Three Philadelphia nonprofits get $4M from Pew Charitable Trusts to help older adults
SeniorLAW Center, Pathways to Housing PA, and the Health Federation will split the funding.
Three Philadelphia-area nonprofits will receive a combined $4 million in grant funding from Pew Charitable Trusts to offer housing and legal representation to the region’s seniors.
Pathways to Housing PA, which works with unhoused people with mental illness and addiction in Philadelphia, will receive $2.5 million over five years to increase its affordable housing units and renovate them with “assistive technology,” such as devices that automatically dispense medicine, Pew said in a statement. The funding will also go towards supporting people with substance use disorder and workforce training.
The Health Federation of Philadelphia will receive $250,000 over two years for a program that will partner with the city to bring behavioral health and other medical services to older adults in two area nursing homes. Nursing homes in general have “historically been unable to meet the complex needs of older adults with serious mental illnesses,” Pew said, contributing to higher rates of in homelessness, hospital visits, and criminal cases for that population.
The SeniorLAW Center, a nonprofit that advocates for the legal rights of seniors, will receive $1.25 million over five years to increase its client base and improve its intake process.
Pew said that the U.S. Census Bureau found in 2022 that 1 in 5 Philadelphians were above the age of 60, a 25% increase from its 2011 count, and about 20% live in poverty.
“Older Philadelphians, particularly those with low incomes or suffering from mental illness or substance use disorder, are a population that is too often overlooked,” Kristin Romens, the project director for Pew’s Fund for Health and Human Services in Philadelphia, said in the statement. “With these grants, Pew is supporting organizations that are dedicated to helping seniors thrive.”