NBC29 spoke with JABA CEO Marta Keane about how the older population is increasing in surrounding rural counties, and more specifically, how it is decreasing in Charlottesville.

"The seniors are decreasing [in Charlottesville] and it's a concern," said Keane.

"Many independent cities had neighborhoods with a relatively large older population 20 or 30 years ago, in Charlottesville the area neighborhoods around downtown were 25-30 percent over 65 in 1990 but today they are probably under 15 percent," says Hamilton Lombard, a demographer for the Weldon Cooper Center, tells JABA. Charlottesville’s 65+ population has only risen slightly since the 2010 census, while Albemarle County’s 65+ population has gone from 12.5 % in 2000 to 19.4 % in 2020. Surrounding counties have also seen sharp increases in their 65+ populations in the last two decades.

A study JABA helped conduct showed there were three main factors that may be forcing seniors to leave Charlottesville.

"The three top areas were affordable housing, transportation, and social engagement," said Keane, emphasizing the cost of housing.

"That is one of the serious concerns for seniors who are on a set income unless they go back to work, and even then they have to watch what they earn. They have to really make everything fit within whatever their social security, and perhaps their retirement has provided for them."

Eight years ago, JABA and other organizations formed the Charlottesville Area Alliance, a collaborative effort to address those issues - which are also important to people of all ages - and to identify needed services and call attention to those that already exist.

"It doesn't need to be about our organization so much as elevating the needs of seniors," Keane said, and "to be that advocate and that voice."