MEDIA FEATURE: A way to help seniors afford their rents

BY JUDI KENDE AND BOBBIE SACKMAN
MAY 26, 2016

No one who has worked their whole life should struggle to afford the most basic necessities in their elder years. Yet every day too many seniors in our city are forced to make terrible choices between paying rent, buying food, filling prescriptions and other necessities.

New York City’s affordable housing crisis is becoming more pronounced, with rents rising at an unprecedented pace. For low-income older adults, this is especially scary as incomes are fixed or decline with age. For example, Social Security beneficiaries did not receive a cost-of-living adjustment this year, even as rents continue to rise.

Today, one out of three single New York seniors pays more than half of his or her income on housing, and one unexpected expense could result in a missed rent payment and eviction. This problem is only expected to grow as New York City’s senior population increases by an estimated 40 percent between 2010 and 2040. The need to help ensure older adults have an affordable home has never been greater.

Fortunately, we have a program in New York City specifically designed to help seniors afford their rents. The Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption program, or SCRIE, freezes rents for low-income seniors living in rent stabilized apartments. The landlord receives a refundable tax credit making up the difference between what is paid by the household and the legal rent.

Right now, unfortunately, the program is not effectively addressing the full challenge of affordable senior housing – but with a few modifications it could provide a true safety net for seniors.

Our first recommendation is for the city to create a more robust, sustained public awareness campaign to ensure all those who qualify for SCRIE are enrolled. Currently only 43 percent of people who are eligible use the program, largely due to a lack of awareness and barriers to applying, such as language.

Our second recommendation is for rents under SCRIE to be capped at one third of the household’s income. Today, the average SCRIE enrollee has an annual income of just $16,504. Because of the program’s design, rents are frozen when seniors enter the program, but for many, this freeze occurs after rents have already escalated far beyond their means. As a result, a shocking one-third of seniors enrolled in SCRIE are paying more than 70 percent of their incomes on rent, leaving them with an average of only $183 left over per month to pay for all other needs, including food and medicine.

Increasing enrollment and capping rents will add to the program’s cost. However, the cost of doing nothing is even greater. When senior households pay too much on rent, this often leads to unhealthy outcomes, like skipping meals or doctor visits. In 2014, The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University found that “on average, severely rent-burdened households … spend more than 40 percent less on food than households living in housing they can afford.” Seniors that are housing insecure are often more vulnerable to abuse. And older adults who are unable to afford their housing often enter higher levels of care such as nursing homes purely because they have nowhere else to go, at enormous cost to the public.

Additionally, SCRIE can support the city’s efforts to preserve affordable housing by keeping seniors in their rent-regulated apartments. The recommendations we outline can help make it a powerful tool to curb the loss of stabilized units across all five boroughs because it prevents unit turnover and allows long-time residents to remain in their community after retirement. This is a win-win for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing plan and older New Yorkers.

We should all agree that our communities are better off when our elders have an affordable place to live. We already have a tool at our fingertips to help thousands of seniors who are living in rent-regulated housing. We just need the will to make these changes.

Judi Kende is vice president and New York market leader at Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., a national organization that creates, preserves and advocates for affordable housing linked to good schools, jobs, transit and health care. Bobbie Sackman is the director of public policy at LiveOn NY, a nonprofit organization recognized as a leader in making New York State a better place to age. LiveOn NY's Affordable Senior Housing Coalition works to increase the availability of affordable housing for older adults. Read more in Enterprise and LiveOn’s latest report, Reducing Rent Burden for Elderly New Yorkers.

MEDIA: Freeze rents for older New Yorkers: advocates

Proposed change would cost city $324M a year in forgone tax revenue
May 17, 2016 11:28AM

Terry Ludwig, President & CEO, Partners & Chair of Enterprise Community Partners

A pair of organizations advocating for New York’s senior citizens will issue a report Tuesday calling for a sweeping rent freeze for the city’s aged residents.

Enterprise Community Partners, an affordable housing nonprofit, and LiveOn NY, a nonprofit advocate for seniors, are calling for the city to hold rents for qualifying seniors at 33 percent of income.

If enacted, the change would reduce the city’s tax take by about $324 million a year.

An alternate proposal, to set the level at 50 percent of income, would cost $225 million.

The groups proposed changes to the city’s Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption program, which gives landlords tax abatements to cover the cost of subsidizing seniors’ rent. The program currently freezes enrollees’ rent at the level they’re at at the time of enrollment, often far higher than the 33 percent or even the 50 percent level, Politco reported.

In addition, as many as 80,000 of the city’s seniors aren’t enrolled in the program, simply because they’ve never heard of it, according to the city’s Department of Finance, which manages the program. By the time they do enroll, their rents have often risen faster than seniors’ fixed incomes.

The program currently costs the city about $137 million a year. The DOF said in a statement it would back the proposed changes. A vote by state legislature would be required to alter the rules. [Politco] – Ariel Stulberg

ALERT: City Budget Final Stretch - Contact City Council and tell them “DON’T FORGET FUNDING FOR SENIORS!”

Printable Verison for this Alert note: acrobat format
Supportive Services for Older Adults, FY 2017 Budget Priorities note: acrobat format

ACTION ALERT
MAY 20, 2016

LiveOn NY’s 21st CITY HALL ADVOCACY DAY IS A HUGE SUCCESS
BECAUSE OF EACH ONE OF YOU PARTICIPATING!

OVER 350 OLDER ADULTS AND STAFF FROM 130 SENIOR CENTERS, NORCs, AND
CASE MANAGEMENT AGENCIES MET WITH 45 COUNCILMEMBER OFFICES – AMAZING!

IT’S IMPORTANT TO KEEP IN CONTACT WITH YOUR COUNCILMEMBERS
WITH THE MESSAGE – “DON’T FORGET FUNDING FOR SENIORS!”

What is happening:

• We are hearing that the city budget will done by around June 6th, two weeks earlier than usual. This makes it really important that seniors call their Councilmember immediately. Calls should be made to the 250 Broadway office because that’s where the Councilmember and their budget staff are during the budget process
• Click here to see the attached handout on the budget. You will see some changes. When the budget gets down to the wire, it’s necessary to narrow down priorities. We also included the 3 special initiatives as your agencies depend upon this funding for core programs. 

What you can do to make a difference: Please ask seniors, staff and board members to call your Councilmember offices as soon as possible.  Click here to find the phone number of your Councilmember. 

The message is:

“DON’T FORGET FUNDING FOR SENIORS!”

"No olvides fondos para la personas de la tercera edad!"

"請不要忘記撥款給我們耆老 !"

For further information, please contact Bobbie Sackman, Director of Public Policy, (212) 298-6565 x226 or bsackman@liveon-ny.org or Andrea Cianfrani, Deputy Director of Public Policy, (212) 398-6565 x233 or acianfrani@liveon-ny.org 

LiveOn NY – Making New York a Better Place to Age

MEDIA: Senior advocates urge overhaul of underused rent freeze program

Bobbie Sackman. (LiveOn NY)

By: SALLY GOLDENBERG
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Publication & Publisher: Capital NewYork

A coalition advocating for elderly New Yorkers will issue a report Tuesday calling on the de Blasio administration to overhaul an underused city program that provides rent relief for senior citizens — changes that would cost the administration several hundred million dollars.

The 17-page report, compiled by affordable housing organization Enterprise Community Partners and nonprofit LiveOn NY and provided to POLITICO, calls for City Hall to freeze rents for qualifying seniors at 33 percent of their income. The change would reduce costs for many tenants and would cost the city an estimated $324 million a year in foregone property tax revenue.

As part of the 46-year-old program, Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE), City Hall gives property tax abatements to participating landlords to make up for the income they are losing.

The agency that administers the program, the Department of Finance, recently said that nearly 80,000 seniors who qualify are not enrolled, often because they do not know about it. By the time seniors sign up for the rent break, they are often already paying more than a third of their incomes on rent.

"I think there needs to be an understanding that a fixed income is a fixed income. Most older adults tend to become poorer as they get older, because their income doesn't buy as much as the cost of living increases. This means that there are those older New Yorkers who have to pay their rent and are indeed choosing between food, medication and other daily needs," Bobbie Sackman of LiveOn NY said in an interview. "This is an opportunity for the city to say to older New Yorkers, 'We're going to make sure that you have the peace of mind and the safety net in terms of affordable housing.'"

A typical senior who participates in the program has an annual income of $16,504, and more than 26,000 SCRIE recipients take in less than that — $11,000 per year, on average — which leaves them with $183 a month in discretionary cash, the report found.

The city's senior population is growing as life expectancies climb. More than 100,000 single seniors currently spend at least half of their income on housing costs, a share that in housing terms gets them classified as "severely rent-burdened," according to a report released by the Citizens Budget Commission last fall.

Freezing rents for SCRIE enrollees at half their income would cost the city less — $225 million instead of $324 million. The current program costs about $137 million a year, according to the study.

A change to the program would require legislative approval in Albany — a hostile political climate for the mayor, and one where he has had mixed success in furthering his agenda.

In an emailed statement, the city Department of Finance said it would back the changes suggested in the report.

"SCRIE is a priority program of the Department of Finance and for the city. In the last two years, we have initiated and supported a range of new rent freeze legislation to raise the income limit, to extend the renewal process, to create new rules for benefit takeover and we want to see this pass as well," the agency said.

The rent caps suggested in the analysis are included in legislation that has been introduced in both houses of the state Legislature.

"This is our bill that would allow renters back into the rent freeze program at their old, frozen rent after losing the benefit for one lease term because of a spike in income, but later re-qualify," the agency added.

Under the current law, seniors who fall out of the program re-enter at a higher rate.

The report also calls on the administration to launch a television and subway ad campaign to boost enrollment.

Sackman said she had asked city officials, to no avail, to tack on a mention of SCRIE in a $1 million ad campaign to tout a rent freeze last year.

"It was a missed opportunity," she said.

The report comes two months after de Blasio partnered with senior advocates, namely the AARP, to push through zoning changes intended to create more below-market-rate housing throughout the city. At the time, he acknowledged SCRIE is underused and said he wanted to fix that.

"The number of severely rent-burdened seniors living on less than a shoestring budget is appalling," Judi Kende of Enterprise said. "A SCRIE rollback is critical, because it will improve outcomes for the elderly by allowing them to afford rent as well as food and medicine, and it will prevent eviction, which has a huge social and economic cost."

LiveOn NY and Enterprise Community Partners release a groundbreaking report recommending that all seniors on SCRIE have their rent capped at one-third of their income.

Printable Verison for this Press Release note: acrobat format
Reducing Rent Burden for Elderly New Yorkers: Improving the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption Program note: acrobat format

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Stephanie Ramirez
212-784- 5704
sramirez@groupgordon.com

New Report Finds NYS Program Freezing Rent Increases for Seniors Is Underutilized, Many Rent Burdened Even with Rent Freeze

Enterprise Community Partners and LiveOn NY reportproposes lower rent capfor SCRIE, improved outreach to increase enrollment among low-income seniors

New York, NY – May 17, 2016 – Eligible New York City seniors are underutilizing a city rent freeze program and those who do sign up remain rent burdened, according to a new report released today by Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. (Enterprise) and LiveOn NY.

The report, Reducing Rent Burden for Elderly New Yorkers: Improving the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption Program, analyzedthe current enrollment and need of the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption Program (SCRIE), which freezes rent for New Yorkers over the age of 62 living in rent regulated housing and paying more than one-third of their income on rent.

The report found that while 32 percent of New York City’s single seniors are severely rent burdened, or paying over half of their income on rent, only 43 percent of those eligible for SCRIE (approximately 52,000 households out of 121,729) actually sign up. Of those on SCRIE, 85 percent are rent burdened, or paying more than the one third of their income on housing, and 55 percent are severely rent burdened.

“Seniors in NYC deserve to live in safe housing that they can afford. Unfortunately, far too many of our older neighbors spend a majority of their income on rent, leaving them with few resources to afford other necessities including food and health care,” said Judi Kende, Vice President and New York Market Leader for Enterprise. “SCRIE is a valuable tool that can help reduce and prevent rent burden for seniors, but it needs to be updated and better utilized in order to help our growing senior population remain stably housed and age in place.”

IgalJellinek, Executive Director, LiveOn NY, states, “LiveOn NY is proud to release this SCRIE analysis report with Enterprise Community Partners. SCRIE is the best preservation program in New York City for older New Yorkers to remain in their homes at an affordable rent and is the perfect fit with Mayor de Blasio's affordable housing initiative. Only 43% of those eligible seniors are on SCRIE. It is astounding that the majority of SCRIE beneficiaries are spending over 50% and even 70% of their income in rent. A fixed income is a fixed income. This report recommends that all older adults on SCRIE spend no more than one-third of their income in rent. It also calls for a sustained public awareness campaign to educate older adults and their family members about SCRIE. We look forward to working with the administration and other government partners to make sure all older New Yorkers can access SCRIE and pay an affordable rent.”

Additional findings from the report include:

• Severely rent burdened seniors on SCRIE have a median income of about $11,000 per year, with a median residual income leftover after rent of $183/month to purchase food, utilities, basic necessities, and health care.
• Rent burdened seniors on SCRIE have a median income of about $20,000 per year, leaving them ineligible for benefits like food stamps.
• Unaffordable housing conditions can lead to unhealthy outcomes, such as skipping meals or doctor visits, not filling prescriptions, and even elder abuse.

“AARP New York commends Enterprise and LiveOn NY for undertaking a comprehensive examination of the SCRIE program and proposing sensible recommendations that would go a long way to help aging New Yorkers afford their rent,” said Christopher R. Widelo, Associate State Director, AARP New York. More than half of adults eligible for SCRIE are not enrolled in the program. AARP fully supports the groups’ recommendations that New York City increase SCRIE outreach and cap rents for SCRIE enrollees at one third of their income.”

Calling for a two-pronged approach to expanding SCRIE’s impact, the report analyzes the cost of strengthening the program by capping rents at one-third or one-half of household income for beneficiaries and generating more public awareness of SCRIE to increase enrollment rates.

Monsignor Alfred LoPinto, Chief Executive Officer, Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queensand affiliate agencies, added, “Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens is the largest provider of affordable senior housing in New York City, and provides critical services to thousands of seniors on fixed incomes each day. For many of these older adults, the meal provided at our Senior Centers and delivered to the homebound is the only meal they eat that day. Many seniors are forced to choose between food and rent, which is why programs such as SCRIE are so critical for our seniors. We need to improve the SCRIE program to ensure it best serves all vulnerable seniors who call New York City home.”

By capping the rent of SCRIE participants at one-third of their income, the percentage of rent burdened and severely rent burdened seniors would come down to zero at an estimated annual cost of $324 million at current enrollment levels. In contrast, capping rent at 50 percent of incomes would reduce the percentage of severely rent burdened seniors on SCRIE to zero, but maintain the percentage of rent burdened seniors at 85 percent at an estimated annual cost of $225 million.

“Without rental support from SCRIE, the thousands of seniors that contend with housing insecurity because of their rent burden cannot be sufficiently addressed.  HANAC applauds the tremendous work of Enterprise Community Partners to change the conversation about this program and tap into the potential of this underutilized resource to protect the long-term affordability of our senior occupied rental units.  On a personal note, thanks to SCRIE, my father can continue to afford the apartment in Queens he raised me and my family—givinghim great piece of mind that his retirement pension can cover the cost of his rent in perpetuity,” notedJohn Napolitano, Director of Community Development & Planning, HANAC, Inc.

Additionally, the report attributes low enrollment in SCRIE to lack of awareness and callsfor a more robust outreach campaign targeting eligible tenants as well as landlords, similar to the grassroots campaign employed for recruiting and enrolling families in universal pre-k.

“The City’s SCRIE program is one of the best tools for preserving affordable housing for our City's seniors and enables them to satisfy rent requirements to live independently in the safety and comfort of their own homes and communities. The report issued by Enterprise highlights staggering data about the rent burden of current enrollees. Older adults living on fixed incomes are often still paying over 50% of their incomes on rent. I commend the City for their efforts to ensure that all eligible seniors can take advantage of this program, and we look forward to continuing to work with government, as well as Enterprise Community Partners, Live On NY and other senior service providers to make SCRIE more accessible and valuable,” said Stuart C. Kaplan, Chief Executive Officer, Selfhelp Community Services.

About Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.

Enterprise works with partners nationwide to build opportunity. We create and advocate for affordable homes in thriving communities linked to jobs, good schools, health care and transportation. We lend funds, finance development and manage and build affordable housing, while shaping new strategies, solutions and policy. Over more than 30 years, Enterprise has created nearly 340,000 homes, invested $18.6 billion and touched millions of lives. Join us at www.EnterpriseCommunity.com or www.EnterpriseCommunity.org.

About LiveOn NY

LiveOn NY is a non-profit organization recognized as a leader in making New York State a better place to age. Founded in 1979, it is recognized as a leader in aging that connects resources, advocates for positive change, and builds, supports and fosters innovation. With over 100 member organizations providing community based services through more than 600 programs, LiveOn NY's members range from individual community-based centers to large multi-service, citywide organizations. Our goal is to help all New Yorkers age with confidence, grace and vitality.   www.liveon-ny.org

###