Coming of Age

Milford’s population growth marked by increase in seniors

MILFORD — Peter Arsenault, at age 86, represents Milford’s future.

The city has been touted for the past 10 years as a place where young families are moving into new homes. But, in fact, it is the oldest age group that increased the fastest in that period, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

Arsenault and his wife, Peggy, are typical of a trend identified by the Census — long-term residents who have chosen to stay in Milford after their children are grown.

"We moved here in 1950 from Bridgeport, because Milford was a quieter place without the violence," Arsenault said. "We love it here; we live a block from the beach. I walk every day, but I recently had to give up tennis because of my heart."

The couple operated several businesses together, closing their last, Peggy’s Deli on Naugatuck Avenue, in 1970. Peter worked as a city school custodian for 10 years before retiring.

Other elderly residents remain active, including City Clerk Alan H. Jepson, 75, who is seeking his ninth term in the fall. He brushes off any talk of retirement. "My plan is to die at my desk," Jepson said.

In this city of 52,305 people, there are 7,796 residents aged 65 or older, according to the latest Census, a sharp jump from the 6,935 reported 10 years earlier and more than twice the number of seniors in Milford in 1970.

Of the 65-plus group — who comprise almost 15 percent of the city’s population — it is the oldest members whose ranks grew at the most brisk pace in the past decade. There were 866 residents 85 and older in 2000, 313 more than a decade earlier. That’s a whopping 56.6 percent increase.

The city is ready to respond to the needs of these older residents, Mayor Frederick L. Lisman said. Plans for a third addition onto the Milford Senior Center are moving forward. The new wing is expected to be ready in mid-2003 and will feature more social service offerings, including larger space for adult day care for frail seniors suffering from dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

The city’s senior center is one of the region’s largest, with 5,000 members. That compares with the 1,000 people who use the three senior centers in Bridgeport, a city three times the size of Milford.

The center on Jepson Drive offers classes in everything from tai chi to a handbell choir, and has its own band, gospel chorus, movies and line dancing.

"It’s a lot more than bingo," Arsenault said.

The city’s Recreation Department will be looking at other kinds of activities a graying population might enjoy in the years ahead.

"You will see a shift in emphasis away from the active recreation programs, like softball and basketball, to more passive ones older folks enjoy, including walking and golf," Lisman said. "Although we will continue to offer active sports, developing walking trails through some of the open spaces the city has acquired will give seniors more options for recreation they may enjoy.’’

The increase in older seniors has meant one of the largest jumps in median age of any similar town in the area. The median age of a Milford resident was 39.4 years in 2000, compared to 35.6 in 1990.

That increase of nearly 4 years compares to a rise of 3.1 years in West Haven’s median age, to 36.4; while Stratford saw a rise of 1.3 years in the median age of residents from 1990 to 2000, to 40.3. The median age of Hamden residents, meanwhile, was virtually unchanged over the same period, from 37.3 to 37.7 years.

The city has always had a strong program for seniors, said Community Development Director Robert Gregory. Besides the $1.1 million annual budget for the senior center, the city uses $29,700 of its federal block grant to fund its Care A Van ride service; $25,000 for a Milford Transit service for seniors; and $110,000 for a housing rehabilitation grant program that Gregory said helps many older folks maintain and stay in their homes.

The Meals on Wheels program, which serves 55 homebound people a day, is funded through a federal grant, said the city’s interim director of senior services, Janice Jackson.

"We have programs like the Food Pantry, Senior Shopper Service and other social services, that have paid coordinators and volunteers," she said. "Many of those are seniors themselves.’’

While the elderly population grew over the past 10 years, the number of school-age children did, too.

But educators here project that the number of children will hold steady over the next decade, setting up potential friction between seniors unwilling to pay higher taxes for education costs and school officials seeking larger budgets.

That is something that Milford, unlike other towns, has been spared so far.

"The first baby boomers will be turning 65 in about 10 years, and we’ll have a lot more seniors … for a long time," Supt. of Schools Mary Jo Kramer said.

Relations between young families and elderly residents "depend on whether seniors recognize that the retirees have to be supported by an educated work force," she said. The superintendent said most residents don’t use all of the city services that their taxes pay for.

"I’ve never ridden a [public transit] bus in Milford," Kramer said. "But part of my taxes go to services I don’t use, and I think that is true for everybody."

But city schools have welcomed seniors, providing them everything from computer classes to "gold cards" good for discounts to plays, concerts and sporting events.

The school system in recent years has paid for buses to take elderly residents to evening school events.

"I spoke to 11 senior groups in the past year," Kramer said.

School officials are reaching out to seniors, providing them services and showing them what their tax dollars for education are paying for, Kramer said. "We are marketing to that population."

Meanwhile, the number of city residents younger than 18 went up slightly, from being 21.6 percent of the population in 1990 to accounting for 22.3 percent 10 years later.

Education officials have tracked the increases and responded with new wings at two middle schools and three elementary schools, the last project just getting under way at Orchard Hills School.

Birth rates and data on migration in and out of Milford are used more than U.S. Census figures to project enrollment into the future, Kramer said.

The numbers she has show slight dips in several grades in the near future, particularly in middle school, and a small jump in high school enrollment.

Most of those schoolchildren come from homes with two parents. Of the city’s 20,900 households, 14,066 are families with children and 11,363 of those are headed by a married couple.

Single mothers and their children make up just 4.4 percent of city households, a figure that surprised Lisman. "I thought it would be higher, just because of all the divorce in society, but I’m glad it’s lower."

The average family size in Milford is 3.04 people, while the average household size is 2.48; the closeness of the two figures indicates that relatively few people live alone. The figures are lower than for the 1990 Census, when the average family size was 3.13 people and the average household size 2.62. The Census defines a family as a group of related persons; a household is a group of people choosing to live together.

A traditional suburban community, Milford is a city of homeowners. A total of 77.3 percent of all housing is owner-occupied, compared to the national average, quoted by Lisman, of 70 percent.

The people in those houses represent a wider range of races and ethnic groups than 10 years ago, according to the federal data.

Racially, the city remains largely a white community: nearly 94 percent of the population.

The number of blacks, while still small compared to that of neighboring communities, saw a significant increase.

However, the number of Asians went from a standing start to pass African-Americans as a percentage of Milford minorities.

During a decade in which the city and the Milford Housing Authority battled a federal lawsuit charging discrimination against minorities in housing, the Ku Klux Klan has made itself known here and several well-publicized incidents showed tensions between whites and minorities.

The housing authority settled the discrimination lawsuit with the U.S. Justice Department in 1998, and agreed to build or buy up to 28 units of low-income housing with $3.6 million in federal funds. The case against the city was dropped.

The housing purchases are nearly complete, but none of the additional units has yet to be occupied by low-income families.

Exactly how good Milford’s progress is in attracting minorities is subject to interpretation. The Census shows that there were 989 blacks here last year, compared to 757 in 1990.

Lisman said while the numbers are small, the increase is marked. "You have to look at the percentage change in the total population. We’ve had an increase of 2,367 residents from 1990 to 2000, and African-Americans were 9.8 percent of that," he said.

"How come we don’t have more? I don’t like that question," said the mayor, who is not seeking re-election after 12 years in office.

"We did the right thing … in that [housing discrimination] case, but whether that will translate into more minorities coming here I don’t know," Lisman said. "There are too many factors we don’t control, such as ‘Do they want to?’ "

Scot Esdaile, president of the Greater New Haven NAACP, sees Milford making some progress in race relations. The area National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter was a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit.

"We don’t get the complaints of steering that we used to get before the lawsuit; the doors aren’t slamming in our faces," Esdaile said. But he said steering, a practice by real estate agents of only showing undesirable or high-priced properties to discourage unwanted buyers, may still go on here.

"They created the image and it is up to the people of Milford to undo it," the NAACP leader said.

Alderman Albert DeLuca, D-5, pointed to the number of joint worship services between the mostly white Calvary Missionary Alliance Church he belongs to and the mostly black First Baptist Church as a positive sign.

The First United Church of Christ in Woodmont hosts the city’s Anti-Hate Task Force. The church is near where a white couple feuding with and allegedly harassing their mixed-race neighbors were ordered to sell their home and leave town by a Superior Court judge.

Alderman John P. Fowler, R-1, came to political prominence here by opposing any settlement of the federal discrimination lawsuit.

Four years later, he says, "I don’t think there is a ‘correct number’ of minorities. Milford, and America should be color blind.

"We should invite everyone who wants to live here to be our neighbors. But I don’t think a town can go out and advertise for people of a certain race to move in," Fowler said.

One group that has moved in, almost unnoticed, is Asians. The 2000 Census shows there are more Asians here than African-Americans, 1,217, compared to 511 just 10 years ago.

"Their numbers have more than doubled, but I have no idea why that is," Lisman said.

Asians comprise the second largest racial group in the city, after whites. Still, they make up only 2.3 percent of the city’s population.

Hispanics, as they have in much of the United States, also sharply increased their presence in Milford since the 1990 Census.

There were 1,750 Hispanics in 2000, compared to 1,154 in 1990, a 52 percent increase.

The growing diversity, most agree, is a good thing.

"Diversity is happening everywhere, and with it the understanding that not everyone looks [alike]," Lisman said. "People can and should move freely and live wherever they want to."

Year incorporated as a city: 1959

Total land area: 24.7 square miles

2000 population: 52,305

City Hall: West River Street,

783-3201