Parks and Recreation Board backs calls for expanded senior center facility in North Austin

The Parks and Recreation Board on Monday recommended the city find funding to create a senior activity center to serve District 4 and areas north of Highway 183 – and consider the Gus Garcia Recreation Center as a possible location.

Austin’s senior population is on the rise, and many seniors are economically and socially vulnerable. The city maintains four formal senior activity centers, including the South Austin Senior Activity Center, Lamar Senior Activity Center, Conley-Guerrero Senior Center and Lorraine “Grandma” Camacho Activity Center. The Gus Garcia Recreation Center sits at the intersection of City Council districts 1, 4 and 7, and more than 23,000 seniors live alone in this area. While not an official senior center, it offers programming for seniors in addition to other age groups.

The center is currently serving a wide range of community members from all over the city north of 183, with program participation increasing in the past five years. According to a group of area seniors organizing for the funding, teen and senior participation in programming has rebounded since the pandemic. Adult programming has also been expanded. The result is a traffic jam, according to Martha Langford, who is active at the Gus Garcia Recreation Center.

“Some days, the seniors have barely cleared out from exercise before the pickleball players are setting up their courts,” Langford said. “New programs that have been truly needed further limit the already tight space available for senior enrichment programs.”

She continued, “When comparing our facility amenities with those of other senior activity centers, we see a huge disparity in the space afforded. Our seniors, Gus Garcia seniors, have no permanently dedicated space allotted for activities (seasonally dependent on space availability), no secured storage for materials or supplies for classes and programs.”

Board Member Kathryn Flowers, who was invited to tour the facility by the senior group, agreed with the assessment. “I can’t emphasize enough if you haven’t been out there,” Flowers said. “It is packed constantly, at every hour of the day year-round, with people accessing city programs.”

An audit at the end of last year found numerous problems with regard to how the city communicates about its programs for aging adults and that it also lacks a plan for measuring the performance of those goals. Auditors recommended the city rewrite its age-friendly action plan to ensure that efforts are equitable across groups of older adults.

The Parks and Recreation Department is currently working on a needs assessment and gap analysis regarding senior and recreation centers. Flowers said she expects the assessment will back up the community concerns regarding overcrowding at the center.

“PARD also recommends that improvements to Gus Garcia Recreation Center be prioritized and budgeted for in the interim for FY24-25, with the goal of addressing overcrowding at the earliest possible opportunity,” the recommendation reads.

Motioned by Flowers and seconded by Board Chair Pedro Villalobos, the recommendation passed unanimously, with Board members Lisa Hugman and Kim Taylor absent.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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Posted In: Parks, District 4