Equipment Exchange
Age Friendly Event Planning Guide
Falls Prevention Campaign
Age Friendly Checklist in City Planning
Call in Senior Center

31. Year Two Strategies Home Repair Coordination Long Term Care Continuum
Age Friendly Business Certification
Safe Biking Classes for Older Riders and Drivers
Mature Worker Campaign
Home Repair Coordination
Long Term Care Continuum
Transit Oriented Development

32. Year Three Strategies Access to Cultural Events Age in Place Handyman
Snow Removal Coordination
Access to Technology
Access to Cultural Events
ADA/Vehicle Listing
Encouraging Gardening

33. Ongoing Strategies Address Safety Concerns of Older Adults
Support Other Initiatives
Sustain the Age Friendly Cleveland Initiative

34. For more information contact:
Angela Niemiec, Aging Services Administrator, Age Friendly CLE
Mary McNamara
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