ALERT: Off the Fiscal Cliff Campaign

LiveOn NY is starting a new Campaign - OFF THE FISCAL CLIFF - and we need your help today. Here are the details:

• What we are advocating for: 1) Continued outreach efforts to spread awareness about the NY Rent Freeze Program AND 2) A policy change within the NY Rent Freeze Program so that rental costs are capped at 1/3 of a senior's income and for those already enrolled - a rollback to the 1/3 level.

• Purpose: LiveOn NY works closely with key partners including the NYC Department of Finance, Department for the Aging & Human Resource Administration to make sure each eligible older person is aware of the NY Rent Freeze Program. The public-private partnerships that are addressing under-enrollment in the program are a critical way to spread the awareness. We want to ensure these efforts continue and expand outreach, as we know that seniors are overburdened in housing costs. Often paying more than 50% of their income on rent, whether they are enrolled in NY Rent Freeze (SCRIE/DRIE) or not. Because the Rent Freeze Program is one of the key tools to preserve affordable seniors housing AND allows older adults' to remain at home as they age - we must ensure that NYC improve its policies to help seniors off the fiscal cliff.

• Who we are targeting: New York City and State Elected Officials, Policymakers and other key stakeholders

What you can do!

SIGN ON TO THE CAMPAIGN TODAY (Click here)

FORWARD THE SIGN-ON LINK TO YOUR CONTACTS

SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA (info below)

More Facts about the issue:

• 200,000 older New Yorkers are on waiting lists for affordable senior housing, for an average of 7 years
• 4 out of 10 seniors report not knowing about NY Rent Freeze
• Too many seniors find out about their eligibility during an affordability crisis
• Almost 60% of seniors who are enrolled in SCRIE continue to experience heavy rent burden, with average annual incomes between $11,000 and $12,000. They find out about the benefit too late and cannot have the benefit “rolled-back” to an affordable level.
• NYC must rollback and cap rents at 1/3 of household income to help seniors off the fiscal cliff.
• Click here to check out our infographics highlighting the alarming SCRIE statistics.

Sign our Campaign. Share on Social Media. Be an Advocate

TESTIMONY: City Council Aging Committee Hearing on Funding for Core Aging Services

Testimony: City Council Aging Committee Hearing on Funding for Core Aging Services note: acrobat format

New York City Council
Committee on Aging, Council Member Margaret Chin, Chair
November 17, 2016

Thank you Chairwoman Chin and the Aging Committee for holding this hearing to discuss the importance of supporting core community based senior services.   Thank you also recognizing the valuable contributions senior centers, programs and agencies provide and how their work to engage the community makes New York a better place to age.   LiveOn NY also commends Chairwoman Chin for promoting FY2018 as the Year of the Senior.

LiveOn NY’s community-based aging services members have been on the front lines of serving the diverse population of older New Yorkers for many years.  They offer core senior services and programs funded through the Department for the Aging  (DFTA) that directly promote social interaction and prevent isolation. Programs funded by DFTA are the only long-term care services available for elderly New Yorkers above the Medicaid level.  These services are most often the only safety net for low income seniors.

Inexcusably, the funding allocated to DFTA for aging programs year after year does not reflect the reality of the needs of New York City’s seniors or their caregivers.  Investing in these core programs is vital to the health of our city.  Further, investing in salary parity for all senior services programs is necessary to sustain this vital system.  Thus, LiveOn NY respectfully submits this testimony to highlight the need and importance of full funding baselined core senior services to adequate address the current, unmet and future need of seniors and their caregivers

The City Must Provide a Fair Share of Baselined Funding Core Senior Services
LiveOn NY has strongly advocated year after year for baselined funding for culturally competent neighborhood based services to allow agencies on the front lines to serve the diverse population of older New Yorkers.  These core services, many of them accessed through the city’s network of 250 senior centers, are vital in preventing isolation and also addressing mental and physical health issues, as reported in a recent DFTA and Fordham University study by Manoj Pardasani and Cathy Berkman titled Senior Center Evaluation Report.

Core Senior Services include:

• Elder Abuse Victims Assistance
• Adult Day Services
• Social Workers in Senior Centers and Senior Housing buildings
• Senior Center rent (space)
• Transportation
• 6th weekend congregate meal

• Neighborhood Senior Centers and Innovative Senior Centers
• Case Management
• Home Care
• Caregiver Supports
• Per meal reimbursements
• NORCs

While we appreciate salary parity reached for case management agencies, it is time to also bring salaries into line for all workers in the aging network. The workforce is comprised largely of women of color, immigrants and other low income workers. As the Mayor leads the way to equality in this city, those on the front lines every day assisting older adults should get their fair share of salary parity.

There are two pressing issues that have plagued the delivery of these core senior services.  First, funding for core senior services hasn’t kept pace with demand and inflation for many years.  The question is not if, but when will the Administration adequately fund core senior services and allocate seniors their Fair Share of the city budget.  Seniors have been waiting long enough. There have been waiting lists for case management and home care for well over a decade. Adult day services funding, $2.3 million at the time, was eliminated almost a decade ago. Through advocacy we’ve scratched back only $950,000, all City Council discretionary money. The administration actually cut $600,000 in adult day money a few years ago. Funding for NORCs has not kept pace for many years. Last year, we began advocating for $4 million for caregiver supports. We won zero. It is clear that there is still a mountain to climb to get traction within the administration to fund actual waiting lists and other critical aging services. Through our Fair Share Budget Campaign, LiveOn NY questions why this is the situation given the demographic shift going on in our city. 

As noted a letter to Mayor de Blasio on May 26, 2016 during the FY17 budget process and which was signed by a large number of City Council Members under the leadership of Council Members Chin and Vallone, while the elderly population is the fastest growing demographic in New York City, DFTA’s budget in FY16 was less than one-half of 1 percent of the City’s $78.5 billion adopted budget.  Additionally, DFTA receives only 2% of all human services funding. Current resources do not allow senior services staff to connect with the broad array and ever changing immigrant groups and other diverse populations.  It also does not allow them to even come close to addressing the unmet need.

Specifically relating to funding for Neighborhood Senior Centers, as reported in LiveOn NY’s 2010 Senior Center study, senior centers are grossly underfunded.  In that report, LiveOn NY recommended a budget of $750,000  to be the starting point from which to consider the bottom line budgets based on size for each senior center, which is a recommendation that could be prorated on the size of the center, plus meeting the rental needs.  Both Neighborhood Senior Centers and all Innovative Senior Centers must be funded to keep pace with the growing needs of older adults. 

The second pressing issue plaguing senior services is the Administration’s repeated failure to baseline core senior services.  The lack of investment seniors through baselined funding requires City Council step in to close funding gaps for core senior programs, program after program, year after year. The Administration’s repeated failure to baseline core senior services also results in an unstable and unsustainable network struggling to address the current, unmet and growing need for these vital core services.  The lack of baselining has led to loss of services, late receipt of funds, and an inability to plan, directly hurting seniors and caregivers.  This is evident by the repeated accruing waitlists in services such as Case Management and Home Care.  No senior should languish on a waitlist for services.  Waitlists for core senior services as an accepted practice must end.  It is far past time for the Administration to adequately baseline funding for core senior services so that we can all work together to make New York a better place to age.

ALERT: LiveOn NY November Home Care Funding Action Alert

Printable Verison for this Alert note: acrobat format
Home Care Waitlists Report note: acrobat format
Tracking Form - Online Version
Tracking Form - Download Version note: acrobat format

Model Letters note: acrobat format
English
Spanish
Chinese

AN ASTOUNDING 500 HOMEBOUND SENIORS ARE ON WAITING LISTS
FOR HOME CARE FUNDED BY THE DEPARTMENT FOR THE AGING (DFTA)!

IT’S TIME TO SEND MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO A STRONG MESSAGE – 
AS THE MAYOR FOR ALL NEW YORKERS, YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY
TO FULLY FUND HOME CARE IMMEDIATELY IN THE CITY’S NOVEMBER PLAN! 
WHY WAS FUNDING WAS CUT FROM $4.3 MILLION TO $2 MILLION?

What is happening:

• LiveOn NY recently surveyed case management agencies to document the waiting lists – 500 homebound seniors waiting and the number can only grow! CLICK HERE to see the waitlists.
• In August, DFTA notified case management agencies that there would be a freeze on home care hours. LiveOn NY’s understanding of this situation is that DFTA ran out of hours because there were problems allocating the hours around the city and then a budget cut to the home care program. That means there will be 10 months left to the fiscal year with no home care!
• In FY 2015-16 there was $4.3 million in home care. These funds came from City Council so were discretionary and only good for one year.
• In the current fiscal year, FY2016-17, there’s only $2 million. That’s almost a 50% cut in funds. The funds came from the Mayor’s office. The funds are good for only one year. This is called the “budget dance” – placing lives of 500 homebound seniors at risk.
• Very soon, in mid-November, Mayor de Blasio will release his “November Plan”.  In this plan the Mayor can add or reduce funding. This means the Mayor can make sure the full $4.3 million is added to DFTA’s budget and “baselined” (made permanent). 

Action you can take:

• Take part in LiveOn NY’s Letter Writing Campaign to urge the Mayor to fully fund home care immediately. When you’re age 80+, you can’t wait.
• Timing is crucial – mail letters by November 22.
• Senior Centers and programs can urge seniors to participate by following these directions:

1. Print out and share this alert with seniors at your programs as soon as possible.
2. CLICK HERE to print out copies of the model letters, which are available in English, Chinese and Spanish.  Seniors can simply sign the letters.
3. Collect letters and mail all letters in bulk by November 22 to: Mayor de Blasio, City Hall, New York, NY 10007.
4. CLICK HERE to complete and send the Tracking Form to LiveOn NY so we can measure our impact.  You can email the Tracking Form as an attachment to acianfrani@liveon-ny.org or mail to LiveOn NY 49 West 45th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10036.

We know that the remarkable aging network, all of you, will not allow homebound seniors to sit on waiting lists. We need to work together to stand up for those who can’t advocate for themselves! You’ve done this before and we know you will do it again. Thank you.

For further information, please contact Bobbie Sackman, Associate Executive Director of Public Policy, (212) 398-6565, x226 or bsackman@liveon-ny.org or Andrea Cianfrani, Deputy Director of Public Policy, (212) 398-6565 x233 or acianfrani@liveon-ny.org

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FUND HOME CARE CAMPAIGN
TRACKING FORM OF LETTERS SENT TO MAYOR DE BLASIO
NOVEMBER 2016

TESTIMONY: LiveOn NY Right to Counsel

LiveOn NY Right to Counsel Testimony note: acrobat format

New York City Council
Committee on Courts and Legal Services
Council Member Rory I. Lancman, Chair
September 26, 2016

Testimony by Katelyn Hosey, Housing Policy Analyst, LiveOn NY
in support of Intro. 214-A

LiveOn NY thanks Committee Chair Lancman for holding a hearing on this issue.  LiveOn NY also thanks Council Member Levine and cosponsors of Intro. 214-A.

LiveOn NY respectfully submits the following testimony on Intro. 214-A.

LiveOn NY is pleased to stand with Council Members Levine and Gibson, and City Council, to support Intro-214A. At the core of LiveOn NY’s mission, is the desire to make New York a better place to age. Supporting the Right to Counsel is one way to do just that.

Enabling low-income New Yorkers the right to a lawyer in housing court, the Right to Counsel is a groundbreaking piece of legislation and New York should be proud to be the first city nationally to enact it. For seniors, the prospect of eviction could not be more devastating, as research clearly shows the importance of aging in place to a senior’s health and quality of life. The stress of possibly losing your home and being disconnected from the social networks built over decades can have substantial adverse effects on the health of an older adult. Rates of depression are decreased and life expectancy is increased by aging in place, which can only be achieved through secure and stable housing in a community.

Seniors are anchors in their communities and have often lived in their homes for decades. The inability to pay for representation should not undermine the community roots they have worked so hard to maintain. Currently, over 200,000 older New Yorkers sit on waitlists to secure affordable housing, as found by a research study conducted by LiveOn NY. With the increasing difficulties tenants face to merely secure affordable housing, their shelter should not be easily stripped away, nor should they live in fear of unjust eviction.

Further, currently an estimated 3,000 seniors are homeless, sleeping in shelters or on the street every night. Data shows an estimated 37% of homelessness having stemmed from eviction, meaning that many of these homeless seniors may have avoided the harrowing experience of homelessness, if they had only received proper legal representation. New York has a moral obligation to ward against these unjust evictions for all New Yorkers, and particularly for seniors and other vulnerable populations.

Seniors, and all New Yorkers, need and deserve due process of law and it is up to City Council to ensure that it is received. Affirmed in the Constitution and provided for in criminal court cases, due process of law cannot be maintained without representation. With so many tenants unable to afford representation, and landlords recognizing the unbalanced nature of housing court, it is time that city Council tip back the scales towards a fair, equal, and just process.

The reasons to support Intro. 214-A are both numerous and compelling, as shelter is one of the most basic of human needs and the most important of senior’s needs and should not be so easily stripped away. For these reasons, and so many more, LiveOn NY urges City Council, not only to support the Right to Counsel, but to pass Intro. 214-A, this year.

Thank you for your time in working to address this issue.

TESTIMONY: City Council Aging Committee Hearing: Reducing Senior Social Isolation and Increasing Recruitment and Retention at Senior Centers

LiveOn NY Testimony for City Council Aging Committee Hearing note: acrobat format

New York City Council
Joint Committee Hearing
Committee on Aging, Council Member Margaret Chin, Chair
Subcommittee on Senior Centers, Council Member Paul Vallone, Chair
Oversight - Reducing Senior Social Isolation and Increasing Recruitment and Retention at Senior Centers

Testimony of Andrea Cianfrani, Deputy Director of Public Policy, LiveOn NY 

Thank you Chairwoman Chin and Chairman Vallone and the Aging Committee and Senior Center Subcommittee for holding this hearing to discuss the valuable contributions senior centers, programs and agencies provide and how their work to engage the community  makes New York a better place to age.  It is fitting that this hearing is being held today, recognizing that September is Senior Center month. 

LiveOn NY’s community-based aging services members have been on the front lines of serving the diverse population of older New Yorkers for many years.  They offer programs that directly promote social interaction and prevent isolation including neighborhood and Innovative Senior Centers (ISCs), senior nutrition and anti-hunger programs, affordable senior housing with services, benefits assistance, elder abuse prevention and services, caregiver supports, transportation, adult day services and other culturally competent neighborhood based services.  Older adults gain access to these and other services mainly through the city’s nearly 250 senior centers. You will hear from many of those agencies today about the specific programs they offer to their communities.

Their work plays a daily critical role in preventing isolation.  DFTA and Fordham University released a groundbreaking study on June 28, 2016 by Manoj Pardasani and Cathy Berkman titled Senior Center Evaluation Report.  This study looked at adults 60 years or older who had gone to a senior center at least once a week over a one year period. More than 66% of the respondents noted that socialization and avoiding isolation was a reason for attending, which was the highest response for why they attended.  Further, the study reported that self reported depression levels and anxiety decreased after one year of attending the senior center.  Of note:

“Participation in a senior center also helped to reduce social isolation. Senior centers are not only a place for socialization, but also provide health education, fitness programs, meals and recreational and educational programs. The older adult population served by senior centers are among those with the lowest incomes, the fewest resources, the poorest health, the greatest social isolation, and most in need of services. The findings of this study indicate that senior centers are attracting this group that has multiple needs, and SC members experience improved physical and mental health not only in the time period after joining a senior centers, but maintain or even continue to improve even one year later. This is a very important finding, given the decline in health and social activity in this age group, especially among those with low income. Maintenance of health and social activity, rather than a decline in health, is a major benefit of senior centers.” 1

Prevention of social isolation for older adults cannot be emphasized enough. A September 5, 2016 New York Times article titled Researchers Confront an Epidemic of Loneliness recently highlighted the epidemic of loneliness. It noted recent research that found loneliness even goes so far as to surpass obesity as a predictor of early death.

Current resources do not allow senior services staff to connect with the broad array and ever changing and ever growing senior population and to expand this work.  LiveOn NY thanks Council Members Chin and Vallone for leading this charge and highlighting the blatant inadequate lack of funding for core senior services.  As noted in your letter to Mayor de Blasio on May 26, which was signed by a large number of your colleagues, you point out that while the elderly population is the fastest growing demographic in New York City, DFTA’s budget in FY16 was less than one-half of 1 percent of the City’s $78.5 billion adopted budget.  As you further note, the lack of investment seniors through baselined funding requires the City Council step in to close funding gaps for these core senior programs.  

While it is beneficial and appreciated that the City Council restores DFTA funds each year, the lack of baselining has led to loss of services, late receipt of funds, and an inability to plan. And while we greatly appreciate City Council’s support, as you articulate in your May 26 letter, one-time imitative spending is not the “stable and secure source of funds that the Administration should be providing” for core senior programs.

As noted in LiveOn NY’s 2013 Aging Tsunami Report, a key recommendation is to Support Core Senior Center-Based Community Building Services. The city must baseline current and new DFTA Funding. It is critical to first address the challenges noted above regarding funding core services with baselined dollars. Further, the city should expand Innovative Senior Centers (ISC). Beginning in 2010, DFTA began creating ISCs, each built on the concept of innovation and robust programming. As you have heard today, these centers have developed extraordinary programs.  Both neighborhood senior centers and all ISCs must be funded to keep pace with the growing needs of older adults. 

LiveOn NY also wanted to take this opportunity to inform you about other innovations in the field that will contribute to the work of senior centers.  LiveOn NY provides training and capacity building
assistance to our members that highlights best practices and innovative programs to incorporate into their agencies to increase retention and recruitment. 
 
Further, LiveOn NY is excited to partner with the National Council on Aging to bring The Aging Mastery Program® (AMP) to New York State. The Aging Mastery Program® is a 10 week education series that combines goal-setting, daily practices, and peer support to help participants making meaningful changes in their lives. The goal is to change societal expectations about the roles and responsibilities of baby boomers and older adults to create fun and easy-to-follow pathways for getting more out of life. This is a local project that will have national significance. Currently, LiveOn NY is partnering with seven member agencies to implement AMP within their communities and bringing this program to the senior centers. In the first implementation we've already seen the participating programs show an increase in attendance and engagement of current members and interest from new members.  

Programs funded by (DFTA) are the only long-term care services available for elderly New Yorkers above the Medicaid level.  The funding allocated to DFTA for all of aging programs does not reflect that reality.  Investing in these core programs is vital to the health of our city. Thank you for your dedication to making New York a better place to age.

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[1] Senior Center Evaluation Final Report, Manoj Pardasani, Cathy Berkman, June 28, 2016, p.3