Harris County receives grant to combat abuse, neglect of growing senior population

About 3.8 million people in Texas are age 60 and over, a number that's expected to more than triple to 12 million by 2050. It's regarded as one of the state's fastest growing populations.

That rapidly booming population is also highly vulnerable to abuse, neglect and exploitation, potentially setting the stage for a spike in such crimes. State lawmakers have made financial exploitation and abuse one of their top priorities.

Locally, Harris County is adopting a model used in California and New York to bring together health care representatives, city and county government officials under one roof to better understand and fight cases of exploitation, abuse and neglect.

The Houston Chronicle published a report about the county's effort to combat abuse and neglect of the fast-growing senior population in June. In September, the federal government granted Harris County more than $350,000 to start the Senior Justice Assessment Center.

County commissioners are expected to accept the grant at their next meeting on Oct. 11.

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Harris County receives grant to combat abuse, neglect of growing senior population