City Council Candidate Responses

District 27

Candidate: Al-Hassan Kanu

1. Please briefly share your background and note any experiences you may have in engaging older adults, whether professionally or personally, and in connecting with the non-profit sector.

I come from a family of public servants. Dad was a prominent public official in Sierra Leone from where I immigrated to the US three decades ago. My family came here to escape a dangerous civil war that took thousands of lives. While attending York College my fellow students elected me president of the United Students Assoc. This led me to connect with then City Council Deputy Majority Leader now State Senator Comrie. This led me to connect with then City Council Deputy Majority Leader now State Senator Comrie. I started as an intern and worked my way to serve as Director of Community Affairs. With Comrie term limited, I joined Council Member Miller’s staff as District Director. Now at Southern Queens Parks Association, I serve as Assistant to its Executive Director Jacqueline Boyce and help run its programs and operations; there I also work with our youth and seniors on a more direct service basis. I also served as Queens Liaison for Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. In all my government and non-profit work, I worked closely with seniors, senior programs and centers. I was the go to person to get things done.

2. As we live longer and healthier lives, what are your priorities with respect to promoting equity across all ages in our City?

Simply put I want to make sure we have the programs and services in place to allow our senior to age in place in dignity in the community. I want to make sure programs are culturally sensitive. In district 27, we work closely with senior centers and service programs to ensure funding to better connect them with our senior. I’ll also continue to emphasize housing programs to help people maintain their homes and protect against foreclosures.

3. Do you support increasing the budget for the Department for the Aging (DFTA), which funds programs such as Senior Centers, NORCs, home-delivered meals, and more? Please give rationale for your response and specify any specific funding changes you are most committed to achieving.

Yes but I would look to stabilize funding for the community based senior programs in the district and help resource them to continues their efforts to be culturally sensitive.

4. Do you support implementing a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) increase for city-contracted human service workers and the full implementation of the Indirect Cost Rate (ICR) initiative for non-profits? Please explain your response.

Yes. It is important workers get paid adequately to help assure quality staff remains in place and reduce turnover. Staff known to and knowledgeable about the community make a difference in the quality of services delivered.

5. Given that many older New Yorkers rely on limited fixed incomes and would prefer to age in community, rather than entering costly nursing homes, how will you address the need for affordable senior housing with services for a growing older population? How will you evaluate/respond to affordable senior housing proposals during ULURP?

First off I would look to partner with my community based senior programs to develop senior housing at an appropriate scale to each community. Second I would look at the NORC model and its expansion to help senior age in place in their homes. Thirdly I would look to my community boards, community senior programs and houses of worship and community group to identify preferred location for senior housing with supportive service and help direct capital and other dollars to create the housing.

6. While many older adults wish to be connected, many lack the financial resources or training necessary to fully access technology, exacerbating the digital divide. How would you encourage the City to address this?

I would look at expanding caregiver and case management programs to reach out seniors and help connect them to program and devices. In COVID, many of our senior programs expanded on-line programing. I would look at our libraries and senior center with expanded hours to help train our senior to access technology and develop literacy in that regard.

7. During COVID-19, Senior Centers continued to work remotely, offering services in new ways to ensure their clients’ needs were met. To date, providers have not been authorized to operate in-person, despite restaurants, movies, and other entities, which older adults could also attend, being open. Further, community-based organizations, in many cases, have not been leveraged in the new meal delivery system. What are ways that you feel the City should work with nonprofits and engage older adults in the event of a future emergency?

Frankly, the city missed the boat in not engaging and empowering community senior programs to deliver meals and assist senior more, instead forcing many to deprogram when senior need them more. I would press to get programs up and running more, involved in regular food delivery, and transportation and other services.

8. With 1 in 5 New Yorkers over the age of 60, what are the changes you would seek to make to create a more age-friendly district? Please consider addressing the physical infrastructure of your district (walkability, accessibility, etc.), health care access, safety net resources, and other district specific items of note.

I would look to improve bus service, make it more regular, get more bus shelters with benches, improve accessibility at LIRR (elevators), park amenities (open rest rooms), and help build out senior centers including enabling SNAP to finish its new building and work to create additional sites in the district.

9. In the event of a budget shortfall, how would you push for the City to close the gap? Are there agencies or programs you feel should or should not absorb cuts? Please be specific.

Frankly, no justification exists for any revenue shortfall as many untapped and undertapped revenues exist. We need smart investment and a fair share of federal and state investment. For general resource needs I am looking at a millionaire’s tax that would net $1 Billion after cutting taxes to lower and moderate income New Yorkers, Real Property reform to net $6 Billion to reinvest in services and property tax equity and affordable housing and PILOTs from non-profit institutions that are functionally for-profit, including private educational facilities.

10. How should your constituents look to measure your success in achieving your responses outlined above?

Some of the above I get to talk about during the campaign; others get attention in questionnaires as I strive o provide consistent answers across the board. Each year, the district should be able to see progress either in the development of initiatives outlined in newsletters and other communications and actual programmatic changes and enhancements..