Sixty-four-year-old Sharon Goldsmith never she thought she'd be one of them. "I've worked ever since I was a kid -- one of six kids, I've always worked. And I've always paid my own way and never asked for help," she says. "I used to work at an art gallery. I've been a secretary. I ran a day care center for 25 years."
But then there was a divorce in the mid-1990s, a Lyme Disease diagnosis in 2002, and later, one of fibromyalgia. Goldsmith's gotten by on part-time jobs, and Social Security payments after her ex-husband died. She sometimes stays with her mother in Naples, or in rentals owned by friends.
But after a shoulder injury temporarily put out of her commission a couple years ago, she started to rely on credit cards. "I thought, well, these credit cards have nothing on them. So every month, when I got my electric bill, my cable bill, everything, and I would use it for food. So that was the only alternative I had, was to use those credit cards to pay my way until I could get well enough."
A seasonal job, playing Mother Goose at an amusement park, hasn't been enough to pay down the debt. "I owe my credit cards, both of them, and the total is between $9,000 and $10,000," she says. "Some people would say that's not a lot. For me, you might as well say it's $90,000."
Jaye Martin, executive director of Legal Services for the Elderly, says that Goldsmith's situation is all too familiar, and becoming even more common because of Maine's expanding elderly population.
"We've seen more growth in the aged population in Maine in the last eight years than any other state in the nation except Virginia. And unfortunately, a great number of those are living in poverty," Martin says. "So we have this huge pool of people that are vulnerable, and then you add the economic pressures of increased fuel costs, increased heating costs and increased medical expenses and food expenses."
She says older people in debt face problems that younger people don't have. "The death of a spouse and medical expenses are unique to the elderly population, in terms of what big factors those play. And then you've got individuals on fixed incomes", she says. "So the ability to respond to the medical emergency by somebody in the household getting a second job and some other way of coming at it just isn't an option for the elder."
To deal with the growing caseload, Legal Services for the Elderly has created a new Consumer Debt Unit. Starting this year, a three-year, $300,000 federal grant will pay for two people to staff the unit. University of Maine law school students will volunteer.
Lawyers will help seniors find out if they can get their debt forgiven -- or not. "Sometimes the individual is going to have to go through the debt collection process through the courts and then our attorneys can explain to them what the steps in that process are, and kind of walk them and talk them through that process," Martin says.
Most of those served by Legal Services for the Elderly are living around the poverty live. But credit counselors say elder debt is not limited to the low-income. Justin Dobson, regional manager of Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Maine, says some seniors get in trouble trying to maintain a certain lifestyle on a fixed income.
"Once you're in your golden years, you want to enjoy life, and a lot of folks feel like they're entitled to certain things as well," Dobson says. "So using credit cards sometimes gives them a means to get the things that they want to do or travel."
But Dobson says that seniors may have more resources and an easier way of getting out of debt, especially if they own a home.
"Oftentimes, senior citizens' mortgages are very low," he says. "They can take equity out of the home to pay off debt. Other than that, bankruptcy sometime is an option, especially if they don't feel like they need to really worry about obtaining credit over the next certain period of times."
Those are not options for Sharon Goldsmith. Unable to seek debt forgiveness from the credit card companies, Goldsmith turned to Legal Services for the Elderly. On the advice of staff, Goldsmith has gotten on a wait list for low-income housing and signed up for health care coverage through MaineCare.
"I feel secure knowing that I can call these people up and they treat me with compassion and tenderness and understanding, and that to me means the most," she says. "You feel like you're a loser when you've worked your whole life and all of a sudden, you're homeless and you have what you have and that's it. And you want to be out there. You want to do things."
Goldsmith says her goal is now to pay down her debt and save up money from her $8.25-an-hour job acting as Mother Goose so she can afford a one-bedroom apartment.
For resources on getting help for elder debt, contact Maine Legal Services for the Elderly at 1-800-750-5353, or go to www.maineelse.org.