The Commission on the Needs of Elderly Virginians was created in 1973, pursuant to the provisions of House Joint Resolution No. 175, which expressed the concern of the General Assembly for "... the availability of needed services, facilities and other benefits so that elderly residents of the Commonwealth may maintain themselves in dignity and have adequate care." It has been the purpose of the Commission to identify and study the existing needs and potential problems facing Virginia's elderly citizens and to advocate and support, when deemed in the best interests of the elderly and the Commonwealth, proposals to meet these needs and assist in solving the problems. This year, the Commission has concentrated its efforts in the area of health care and has sought to recommend the most appropriate and least restrictive atmospheres for provision of health care services and related home services to the frail elderly. Wherever feasible, the Commission has recommended non-institutional alternatives as preferable to institutional placement, believing that such alternative placement represents the desires of the majority of the elderly and that it is the most cost beneficial placement, which benefits would necessarily be passed along to the individual taxpayer.

During the past three and one-half years, the Commission has held ten public hearings throughout the State, meeting with approximately two thousand interested citizens and hearing testimony from over two hundred persons. The information received at these meetings assisted the Commission greatly in identifying the most critical needs of the elderly in Virginia. Transportation, home care and tax relief figured most often in the areas of need mentioned at the hearings. Underlying these and many other problem situations faced by the elderly are the basic factors of low income and inadequate housing. An estimated 621,683 persons aged sixty and over reside in Virginia.(*1) By 1980, an estimated 685,395 persons over the age of sixty will be living in Virginia, which will amount to approximately 13 percent of the State's total population.(*2) Twenty-nine percent of persons over the age of sixty-five have incomes below the established poverty level, which is approximately $2,800 annually, and ten percent of the elderly have incomes just barely above the poverty level.(*3)

Since its creation in 1973, the Commission has sponsored and supported several proposals, aimed at meeting the needs of the elderly, which it feels have been significant. Foremost among these proposals was that which resulted in the creation of the Virginia Office on Aging in 1974. The Office on Aging is the officially recognized State agency to administer programs and services under the Older Americans Act. Under the most able direction of Edwin L. Wood, the Office on Aging has grown to represent professionalism in the field of aging and has proven a very effective advocate for Virginia's aging population. The most extensive and detailed aging reports in this and many other states have been researched and published by this Office and reflect the expertise and professional ability represented in its staff.

Transportation for the elderly is a major concern of the Commission and was among those needs mentioned most often by speakers at the Commission's public hearings. As a result of the Commission's desire to increase the mobility of the elderly, Senate Bill No. 888 was proposed and subsequently passed by the 1975 General Assembly. This bill allowed for the public use of school busses for non-school purposes, when not being used for the transportation of school children. Also, Commission members were responsible for the proposal of House Joint Resolution No. 208, which was passed by the 1977 General Assembly, requesting the Governor's Council on Transportation to study the transportation needs of the elderly.

Aware of skyrocketing property taxes and the acute effects on the elderly with low and fixed incomes, the Commission undertook a study of property tax relief for the elderly in 1975. Due to the fiscal problems facing the State at the time, it was impossible for such relief to be considered by the 1976 General Assembly. It is the feeling of the Commission that some form of tax relief should be initiated in the Commonwealth.

The Commission has sponsored legislation which would have increased taxable income deductions for spouses of federal retirees. While this specific bill did not pass in 1975, such deductions were granted the following year. A State Center on Aging at Virginia Commonwealth University was proposed by the Commission in 1975, but did not pass at that time as it was felt that such a proposal should be studied first by the State Council o!! Higher Education and the higher educational community as a whole. This year, satisfied that proper study has been made, the Commission is again recommending that a State Center on Aging be established.

In 1976, the Commission sponsored a bill which would have established a retirement review board, amending Virginia's compulsory retirement laws, and supported legislation which succeeded in removing some restrictions pertaining to the advertisement of prices for eyeglasses and prescription drugs.

While the Commission is concerned about the major housing problems facing the elderly, time constraints did not permit the Commission to delve into a housing study. The Commission is aware of the work of the Office on Housing and the Virginia Housing Developmental Authority and recommends to the General Assembly that any recommendations in this area be considered and expanded upon where necessary in an effort to solve the problems represented by inadequate housing.
_________________________________________________
1. Virginia's Direction in Aging ... A Timely Matter, Virginia Office on Aging, 1976, p. 31.
2. Ibid., p. 31.
3. Ibid., p. 220.