The Nation - News from Jan. 17, 1986

A private foundation announced it will spend $5 million in the next three years to determine ways to help the 8 million elderly people who live alone in the United States.”As a group, elderly people who live alone are significantly poorer, older and more disabled and discouraged than the over-65 population as a whole,” said Dr. Robert Butler, who will head a 19-member commission, created by the Commonwealth Fund in New York to study the problem. The group of elderly who live alone includes a higher proportion of women, people over age 75 and those with incomes below the poverty level, the commission said. Karen Davis of Johns Hopkins University said resources for aiding the elderly already exist. The commission will set up demonstration projects across the country and “based on our evaluation of the success of these projects, we will then promote their use as national models for helping elderly people living alone,” she said.