PEABODY — The Council on Aging (PCOA) is asking the city to change its legal address to separate the agency from Peabody Housing Authority (PHA) and Seeglitz Senior Housing, which representatives say will put an end to wrong-address deliveries and missed rides for elders.
Carolyn A. Wynn, executive director of the PCOA, and Ann Marie Burns, executive director of PHA, wrote letters to Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt Jr. and members of the City Council in early September to request the address change.
The PCOA is located at Peter A. Torigian Senior Center, which was built in 1991 on the PHA land. The legal address for PHA offices and building is 75-81 Central St. and the PHA has a ground lease for the Senior Center with the city.
For more than 20 years since the construction of the Senior Center, its address was listed as 79 Central St., clearly distinguishing it from the PHA building at 75 Central St. Several years ago, when the Senior Center requested a permit for a new sign for the entrance, they were told that they could not list their address as 79 Central St. and that it had to be 75R Central St.
The current legal address of the Senior Center creates confusion for its clients, for mail and package delivery, and for transportation providers, according to PCOA representatives.
“Most disturbing is that participants from our Adult Day Health program that utilize the RIDE program have been dropped off at 75 Central St.,” said Wynn in a letter to the city.
On one occasion, a senior from Malden who attended a Thursday morning dance and was ready to go home at 11:30 a.m., was not picked up until 4 p.m. The RIDE sent three separate cars that all waited at the PHA at 75 Central St. and left reporting to the dispatch center that the person was a “no show.” An employee of the PCOA had to wait outside of the PHA and direct the fourth car to the Senior Center.
“If they were from our Peabody area, our transportation service, Mobility, would have brought them home. We wouldn’t let him sit around for so long,” said Wynn.
“It really illustrates the situation, and I can understand the confusion,” Wynn added. “Many people trying to get here, if they google it, often end up on the other side over at the Housing Authority.”
The City of Peabody has its own transportation service, Project Mobility, that provides door-to-door transportation for seniors over 60 years old and people with disabilities. But clients from outside of Peabody and the four surrounding towns have to use taxis, Uber or the RIDE service, Wynn said.
The last Census has shown that more than 36 percent of Peabody’s population is over 60 years old, said Wynn. On any given day, 300 to 400 people visit the Senior Center, attending classes and activities, the Adult Day Health program, or the lunch program. Another few hundred get transported to appointments outside of the Senior Center.
The Senior Center also receives mail that should be delivered to PHA and vice versa on a daily basis. Wynn said that several staff members spend a lot of time sorting through mail and tracking deliveries that were sent to the wrong address. Packages for the Senior Center, including food items for the nutrition program, are left over the weekend at the PHA door or in the lobby of the senior housing wing. Posting signs has not remedied the situation, Burns wrote.
“We are also very specific with 911 dispatchers when we need to call, saying that we are calling from the senior center behind 75 Central St.,” Wynn wrote.
Wynn is hoping that the matter will be resolved at the next City Council meeting, which is scheduled for Oct. 14.
