Wallingford Senior Center will likely close Nov. 1

The Wallingford Senior Center, a fixture in the neighborhood's historic Good Shepherd Center, is likely closing its doors Nov. 1, victim of the sour economy and troublesome fundraising.

"The senior center is not well funded, and when the economy tanked, it made it worse," Director Kathleen Cromp said. "The financial situation is intractable, and this is a year when we could not get traction with fundraising."

For those who use the senior center, the news is devastating.

"I hate to see it close," said Szilagyi Laszlo, who plays bridge at the center every Tuesday. He said he wasn't surprised by the decision, "but the poorest people have to suffer all the time."

Helen Modie takes her 93-year-old mother, Dorothy Healy, to the senior center to play bridge and calls the closure decision tragic.

"This is the kind of thing that keeps minds active," she said. "Senior centers are wonderful for social interacting. It's heartbreaking for it to go away."

Modie dropped off a donation Tuesday, knowing it probably won't keep the center open. "I'd be happy to pay anything for it not to go away," Modie said. "Seniors are the forgotten group in our society."

The center's board voted to close the center Nov. 1, and it will go to a full membership vote Oct. 6, but Cromp doesn't see any way the center can remain open.

This comes at a time when the city's senior population is growing and, according to a city report, by 2011 those 60 and over will represent one-fifth of the city population. That's a 38 percent growth from 2000.

Center has to pay rent

The center was founded in 1979 and serves 1,500 people a year.

Unlike other senior centers, the Wallingford Center is not affiliated with other agencies. And unlike many centers, it has to pay rent, to Historic Seattle, which owns the Good Shepherd Center.

Cromp said her center owes Historic Seattle about $70,000 in back rent and isn't certain whether it can be repaid before it closes.

The center has an annual budget of about $300,000, of which 30 percent comes from the city and 40 percent is supposed to come from private funding. However, last year only about 13 percent came from fundraising, leaving a huge hole in the budget.

Cromp said it would take about $60,000 for the center to continue to operate, which she doesn't see happening. "We would need a couple of years to build our fundraising capacity and city funding for the centers in the city is pretty thin," she said. "We ran out of time and felt the only option was to recommend closure."

The closure would leave seven other senior centers citywide, but only two in North Seattle, Ballard and Greenwood.

"I'm really sad"

At the Wallingford center, visitors play bridge, have meals, exercise, attend computer classes, host a book club and have health and wellness screenings.

"I'm really sad," bridge player Mary Britt said. "This has been beloved for years and years."

Next week, Cromp said, she will reduce her staff by a third to try to save money and close one day a week.

Cromp worries about those who visit her center, for some their only social outing. "That social-connection stuff gets lost in the mix," she said. "Social isolation is a very well-known risk for health and well being.

"Senior centers do provide that gathering place and provide some very basic services. Some people may not have another hot meal that day." She said 43 percent of the population her center serves is low-income.

City Councilman Tom Rasmussen, an advocate for seniors on the council, said senior centers have been struggling to survive. He said the city should do a better job integrating senior centers with other city services, like the parks department.

"Wallingford had a very difficult time for many years," Rasmussen said. "There has not been sufficient community support to keep it going. The city needs to play a stronger role in planning for senior center services."

The closure will have wider repercussions, said Ron Waldman, head of the Meridian School, which shares space in the Good Shepherd Center.

The fourth-graders do dishes for the senior center, and the seniors talk to the students about their lives. "We're losing a relationship," he said, "our friendship."

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com