It’s just about lunch time at the Goddard Senior Center when a familiar face walks in.
Melvin Ormiston is here for a fresh meal and the smiles and conversation that come with it.
“I started coming here about six months ago,” said Ormiston, whose wife passed away last year. “It gets me out of the house, and most of the meals are very good.”
Ormiston is one of thousands of senior center members in Sedgwick County. The centers date back to the early 1980s, when voters approved a ballot initiative by nearly 2-to-1 to fund aging services.
Today, those centers provide services like meals, exercise classes and social events for people 55 and up.
“It gets people out of their recliners and out, and they meet people,” Ormiston said. “And socialization, I think, is always good for, especially older people.”
Members of the Sedgwick County Commission agree senior centers are essential services worth funding. What they haven’t been able to agree on over the years is how to fund them.
With funds lagging behind inflation in recent budgets, officials are looking into new options for divvying up money to the county’s 19 senior centers.
Rising community demand
Traditionally, senior services have helped elderly people stay active and out of assisted living facilities. But now, they also play a role in keeping elderly people from becoming homeless.
Since 2020, United Way of the Plains told KMUW it’s seen a more than 150% jump in people 65 and older seeking housing resources – more than three times the increase among the general population.
One report predicts the number of homeless seniors in the U.S. will double in the next five years, as part of a so-called “Gray Wave.”
And data indicates the county is getting older. About 11% of the county was over 65 in 2010. That percentage is set to double over the next 35 years.
“Our seniors are sort of set to the side, and that has always bothered me,” said Ella Hawk, director of the Goddard Senior Center. “I think they should be elevated, not ignored.”
Hawk said community demand for senior services in Goddard was clear from the start.
The Goddard Senior Center began about a year ago with around 20 people. Now, there are more than 300 active members.
“We've had people come in [and] literally say, ‘You've saved my life,’” Hawk said. “‘I have a reason to get up in the morning. I have friends. I have people I know will check in on me if I'm not there.’”
Renewed funding discussion
The center in Goddard originally got about $6,000 from the county. But the need for services quickly grew beyond that budget, and the center had to ask for more money.
Starting in 2006, county commissioners used a six-tiered, performance based system to determine the funding for each senior center. Centers received more funding based on membership and the amount of services provided.
But that model has been frozen since about 2017, when commissioners disagreed on whether the system was fair.
The commission recently renewed the discussion after 3rd District Commissioner Stephanie Wise asked staff to look into options for funding criteria.
“When you don’t have a framework in place, it really does feel like you’re just picking winners and losers,” she told KMUW.
Wise is in her first term and was not on the commission when members voted to freeze the previous funding criteria.
She said whatever criteria the commission uses moving forward should remain performance-based. Wise also said she would like to see cities with senior centers financially support them, too. That’s already the case for some cities, like Derby and Goddard.
Fifth District Commissioner Jim Howell, a commission member since 2015, said he would prefer to use the original model instead of creating a new one. He also said current county funds are not meeting community demand.
“I think that the services needed should drive the dollars we put into the program. That really is not what happens,” he said. “Today, we just say, ‘Well, what did we do last year? Let’s kind of do that number again.’”
Howell suggested a citizens advisory council would be better suited to deliberate over the funds for each senior center, rather than the county commission. He said that could help eliminate some of what he described as “politics” in previous debates.
Howell also provided data indicating overall funding for senior centers has lagged behind inflation in recent years.
Funding for senior centers in 2005, for example, was $531,991.
In 2024, that would amount to about $860,383. But funding that year was nearly $120,000 short of that.
Commissioners brought total funds more in line with inflation during the most recent budget process by adding $50,000 to the amount recommended by the county manager.
Staff are expected to present potential funding models for senior centers in time for next year’s budget. That could determine the level of service Sedgwick County seniors can expect for years to come.
Back in Goddard, the people who run the senior center hope to expand to a bigger space and develop a transportation system – all with the goal of maintaining a tight-knit community and better serving the seniors they see every day.
“It’s just an amazing community,” said Carol Duran, kitchen manager at the Goddard Senior Center. “Everybody pulls together. If one person needs [something], another person will step in.
“We just help each other. And we don’t leave anybody behind.”
