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Catholic Charities details senior services, ARPA‑backed HomeSafe program and service capacity
Summary
Casey Cura, director of senior services at Catholic Charities, told the commission the agency offers home maintenance, resource navigation and caregiver programs, said HomeSafe Senior Initiative (HSSI) has been supported with Washtenaw County ARPA funds, and estimated their senior‑services department reaches about 1,000 older adults annually.
Casey Cura, director of senior services and quality at Catholic Charities, gave the commission an overview of the agency's senior services and several recent program additions supported in part by Washtenaw County ARPA funds.
Cura said Catholic Charities organizes its work into three buckets: home services (minor repairs, lawn care, snow removal and small home‑safety installations), resource navigation (paper directory, an online Senior Resource Connect tool and resource advocates) and caregiver services (volunteer respite and kinship support for grandparents raising grandchildren). She described the HomeSafe Senior Initiative (HSSI) as an ARPA‑funded effort to bridge mild‑to‑moderate repair needs that fall short of major home modification eligibility.
"Our department reaches about 1,000 older adults with all of the services combined, annually," Cura said, summarizing scale. She noted the grandparents‑raising‑grandchildren program receives about $15,000 annually and has served roughly 27 kinship caregivers this fiscal year.
Cura described capacity limits: some volunteer‑dependent programs have wait lists (for example, volunteer respite), and the agency maintains a small core field staff (two FTE for maintenance technicians plus a manager for home services and a four‑person resource navigation team). Commissioners asked about funding stability; Cura said much of the agency's work relies on AgeWays contracts and federal funding streams and that leadership is pursuing private funding and potential reimbursement pathways for services such as case management.
Other programs Cura highlighted included evidence‑based trainings (elder‑abuse prevention, online safety), a medication toolkit informed by Beers criteria, a six‑week 'Seniors for Healthy Choices' wellness series and the RSVP AmeriCorps volunteer program, which provides placement and volunteer insurance. Cura said the agency partners with more than 40 nonprofits countywide and is working to expand outreach beyond the Ypsilanti area toward western parts of the county.
Commissioners praised the programs and requested cost estimates and more granular service volume data to inform conversations about millage allocations and potential county support. Cura agreed to provide general cost estimates and any available analytics to help with planning.
