From Housing to Legal Aid to Transportation, Commission on Aging Seeks to Expand Services as Senior Population Grows

From its humble beginnings in 1975 providing a handful of outdoor services, the Grand Traverse County Commission on Aging (COA) has grown to offer everything from in-home health care to transportation assistance to caregiver relief for hundreds of local seniors. But with a historically large senior population on deck as baby boomers enter retirement, COA is looking to expand even further – exploring everything from a housing collaborative to keep seniors out of homelessness to legal aid to combat scammers to companionship visits to deter isolation and loneliness.

COA Director Lana Payne gave an update to county commissioners this week as the board passed a resolution commemorating the organization’s 50th anniversary. COA originally started as a small outfit offering lawn maintenance, leaf and snow removal, window washing, and house cleaning services to county residents over 60. The program grew significantly after voters approved a millage in 1988 – which has since been repeatedly renewed and currently runs through 2032 – to help fund operations. Today, COA has 44 employees who – along with vendors and contractors – completed nearly 13,000 visits for outdoor services and almost 18,000 in-home visits for personal care and household services in 2024.

COA’s goal is to help seniors “live safer, longer lives in their own homes,” according to Payne. A resident’s income determines the amount they’ll pay for services – with about 75 percent receiving services free of charge. The remaining 25 percent pay discounted rates that are “still greatly less” than market rates, Payne said. COA had a $3.6 million budget in 2024, the majority of which came from the millage and a small portion from donations and service charges. COA has a $2.5 million fund balance, which staff are planning to spend down through the future expansion of services.

Part of that expansion will come with the buildout of the county’s LaFranier campus, called Project Alpha. That project – currently in design development – will include a new central operations building that will include room for COA’s outdoor services. Payne said that space will allow COA to add three more employees and buy more maintenance equipment for outdoor services. Over 200 seniors are on a wait list now for snow removal services, with nearly 200 waiting to receive window washing services and more than 30 waiting for lawn and leaf services.

Over 200 seniors are also on a wait list for in-home services. “Wait lists have always been a challenge,” Payne said, “but we’ve done a lot to address those over the last few years.” The in-home wait list topped 300 seniors last year, “so we’re making progress,” Payne said. “We’re slowly getting additional staff into that program. Our goal of course is to not have wait lists.” One of the most challenging positions to recruit and retain has been home cleaners, Payne said, but recent wage hikes have helped on that front. “You have to have the heart for working with seniors to really stick, and primarily our folks do,” she added. Addressing staffing now is important because “certainly as the senior community grows, there will be more and more of a need for (services),” Payne said.

COA – which moved from West Front Street last year into the Area Agency on Aging of Northwest Michigan building on Park Drive, providing a one-stop shop for seniors – is also exploring additional service offerings. One of those is housing assistance, with high rental rates and low vacancies affecting the elderly population along with the rest of the community. “There’s not enough housing, there’s not enough low-income housing, and they’re on fixed incomes,” Payne said. “So their apartment rents are going up, they’re getting to the point where they can’t afford them.” Payne said lot rents at mobile home parks have also “increased incredibly,” with seniors calling COA saying they can’t afford their homes and are facing eviction.

Payne said Safe Harbor reported 19 seniors in its emergency shelter this year, “and the number they’re seeing in the homeless population is increasing.” Accordingly, COA has joined with other local agencies – including the Grand Traverse County Senior Center Network, Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency, Housing North, Traverse City Housing Commission, and PACE North – to launch the Grand Traverse Senior Housing Collaborative. That group is focusing on two areas: exploring national trends in senior housing that could be implemented in Traverse City, such as tiny homes, and investigating a shared housing program.  

Payne pointed to Washtenaw County – which is preparing to launch such a program – as a reference point. The program aims to match seniors who have extra space in their homes with those seeking housing, such as college students or young professionals. In addition to companionship, benefits of the program can include a younger, more able-bodied tenant providing help with household chores in exchange for lower rent. The program includes background checks, home visits, written agreements, and matchmaking services to ensure participants are a good fit. Payne said COA submitted a grant application to the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation for start-up funds to launch a program here. She envisioned a housing-focused agency running the program, but COA potentially supporting it with millage funds. “So that’s (something) really exciting coming our way,” she said.

COA is also exploring options to provide more transportation support for seniors and their caregivers, as well as to launch a legal assistance program. Payne said seniors are sometimes swindled by scammers or predatory family members convincing them to change their property deeds. The county register of deeds is not allowed to give legal advice but could divert seniors to COA for legal assistance to ensure such a transaction isn’t a scam. COA is also looking to address issues of isolation and loneliness among elderly residents by ramping up companionship visits. “More and more, the research is showing the detriment that comes to your physical health from being isolated and lonely is huge,” she said.

Finally, COA is stepping in to fill the gap when services typically provided by others fall through. The state of Michigan runs the Senior Project Fresh program, which has historically provided seniors with paper coupons to spend at local farmers markets for fresh produce. However, the state recently transitioned to an all-electronic program – creating significant headaches for both seniors and farmers, Payne said. With this year’s rollout repeatedly delayed, COA finally decided to run the program itself for Grand Traverse County and committed $10,000 in funding to provide individual seniors with $50 each in coupons for the season. Participating seniors will receive postcards in the coming weeks with instructions for the program.

Payne said all of the above initiatives point to COA’s efforts to meet a diverse range of needs for a population that will only keep growing in Grand Traverse County. “Over the next ten, twenty, thirty years, there's going to continue to just be an increase of folks who need assistance,” she said. “We want to make sure we're getting prepared for that.”