The pool room in the back of the Oak Harbor Senior Center sees a great deal of use, but when a certain group of gentlemen gets together to play, the room echoes with their own brand of ease and familiarity, and their conversations become peppered with laughter and quips.

This is not to say this group doesn’t have a serious side — especially when it comes to discussing senior housing.

While these men, Oak Harbor residents, Bob Seppi, 82, Howard Cleveland, 86, H.L. Basoco, 70, and Scott Weddel, 73, weaved around each other, taking turns at the pool table, they discussed the topic of senior housing in resigned, yet exasperated tones.

“Senior housing is all too damn expensive, as far as I’m concerned,” Cleveland said.

After joking that he was a senior and lived in a house, Seppi agreed with Cleveland’s statement, and said that senior housing options like retirement communities or respite care can cost upwards of $3,000 a month.

In the same vein, Weddel expressed concern for a friend he says pays for housing with Social Security, and only has $15 a month remaining after rent comes due.

“If people are on Social Security, they can’t afford anything,” Weddel said. “No matter where you are.”

On the whole, the men said they felt their community was letting seniors down.

“The city ought to get together to make life a bit more comfortable for senior citizens,” Basoco said.

The rest agreed.

Island County’s Housing Program Coordinator Catherine Reid said she is aware of the challenges that seniors face when trying to afford housing but also knows that in order for seniors to pay rent — or even sign a lease — housing must first be available.

“We do have some senior housing,” Reid said. “CamBey Apartments is not far from us, but that’s full, has a waiting list. Unfortunately, with the senior population, sometimes they don’t become available until people are really ill, or they’ve passed.”

Reid went on to say that in spite of 110 units of public housing — many of which are used by seniors — the county opened Coupeville’s Housing Support Center in response to housing shortages across the board.

Kaci Cheyne, manager of the CamBey Apartments in Coupeville, said she deals with these shortages on a daily basis. A part of the Senior Services of Island County, the CamBey Apartments are HUD-subsidized, with a mission to provide affordable housing for seniors. Yet every unit stands occupied.

“There are 21 people on my waiting list,” Cheyne said. “I have one person that has been on the list for a year and a half.”

In response to these realities, Island County is gearing up to find a solution to the shortage. According to Island County’s Assessment and Healthy Communities Director Laura Luginbill, the senior housing shortage is growing because the population is aging.

Luginbill conducts a report on public health data for Island County every 5 years. Part of this report includes the population demographics of senior citizens. When conducting the breakdown of the population statistics, Luginbill said she found that it was helpful to separate seniors into two categories — “older adults” aged 65-84, and the “elderly” aged 85 years and older.

“In 2005, there were 944 individuals in the 85-plus age bracket,” Luginbill said. “By 2014, there were roughly 2,028 in that group.”

This means that the seniors in the older adult category have aged into the second bracket, becoming elderly, in unprecedented numbers. This is significant, Luginbill said, because those aged 65-84 have different needs than those 85 years or older.

To meet the needs of this aging populace — and to respond to the housing shortage — Luginbill suggested the implementation of “supported housing,” a kind of housing that would provide support ranging from aid in the case of a fall to access to medical personnel.

Reid expanded on the concept of supported housing, something she said was conspicuously missing from Whidbey Island.

“Typically, in the housing world, supported housing is when folks are living independently, but services are available when needed,” she said. “People don’t have to use those services if they choose not to. For seniors, some of that might be having a professional caregiver available or around.”

This is not to say that supported housing equates to assisted living or respite care. Both have their places and uses, but supported housing — categorized more as independent than assisted living — is something that the county is interested in exploring.

“Supported housing really is more of a choice that the tenants can make to seek that support,” Reid said. “Assisted living folks actually need that assistance to live their lives in a way that is more full.”

Reid said that more than just seniors could utilize supported housing. Those with developmental disabilities, substance abuse problems, mental health issues and some Vietnam vets would also be appropriate candidates for such housing. Yet seniors can fall into all of these categories and need support, she said.

Looking forward, Reid said that the county plans to take immediate action on the subject of housing affordability, with more to be revealed on the supported housing front. She said that her department is forming a task force about affordable housing that will include the housing issues facing senior citizens.

“A lot of seniors are on fixed incomes, and so having supported housing available where you know it’s going to fit in the affordability arena, would be incredible,” Reid said. “It’s actually a target and a goal that we have at our housing department here at Island County Human Services.”

Reid said the island’s gap in supported housing is compounded by a shortage of trained, professional caregivers on the island. She said that many seniors could be able to remain in their current housing if they had a caregiver to help out.

A nonprifit organization in South Whidbey is already working to address this problem by helping senior citizens age in place — or safely grow older in their own homes.

According to its website, South Whidbey at Home does its work through a volunteer network of all ages and partners with local businesses to ensue that “older islanders will be able to live independently while staying actively engaged in their community.”

Visit http://swathome.clubexpress.com to volunteer.

Photo by Dan Warn / Whidbey News-Times Near the Christmas tree in a community room at Senior Service’s CamBey apartments, Kaci Cheyne, manager of the complex, refers to the establishment’s waiting list, a document with 21 names, a physical representation of their inability to find affordable senior housing in Coupeville.