SAN ANTONIO – Across San Antonio, there are 12 comprehensive senior centers and four part-time senior centers providing a place for older adults to gather, socialize and receive support.
To assist people in reaching these centers, the city offers free transportation for those who live within a five-mile radius.
However, as the city’s population ages and expands outward, more people who could benefit from senior center services live outside the five-mile radius to receive transportation.
“I was working,” Richard Robledo said, “trying to get my mom some place to go and socialize.”
Robledo’s 93-year-old mother goes to the Doris Griffin Senior Center on the West Side, but he can not always take her there. She lives about seven miles away, just outside the radius where transportation would be provided.
“The Doris Griffin Center, they are fantastic people, they all work very hard,” Robledo said. “It is one of these things where we are going to need these [transportation] services and people don’t think about it now because they are able to drive.”
Robledo is working with District 7 Councilmember Marina Alderete Gavito on expanding transportation options.
“The city policy is that they can pick up seniors within a five-mile radius and transport them to the senior center,” Gavito said. “But, that was done a long time ago, and our city’s grown, and so we need to look at what that new radius should be.”
Gavito put forward a Council Consideration Request to expand transportation access for seniors. In her CCR, Gavito cited the World Health Organization’s expectation for the population of 60-year-olds to nearly double between 2015 and 2050.
“My intent with filing this is to get more seniors to our senior centers,” Gavito said. “There’s so much goodness that takes place at the senior centers, whether it’s that our seniors are getting fed, they’re getting socialized, they have fitness activities, all that kind of stuff. And so we want to get more seniors there to take advantage of that.”
Robledo is hopeful that the expansion of transportation will happen soon, so his mother can experience it even if it’s only for a short time.
“Expanding the radius will allow service for the people who live out by 1604,” Robledo said. “I would have liked that done yesterday. It’s gonna be a process, and I’m hoping that we can get that soon enough.”
Gavito does not know how far out the radius for transportation could be expanded, but she is hoping the expansion is approved by the end of 2026.
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