VCU College of Health Professions receives nearly $1M grant to establish elder justice shelter
The initiative hopes to establish an elder shelter model to serve older adults in the Richmond area, including those who have experienced abuse and neglect.
February 11, 2025
According to Adult Protective Services Division in Virginia, about 65% of elder abuse cases occur within an individual’s own home. (Getty Images)
By Edmund Boxley
A team of researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Health Professions will receive nearly $1 million over the next two years to establish the Greater Richmond Elder Justice Shelter Initiative. The award is funded by the Administration for Community Living (ACL) Elder Justice Innovation Grants program to support six organizations nationwide in addressing the need for shelters for older adults experiencing mistreatment.
This initiative is a collaborative effort with CARITAS, Homeward (Greater Richmond Continuum of Care), No Wrong Door Virginia (Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services), and the Span Center (Area Agency on Aging). The Department of Gerontology and the Virginia Center on Aging at VCU’s College of Health Professions will lead the partnership to establish, pilot, and evaluate an innovative decentralized elder shelter model serving the greater Richmond region. Built on the work of the Weinberg EJ Shelter Multi-Site Evaluation, this project will address emergency and transitional housing needs incorporating supportive services for older adults ages 60+, including those with disabilities, who have experienced abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
“This initiative is mainly for the greater Richmond region. Our hope is that we create a roadmap or blueprint that could be replicated,” said Courtney O’Hara, M.S., associate director of the Virginia Center on Aging and co-director of the Elder Justice Learning & Research Hub. “We’d love to see the elder justice shelter initiative replicated across the country because there are so few housing options available to everyone, but particularly older adults experiencing mistreatment.”
The Elder Justice Shelter (EJS) was pioneered by The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center for Elder Justice to meet the temporary housing needs of older adults experiencing abuse or exploitation and in need of a safe, temporary place to stay.
The need for elder justice shelters is exponential. The number of older adults in Virginia is expected to increase from nearly 2 million to over 2.2 million by 2030. The percentage of older adults who experience abuse, neglect, or exploitation is also increasing.
Approximately 21% of older adults experience abuse globally, up from 16% pre-pandemic. About 65% of elder abuse cases occur within an individual’s own home and almost half of the time by a family member, according to the Adult Protective Services Division in Virginia. Unfortunately, this is likely a vast underestimation of the true prevalence of elder mistreatment; for every case that is reported, there may be as many as 24 cases of elder abuse that never become known to authorities.
“At the Virginia Center on Aging, we’ve been doing elder justice work for 30 years or more. The common theme of all our elder justice work is making sure folks are aware this is a problem,” O’Hara said. “This takes a collective response, and we mean that from an individual level… and we also mean that on a systems level.”
The Elder Justice Shelter Initiative will serve the citizens of Aging Services Planning Service Area 15 (PSA15) which includes the counties of Charles City, Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, New Kent, and Powhatan, and the City of Richmond. The greater Richmond area, specifically, has a population of more than 1.3 million offering a unique combination of urban, suburban, and rural settings.
“Most importantly, the elder justice shelter will serve older adults and people with disabilities who experience mistreatment and require shelter, and it will benefit the entire community. Elder justice is a community issue. If we’re lucky we will all grow old, and any of us could find ourselves in need of shelter,” said Aisling Clardy, the project manager of the Greater Richmond Elder Justice Shelter Initiative and Virginia HEAR.
The shared knowledge and expertise within the Elder Justice Learning and Research Hub at Virginia Center on Aging, the Person-Centered Trauma Informed Lab at VCU Gerontology, and trusted community partnerships are paving the way to provide innovative, supportive care for older adults in the region. Together, they are creating a safer Virginia where everyone can thrive as we grow old.
This program is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $595,310, with 80% funded by ACL/HHS and 20% funded by non-government source(s). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, ACL/HHS, or the U.S. Government.
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