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Current demographic studies point to the fact that we have an aging population in the US. In the near future, there will not be enough nursing homes and caretakers available to care for the baby boomer generation. Further research shows us that there is the greater need for assistance for widows whose income is at or under the poverty line. Our market research has confirmed this gap in the social and government welfare services for the elderly community which represents an under-served population, that of the poor elderly widows.
As the chief breadwinner for the family, the baby boomer husband held the sole income producing job in the marketplace. Therefore he was able to provide a pension for his retirement. His wife, on the other hand, was the homemaker and most likely was not involved in the overall retirement plan. Upon the death of the husband, his pension plan ended and the wife was left with only social security and what savings they had. Numerous studies confirm this very fact, including the following from David Callahan: “Census Bureau figures indicate that women accounted for 58 percent of the elderly population, but were a full 74 percent of the poor elderly.” “Often, women have not spent significant time in the workforce because they have been busy raising children and otherwise taking care of the home front. This is especially true for women who married in the 1940s and 1950s and are now retired - and often widowed as well. For widows, Social Security pays a survivor's benefit equal to the benefit their husband was receiving. This amount, however, is often grossly inadequate for a person living alone (as opposed to a person who is part of a couple in which a husband is receiving his full benefit and his wife is receiving a wife's benefit equal to half of that). For many elderly women, poverty begins when married life ends. The vast majority of widows in poverty become poor only after their husbands die.”
Of all the southern states that retirees select, Florida is often their choice for retirement for the seasonally warm weather. The retirees come to Central Florida with wonderful dreams of enjoying their retirement together, yet when the husband passes away early, as is often the case, the widow is left alone with most of their family on the other side of the nation. During this time of grief and pain, the widow in this example is not in an emotionally stable condition to begin thinking about moving. Often due to overwhelming depression, the widow cannot find the strength to make good decisions. What she longs for is a place of safety, where people understand what she is going through and care enough about her as a person to help her walk through the decisions she may need to make before the bill collectors come to her door, before the mortgage banker moves to foreclose her home, and before she is admitted to the hospital for chronic depression.
The Widows Refuge International was established in April, 2008, to live out the command of the Bible to “look after … widows in the distress.” As a Christian ministry, our mission is to reach out to the widow with compassion in a holistic manner. |
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