Submitted by Lori Ramsdell.
Recently the city of Tacoma had articles published regarding their plan to close the Beacon and Lighthouse and Beacon Senior Centers on December 31st. They painted a rosy picture. The truth is, any decision to close these two centers will be extremely detrimental to the Senior Citizens that utilize these centers daily. We strongly oppose the city’s effort to balance their budget on the back of our seniors.
On October 28th Council Members Sadalge and Rumbaugh met with seniors at the Lighthouse to hear their concerns. Every chair was filled with seniors and they were not shy about sharing their opposition to the closure of the Lighthouse and Beacon Senior Centers. The city plan is to have Metropolitan Parks Tacoma begin offering activities at each of their 4 community centers. For numerous reasons we do not believe this is a plan that will benefit Seniors. We are doing everything we can to let the city know this is a bad idea!! Whether they listen to us remains to be seen.
Please let your local city council member know you support our effort to keep these senior centers open.
Research shows that the Mental Health of Seniors is supported by good nutrition, physical activity, and socialization. All three are currently provided in the Senior Centers. With many Seniors living alone these safe gathering places are essential.
Along with activities there are meal programs provided at these Senior Centers that help Seniors offset the ever increasing cost of groceries. Increasing food and prescription drug costs may force some Seniors to choose between medications or food. What is the rationale behind this decision?
The city is experiencing a 24-million-dollar shortage of funds. They plan on paying metropolitan parks to add some senior activities at their community centers and this will cost less than it does to run the Beacon and Lighthouse senior centers. They are totally missing the mark as to the importance of these senior centers to our lives. The Beacon is already housing the homeless downstairs and I am pretty sure this will be expanded to the entire building once they kick the seniors out. They haven’t shared what they plan to do with the Lighthouse building but I doubt they will let it sit empty. I imagine they will either sell it or make it another homeless shelter as that is their focus.