101-Year-Old Woman Shocked After Eviction From Santa Rosa Senior Facility
SANTA ROSA (CBS SF) -- A 101-year-old woman in Sonoma County who was recently evicted from a high-end retirement home is putting a new face to the Bay Area's housing crisis.
101-year-old Mabel Barnfield and her 90-year-old sister Betty James are learning first hand how stories of older residents becoming victims of the greater Bay Area's brutal housing crunch are not uncommon.
"The eviction shocked the hell out of me and I thought, 'Are they really going to do this to us?'" asked James.
Brookdale Fountaingrove is a private luxury senior living facility in Santa Rosa. Barnfield sold her home so that she could afford the $7,000 per month rent. She's been living at Brookdale since 2013, but she recently ran out of money and ended up in eviction court.
"She couldn't pay her rent, so her social security was $1,300. But they wouldn't accept that, so they sent it back," James said.
Brookdale released a statement saying in part, "The leadership and staff at the community went above and beyond to work with Ms. Barnfield to find an appropriate setting to care for her needs and meet her financial situation... Our staff has cared for her and wanted the best outcome for her...Since this community is not Medi-Cal certified, it cannot accept Medi-Cal as a form of payment."
"One of the things the public might find surprising about this case is that it's not unusual," said Ronit Rubinoff, Executive Director of Legal Aid of Sonoma County.
Legal Aid helped Barnfield find a new care facility in Novato that accepts Medi-Cal. Rubinoff says Legal Aid of Sonoma County is handling hundreds of cases of elder eviction right now and expects the caseload will increase with the aging population.
In 2010 the percentage of the population of Sonoma County over the age of 60 was 21 percent. By 2020, that number is expected to jump to 29 percent. It is projected to hit 38 percent by 2045.
"We don't think that we're going to get to that age and need to look for a roof over our head, and we need to address that squarely," Rubinoff said.
James says she thinks her sister is one of the lucky ones because she had support. She knows she couldn't have done it alone.
"That's for sure. She could've never got through it without them," James said.
Betty and Mabel have been close their entire lives, Betty used to visit her sister multiple times a week but now that Mabel has been moved to Novato, their visits will become less frequent.
