FACT SHEET: Zoning for Quality and Affordability

Supporting ZQA is a critical first step in addressing NYC’s affordable senior housing crisis. Seniors can’t wait.

• ZQA can help the 200,000 seniors currently on waitlists city‐wide Upwards of 200,000 low income seniors are waiting an average of 7 years and as long as ten years for housing as projected by LiveOn NY’s 2016 Through the Roof ‐ Waiting Lists for Senior Housing. 
• ZQA will allow community‐based nonprofits to build new senior housing on untapped land   LiveOn NY’s recent report Paving the Way for New Senior Housing identified 39 affordable senior housing lots that could support over 2,000 new units of affordable senior housing, as well as social and health services, gardens, and other community uses.    
• ZQA provides flexibility for community nonprofits to build on lots where there is an extremely low demand for parking spaces, and assess the need on a building by building basis Car ownership at senior housing buildings is shockingly low at only 5 cars per 100 residents (5%) near transit and only slightly higher at 11 cars per 100 (11%) residents in further from transit, according to the Department of City Planning. These underutilized lots are only for senior residents, so this does not impact any public parking. At a cost of $20,000‐$50,000 per parking lot, this money could be better used to build apartments.   
• ZQA can work to address the needs of the nearly one million housing insecure New Yorkers There are 942,553 “housing insecure” households, including those who are homeless, and those paying more than half of their monthly income on housing, according to the Enterprise 2015 NYC Housing Security Profile and Affordable Housing Gap Analysis.
•  ZQA can provide common sense solutions to build affordable housing more efficiently and effectively to meet the needs of New Yorkers Current regulations result in years of unnecessary delays and costs to build affordable housing. In a city with hundreds of thousands of seniors on waitlists, we cannot afford to wait.

Please keep the needs of seniors in mind when considering your vote on ZQA.

LiveOn NY Affordable Senior Housing Coalition: Catholic Charities Brooklyn & Queens ▪ Association of New York Catholic Homes Catholic Charities Archdiocese ▪ Chinese American Planning Council, Inc ▪ Community Agency for Senior Citizens (CASC) ▪ Encore Community Services ▪ Goddard Riverside Senior Services ▪ HANAC, Inc. ▪ James Lenox House & Carnegie East House Association ▪  Jewish Association Serving the Aging (JASA) ▪ Jewish Home Lifecare ▪ Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty ▪ Mid‐Bronx Senior Citizens Council ▪ New York Foundation for Senior Citizens ▪ Presbyterian Senior Services ▪ Project Find ▪ Queens Community House ▪  Regional Aid for Interim Needs, Inc. (R.A.I.N.) ▪ Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council ▪ SEBCO Senior Services ▪ Selfhelp Community Services ▪ Sunnyside Community Services ▪ The Hebrew Home at Riverdale ▪ West Side Federation for Senior & Supportive Housing ▪ YM‐YWHA of Washington Heights/Inwood

200,000 seniors wait an average of 7 years for affordable housing. Please keep the needs of seniors in mind when considering your vote on ZQA.

ALERT: Fair Share Campaign Kickoff

Printable Verison for this Alert note: acrobat format

MAYOR de BLASIO’S FY 17 PRELIMINARY BUDGET DOESN’T FUND UNMET NEEDS OF OLDER NEW YORKERS AND AGING SERVICES PROGRAMS

REVIEW LiveOn NY’s FY17 BUDGET AGENDA

HOLD THE DATE FOR LiveOn NY’s 21st CITY HALL ADVOCACY DAY – WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2016 – 9:00 am – 1:00 pm

WHAT IS HAPPENING:

• Only $5.3 million added into DFTA’s budget - Mayor Bill de Blasio’s FY17 budget released January 21st, added little new funding to the Department for the Aging’s budget - $5.3 million.
• Good news - $3.5 million in elder abuse funding – The preliminary budget included additional funding for elder abuse victim services, baselining $2 million (makes it permanent). It also funds the Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDT) model for the first time, $1.5 million. MDTs bring together professionals from an array of disciplines to review a case and develop a plan.
• Funding for Friendly Visiting added - $1.8 million was added into DFTA’s budget as part of the mayor’s mental health initiative. This is in addition to the $1.4 million allocated already for mental health services at about 20-25 senior centers. DFTA has not yet announced which senior centers.
• LiveOn NY’s $34.3 million budget agenda – Funding was not included for case management, home care, congregate and home-delivered meal costs, adult day services and other core programs. This will lead to waiting lists for some services.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• REVIEW THE ATTACHED BUDGET AGENDA WITH YOUR STAFF, AGENCY MANAGEMENT STAFF AND SENIOR CITIZENS: It is very important that you take the time to go over the budget agenda – all these services and funding needs are familiar to you. Familiarizing your agency with budget agenda is critical.
• Share the budget agenda with your Councilmember(s): When they visit your senior center, NORC or other program, it is essential that you discuss the budget agenda with them. You could set up a budget forum with seniors at the center and ask the Councilmember questions. Please contact LiveOn NY if you’re interested to do this and we could provide assistance.
• May 11th City Hall Advocacy Day: Please leave that day open to bring seniors to meet with their Councilmembers at 250 Broadway and attend a City Hall press conference. LiveOn NY will be reaching out to you in March.

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FAIR SHARE CAMPAIGN FOR OLDER NEW YORKERS!

AGE EQUALITY BUDGET: INVESTING IN COMMUNITY-BASED AGING SERVICES IS AN INVESTMENT IN NYC’S DIVERSE ELDERLY COMMUNITIES

FY17 BUDGET PRIORITIES
APRIL 1, 2016

Community-based aging services funded through the Department for the Aging have been on the front lines of serving elderly immigrants and the diverse population of older New Yorkers for many years.  Current resources do not allow senior services staff to connect with the broad array and ever changing immigrant groups and other diverse populations. The $35.3 million budget priorities for FY17 reflect community supports for all older New Yorkers addressing:

• Senior nutrition/anti-hunger programs
• Affordable senior housing supports
• Economic security - access to benefits
• Elder abuse
• Social isolation
• Supporting family caregivers
• Culturally competent neighborhood based services

SERVICES	FY16 Adopted Budget – July 2015 – June 2016	FY17 Mayor’s Preliminary Budget – added funds	LiveOn NY FY17 Budget Priorities – additional funding
Case management	$3.0 million	$0	$3.0 million
Per meal reimbursement	$0	$0	$3.3 million
HMDL utilization capacity	$1.8 million*	$0	-
NORCs	$3.8 million	$0	$4.0 million
Elder Abuse Victims Assistance	$3.1 million	$3.5 million*	$3.0 million
Adult Day Services	$950,000	$0	$2.3 million
Senior Center rent (space)	$1.1 million	$0	$1.1 million
Transportation	$660,000	$0	$2.0 million
6th weekend congregate meal	$600,000	$0	$600,000
Innovative Senior Centers – immigrant communities	$0	$0	$2.0 million
ESL/Citizenship classes/cultural competency training in senior centers	$0	$0	$1.0 million
Social workers in senior centers and senior buildings (service coordinator)	$1.4 million- MH Services in sr centers* $750,000-Services in housing for seniors from homeless shelters*	$1.8 million * (friendly visiting – mental health roadmap)	$9.0 million
Caregiver supports	$0	$0	$4.0 million
TOTAL	$16.5 million	$5.3 million	$35.3 million

*Baselined - rest of funding was NOT baselined (funded for one year only)

ALERT: Advocacy Works: $34 Million for Senior Services

Model Letters

FY16 Budget Thank You City Council Model Letter
FY16 Budget Thank You Mayor de Blasio Model Letter

ALERT: ADVOCACY WORKS! FAIR SHARE FOR SENIORS!

$20 MILLION ALLOCATED TO DEPARTMENT FOR THE AGING BUDGET FOR LiveOn NY PRIORITIES!

SEE LINK TO SCHEDULE C BELOW FOR ALL $34 MILLION OF DFTA FUNDING

Funding for Waiting Lists:

• Home Delivered Meals – $1.8 million – Will increase capacity of meals-on-wheels system by 300,000 meals annually, a 5% increase, to prevent waiting lists. These are baselined funds.
• Home Care – $4.3 million – Funding to eliminate the home care waiting list of 500+ homebound seniors. LiveOn NY will look into how these funds will be allocated and the process for assessing the seniors. These are baselined funds.
• Case management - $3 million – Addresses waiting list of 2000 homebound seniors waiting to be assessed and served by case managers. City Council funding is for one year so funds are not baselined.

New services:

• Elder abuse – $2 million for elder abuse RFP – $2 million was allocated for elder abuse bringing the total city funding to $2.8 million. These are baselined funds. New contracts begin July 1, 2015.
• Mental health services in senior centers - $800,000 in FY16 and $1.4 million in FY17 – A pilot program to provide a social worker at the 20 largest senior centers, which serve at least 100 seniors a day. Social workers will work to coordinate behavioral health, psychiatric, and medical treatment to treat illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and bi-polar disorder.
• Service Coordinators in Senior Residences – $750,000 - LiveOn NY’s Housing Coalition has made funding for service coordinators in senior residences such as 202 buildings a priority. It is a breakthrough that the de Blasio administration is using expense dollars for this purpose. The $750,000 is for five years and will fund 500 units per year. LiveOn NY will provide updates as more information is known.

There is additional funding for DFTA. To see Schedule C which includes the full City Council allocations for DFTA and community-based organizations, go to:
http://council.nyc.gov/html/budget/2016/skedcf.pdf

NEXT STEPS: Please have seniors sign thank you letters to your Councilmember(s) and Mayor Bill de Blasio – CLICK HERE to see model letters. You can mail them in bulk.

LiveOn NY THANKS THE AGING NETWORK – TOGETHER WE BROUGHT 1000 SENIORS TO CITY HALL OVER THREE MONTHS AND DELIVERED THE MESSAGE – FAIR SHARE FOR SENIORS!

For further information, you can contact Bobbie Sackman, Director of Public Policy, 212-398-6565 x226, bsackman@liveon-ny.org or Andrea Cianfrani, Deputy Director of Public Policy, x226, acianfrani@liveon-ny.org