In Gold Rush Country, Golden Years Lose Their Luster

From the LA Times
By Esmeralda Bermudez, Los Angeles Times
January 4, 2012

For seniors who arrived in the Sierra Nevada foothills with retirement plans and enough money to buy homes, a dreary economy has turned everything upside-down. Now many are scraping by on a fixed income, a tough task in a place so isolated.

Reporting from the Sierra Nevada foothills ~ It was a dream to retire here — in a quaint little town atop a hillside, among the pines and the quail and the Main Street shops. When Kate Hamon arrived more than a decade ago, she had it all.

Now she is on the phone with Kmart, hustling to get a job.

“Please, please keep me in mind,” she tells the manager. “I can start any time you like.”

Work is hard to find around these parts, especially when you’re 78 years old.

For many retirees such as Hamon who came to spend their golden years in California’s Gold Rush region, life has not turned out the way they’d hoped. Prospectors once came chasing riches; seniors arrived with retirement plans and enough money to buy homes. But a dreary economy turned everything upside-down. Now many scrape by on a fixed income, a tough thing to do in a place so isolated.

Across Amador, Tuolumne and Calaveras counties, seniors make up 20% of the population, twice the state average. About 1 in 3 gets by on less than $20,000 a year.

They count on churches, senior centers and outreach groups for the most basic needs: food, heat and rent.

Read the entire article here.