LiveOn NY Statement on the Murder of George Floyd

LiveOn NY Statement on the Murder of George Floyd

When injustice takes place, we all have a role in speaking out against it. 

George Floyd's murder was wrong, as are all of the continued structural barriers that are put in place to advance racism in our country. It is not an accident that COVID-19 is disproportionately impacting black and brown communities, including the very seniors served by LiveOn NY’s member network. It is further not an accident that health, housing, and financial struggles are disproportionately concentrated in these very same communities. In reality, these are not policy failures, but they are the products of policies working exactly as designed: to advance our country’s racist roots.

Going back to normal is not an option, and it certainly should not be the goal. 

As a City and as a Nation we must do better. LiveOn NY’s mission has long been to make New York a better place to age, and we know that this aim can never be met when injustice remains present in our state; when individuals of color like George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and so many others are never even given the chance to reach old age. As allies and as advocates, LiveOn NY is committed to using our platform to support policies that will redress these systemic wrongs and injustices and to instead create a system where we all truly have equal access to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, or age. 

To those who are grieving, who are scared, and who are angry, we are with you and we will remain with you until future generations are spared this same pain.

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LiveOn NY’s members provide the core, community-based services that allow older adults to thrive in their communities. With a base of more than 100 community-based organizations serving at least 300,000 older New Yorkers annually. Our members provide services ranging from senior centers, congregate and home-delivered meals, affordable senior housing with services, elder abuse prevention services, caregiver supports, case management, transportation, and NORCs. LiveOn NY advocates for increased funding for these vital services to improve both the solvency of the system and the overall capacity of community-based service providers.

LiveOn NY also administers a citywide outreach program and staffs a hotline that educates, screens and helps with benefit enrollment including SNAP, SCRIE and others, and also administers the Rights and Information for Senior Empowerment (RISE) program to bring critical information directly to seniors on important topics to help them age well in their communities.

LiveOn NY Testifies on the Executive Budget to City Council

New York City Council
Joint Hearing
Committee on Finance and Subcommittee on Capital Budget
Chair Dromm and Chair Gibson
May 21, 2020
Remote Hearing

Thank you to Chair Dromm and the full Finance Committee and Chair Gibson and the Subcommittee on Capital Budget for holding this important hearing amidst these challenging times. 

With a base of more than 100 community-based organizations, LiveOn NY’s members provide core services that allow older adults to thrive in our communities, including senior centers, home‐delivered meals, affordable housing, elder abuse prevention services, caregiver supports, NORCs, case management and more. DFTA’s network provides services to over 50,000 older adults and caregivers daily. 

Seniors are the most at risk to COVID-19. Their funding for services should not be at risk too.

Just this Tuesday, LiveOn NY held our 25th Annual Aging Advocacy Day. We did so virtually, with more than 200 individuals registering to participate in the event and a shared commitment to calling on the City to make critical investments in senior services, as well as thanking fellow providers for their work throughout COVID-19. Many Council Members engaged via Zoom and social media, as well as fielding calls from constituents; thank you all for participating in this exciting event.

While we couldn’t be physically on the steps of City Hall, the calls for support somehow felt louder and more clear than ever. Amidst our calls for support, one provider shared a story of receiving a call from a senior whose food supply had run out, a call not unfamiliar during this time; another confided that their organization had lost more than forty clients during this time, not unlike many providers who speak regularly about struggling with the loss of clients and colleagues; and participants having shared messages of how essential their teams have proven. With every point made, the need for increased support from the City became both urgent and undeniable.

To respond to these stories, and the abundantly clear need for robust support of older New Yorkers throughout our City, LiveOn NY and our partners request the following key investments to be made.

$26.2 million for home-delivered meals for seniors

This program—unique from GetFood in that it serves seniors who were homebound prior to COVID-19 and will remain so after—has been chronically underfunded for years. Today, the reimbursement rate for meals is 20% below the national average, even as providers have experienced a 20% increase in demand amidst the pandemic. Together, it’s a recipe for leading our City’s non-profits to the brink of insolvency. Even worse, providers have yet to receive any additional funding to provide drivers incentive pay as they continue to make door-to-door deliveries in spite of the increased risk. This is unsustainable and wrong. The funding requested will compensate for: increased demand; incentive pay for essential workers; adequate support of the weekend meals; and will close the per-meal reimbursement deficit. Together, the funds will enable the program to meet demand resulting from increased need and awareness of the City’s incredible senior service sector, as well as ensuring providers can continue to provide high-quality, culturally competent meals provided by local, community-based non-profits. 

Please also note that the Request for Proposal (RFP) for this contract is currently due June 1st, meaning that providers—who are already inundated with increased demand, as well as concerns for staff and participants—must also grapple with responding to an RFP that would substantially alter the system at-large. This procurement, and all similar procurements, should be delayed until COVID-19 has subsided and its effects can begin to be understood.

$10 million for Senior Centers, which was already promised in 2017

In 2017, the City undertook a “model budget process” for numerous contracts, including senior centers, to bring these in line to reflect true costs, with particular emphasis on right-sizing contracts to allow for more competitive wages of the oft underpaid human services staff. During this time, the senior center portfolio was promised $10 million to be received by FY21; senior centers even received notices of how much assistance would go directly to their programs. This funding, however, remains excluded from the Executive Budget, despite initial promises in 2017 and further promises during the preliminary budget hearings. This must be rectified by budget adoption. Beyond being wrong to renege on such a promise to seniors and providers, these funds are critical to supporting a predominantly female and minority workforce that—as evidenced throughout COVID-19—can no longer bear the burden of such persistent disparities. 

Restore all one-time senior services funds

Funding for services must be permanently maintained to prevent any sort of disruption in critical programs. The $2.8 million for senior centers, $2.84 million for home delivered meals, $1 million for NORCs, and the $2.1 million for NYCHA community spaces should all be baselined and to sustain these programs moving forward. Further, by only making these investments on an annual basis, rather than baselining the investments as we are requesting, providers are unable to use funds to address salaries or fill budgetary gaps as is most urgently needed.

Additionally, City Council’s $1 million case management investment should be baselined, as waiting lists for this program continued to grow prior to COVID-19, and have skyrocketed along with an intensification of client needs since the pandemic began.

Continue City Council Discretionary Funding

City Council has long been a staunch supporter of City and district-wide senior services programs through allocations in Schedule C. We thank you, and while recognizing the budget challenges that are upon us, we continue to advocate for full restoration for all Senior Service Programs funded in Schedule C. At the outset, these funds helped to fill gaps existing in the infrastructure of support for seniors, they therefore remain as critical as ever to supporting older New Yorkers as we embark on our new normal. Examples of key initiatives that support the wellbeing of older adults include: NORCs, Support our Seniors, SuCasa, Senior Centers for Immigrant Populations, Health Aging Initiative, Social Adult Day, and others.

Invest $1.7 Million to Achieve Pay Parity for NORC Staff

Currently, there are 11,000 older adults spread across dozens of NORCs across New York City. However, the NORC staff that provide these critical support services earn, on average, $15,000 less than their DFTA-funded senior center counterparts, even if they are performing the same duties. $1.7 million in new funding is necessary to achieve pay parity across DFTA programs and ensure fairness not only for staff, but for the older adults living in these NORCs. 

Continued Investments in Human Services Sector

Years of underfunding the sector have resulted in the entire human services workforce being some of the lowest compensated workers in New York City’s economy. A 3% COLA on the personal services line of all human services contracts at the cost of $48 million is needed in the FY21 budget to ensure this vital workforce does not slip further into poverty. The Mayor and City Council have taken important steps to begin to address this crisis with previous multi-year cost-of-living investments, but there is no COLA in place for future years. The 3% COLA is a needed investment while workers, advocates, providers, and elected officials continue to work together on more comprehensive solutions to ensure that human services workers finally earn fair pay for their labor.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify and for your consideration of the above needs.

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Please contact Katelyn Andrews, Director of Public Policy at LiveOn NY with any questions (Kandrews@liveon-ny.org).

City Preliminary Budget Testimony

The following testimony was shared with the New York City Council Committee on Finance.

New York City Council
Committee on Finance, Chair, Council Member Daniel Dromm
March 2, 2020
Preliminary Budget and Oversight Hearing

Thank you, Chair Dromm and the Finance Committee, for the opportunity to testify on how we can work together to make New York a better place to age. LiveOn NY also thanks Mayor de Blasio, Speaker Johnson, DFTA Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, Aging Committee Chair Margaret Chin and the entire City Council for their consideration of the needs of older adults in the FY21 budget.

LiveOn NY would not want to miss an opportunity to testify on record to the significant budgetary investments needed to best serve New York’s older adult population.

With a base of more than 100 community-based organizations, LiveOn NY’s members provide core services that allow older adults to thrive in their communities, including senior centers, congregate and home‐delivered meals, affordable senior housing, elder abuse prevention services, caregiver supports, transportation, NORCs and case management. DFTA’s network provides services to over 50,000 older adults daily. Let’s be clear: these services are vital to the well being of older adults. Studies have shown that services such as senior centers, home delivered meals, and many others help prevent social isolation and positively impact health outcomes.

LiveOn NY recognizes and is encouraged by initial investments in senior services by the de Blasio Administration and ongoing investments by City Council. With that said, the DFTA budget still accounts for less than half of 1% of the total City budget, a point that is only exacerbated by the fact that aging New Yorkers now outnumber school-aged children. It is imperative that we continue to develop and maintain a robust system that will serve the rising number of older adults in the City. Aging is a multifaceted process, and supports need to be in place to address the nutrition, housing, and overall well-being of older New Yorkers. As the City continues to grow and prosper, we must not leave behind the people who helped build it. The need is urgent, especially when we consider that according to a study by Center for an Urban Future, 20% of older adults in New York City are living in poverty.[1] To truly show our commitment to the older adult population, the City must properly invest in the Department for the Aging, and go #AllInForAging.

LiveOn NY’s priorities are attached to our testimony, and are briefly highlighted below: 

Invest $16 Million for Home Delivered Meals

First, it is important to note that the Home-Delivered Meals program is currently in the middle of an RFP solicitation, in which  nonprofits are poised  to determine their ability to continue participating in the program. From a mission driven standpoint, this is an easy decision. The program is invaluable, as the majority of individuals utilizing the program are women of limited means who live alone, and on average, these meals account at least half of their total food for the day. Nationally, 59% of meal recipients live alone, and the person delivering the meal is often the only person they will see that day and provide much needed social interaction.[2] However, despite the clear importance of this work, from an economic standpoint the decision to continue participating in the City’s home-delivered meal program becomes much more treacherous.

Currently, providers are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year through these contracts. At the $9.58 funding rate provided in the current RFP, nonprofits will continue to lose money on every meal they serve. At this rate, NYC will be reimbursing providers approximately 20% below the national average of what a meal cost in urban areas five years ago.[3] Evidence of the inadequate funding available is also displayed through the Human Services Council RFP rating, which scored the RFP at 75% in overall risk — the highest scoring of risk in the history of the rater — with financial adequacy being the greatest driver of risk.

With more than 27,000 older adults having received these life sustaining meals in 2019 alone, we must ensure that the program is kept solvent for years to come by making the necessary investments.

According to the Mayor’s FY19 Management report, 4,554,828 meals were delivered to 27,065 homebound older New Yorkers, numbers that have consistently grown over the past few years.

An investment of $16 million in new funding is needed to support the home-delivered meals system across the five boroughs. Of this, $13 million is needed to solve the shortfall for weekday meals and $3 million will support weekend meals. These funds will help account for increases in raw food costs, including the associated costs of providing more diverse, culturally competent meals, and to support increase in costs for environmentally conscious disposables to serve food. Further, funding is necessary to account for the overall increase in meals served and rising costs of labor. It is critical that funds are provided to support fair salaries for home delivered meals staff, without whom this incredible program would not be possible.

Invest $1.7 Million to Achieve Pay Parity for NORC Staff

Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs) are housing developments or neighborhoods where a large number of older adults are aging in place. By providing support services such as case management, assistance with benefits applications, support groups, health and wellness services, older New Yorkers are able to remain in their homes and communities. NORCs help older adults avoid nursing home stays that can cost as much as $142,000 annually per person. Currently, there are 11,000 older adults spread across dozens of NORCs across New York City.

However, the NORC staff that provide who these critical support services earn, on average, $15,000 less than their DFTA-funded senior center counterparts, even if they are performing the same duties. As a result, the nonprofit organizations who run these critical programs often grapple with staff recruitment and retention. $1.7 million in new funding is necessary to achieve pay parity across DFTA programs and ensure fairness not only for staff, but for the older adults living in these NORCs.

Invest $1.8 Million for Service Coordination in Senior Housing

LiveOn NY recommends an increase to the per-unit allocation of service funds through the SARA service program administered by HRA. Currently, only $5,000 in funding is awarded per SARA unit that is occupied by a formerly homeless senior, which makes up 30% of a building’s units. Units occupied by older adults coming from the general Housing Connect lottery system are not eligible for any City funding for services, though it is expected that services are made available to these tenants. While LiveOn appreciates and strongly prefers the inclusive nature of the program as it stands, we do not believe that the currently-available funding is sufficient to ensure the type of robust programming that is required for older adults.

More specifically, in order to make budgets work, providers are often having to offer less services than are believed to be preferred by older residents or are unable to offer the predominantly female human service workers in their buildings the competitive salaries they deserve—and that providers want to give—due to the lack of funds. For example, many older adults would prefer an individual at the front desk at all times to support the physical wellbeing of tenants in the event of emergency. However, most budgets cannot allow for this 24/7 service, and there is no mandate to include such a position.

To address these challenges, and ensure funding is available for senior service providers to keep wages on pace with the recent prevailing wage increases, we recommend that HRA also make available a minimum of $3,000 per year per non-formerly homeless SARA unit, in addition to the $5,000 currently available for services for formerly homeless tenants. This funding would show a recognition from the City that older adults of all housing backgrounds can benefit from the light-touch services offered by a social worker in their place of residence. Further, the funding would recognize that while an individual might not initially present with significant need for assistance, we all can benefit from additional supportive services as we age. A $1.8 million increase in FY21 would allow an initial 600 SARA general lottery units to receive funding.

Invest $3.2 Million to Further Increase Equity Across Senior Centers

In 2017, when the Department for the Aging analyzed the budgetary needs of senior centers as part of the ‘Model Budget’ process, 38 centers were left out of this analysis. These were satellite senior centers and social clubs that will need to compete in the forthcoming RFP process, yet will be hamstrung from doing so due to the upfront disparity of funding. Using the average funds received by senior centers during the initial process, LiveOn NY estimates that $3.2 million in new senior center funding is needed to promote equity within these spaces.

Invest $3 Million for DFTA Infrastructure Funds

The FY19 Mayor’s Management Report saw an “increased utilization” of of the 249 DFTA contracted and 38 affiliated senior centers that served more than 124,000 older adults. Over 30,000 New Yorkers frequented these centers for activities and meals daily. A baselined capital fund is necessary for replacements, repairs, and upgrades that are critical to the continued functioning and ADA friendliness of the facility. For example, the release of the new home delivered meals RFP introduced the chilled or refrigerated meals format in addition to hot and frozen meals. In order to accomodate the production and the storage of this new format, home delivered meal providers need funding for equipment and increase their capacity to supply these meals. Meanwhile, as the hot summer moments approach and senior centers are often requisitioned into doubling as cooling centers, aging HVAC will need to be replaced or repaired especially because older adults are more vulnerable to heat stress. This $3 million new, baselined capital investment will ensure that the services contracted through the Department for the Aging are able to make needed repairs or investments, and do not fall into disrepair, today or in the years to come.

Invest $2 Million for DFTA Innovation Funds

Likewise, in order for senior centers to implement age-friendly improvements to their facilities, innovation expense funds are essential. In addition to more modest age-friendly improvements, funding can streamline the home delivered meal process and enhance efficiency with the purchase of new technology. For instance, home delivered meal providers are still tediously tracking their routes using pen and paper. Software would enable meal providers to track their deliveries in real time and allow for GPS mapping. Data would also be easier to see, collate, and analyze, which can be used to improve service delivery to the client and prioritize their needs. Further, the continued availability of $2 million in innovation expense funds will ensure that DFTA contract programs can continue to invest as new technology becomes available that can enhance the wellbeing of the older adult population.

Restore and Baseline One-Time $9.7 million funds

As the older adult population steadily grows, funding for services need to be maintained permanently to prevent any sort of disruption in critical programs. The $2.8 million for senior centers, $2.84 million for home delivered meals, $1 million for NORCs, and the $2.1 million for NYCHA community spaces should all be baselined and to sustain these programs moving forward. Further, by only making these investments on an annual basis rather than baselining the investments, providers are unable to use them to increase salaries or fill budgetary gaps as is most urgently needed.

Further, City Council’s $1 million case management investment should be baselined, as waiting lists for this program continue to grow, as they have done for years, indicating continued investment will be required to meet demand.

Fulfill Existing Promise of $10 Million in New Funds For Senior Centers

In 2017, $10 million was promised in the Model Senior Center process in FY21. Senior Centers even received documentation from DFTA and OMB indicating the amount of funding that they would receive. However, this $10 million promised was not included in the preliminary budget. This must be rectified, especially given the upcoming senior center RFP. Senior centers are cornerstones in their communities for older adults that provide everything from congregate meals to mental health services. Undercutting their funding would mean undercutting the seniors that frequent them.

Council Restorations and Investments in Senior Services Through Schedule C

City Council has long been a staunch supporter of City and district-wide senior services programs through allocations in Schedule C. We thank you for your investments and advocate for full restoration for all Senior Service Programs funded in Schedule C. These include NORCs, Support our Seniors, SuCasa, Senior Centers for Immigrant Populations, Health Aging Initiative, Social Adult Day, and others. We also support the growing call for an expansion of the Geriatric Mental Health Initiative by adding $950,000 to this Council initiative.

Continued Investments in Human Services Sector

Years of underfunding the sector have resulted in the entire human services workforce being some of the lowest compensated workers in New York City’s economy. A 3% COLA on the personal services line of all human services contracts at the cost of $48 million is needed in the FY21 budget to ensure this vital workforce does not slip further into poverty. The Mayor and City Council have taken important steps to begin to address this crisis with previous multi-year cost-of-living investments, but there is no COLA in place for future years. The 3% COLA is a needed investment while workers, advocates, providers, and elected officials continue to work together on more comprehensive solutions to ensure that human services workers finally earn fair pay for their labor.

LiveOn NY looks forward to working with Mayor de Blasio, City Council, DFTA, and all City agencies to make New York City a better place to age through a strong network of community-based services.

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LiveOn NY’s members provide the core, community-based services that allow older adults to thrive in their communities. With a base of more than 100 community-based organizations serving at least 300,000 older New Yorkers annually. Our members provide services ranging from senior centers, congregate and home-delivered meals, affordable senior housing with services, elder abuse prevention services, caregiver supports, case management, transportation, and NORCs. LiveOn NY advocates for increased funding for these vital services to improve both the solvency of the system and the overall capacity of community-based service providers.

LiveOn NY also administers a citywide outreach program and staffs a hotline that educates, screens and helps with benefit enrollment including SNAP, SCRIE and others, and also administers the Rights and Information for Senior Empowerment (RISE) program to bring critical information directly to seniors on important topics to help them age well in their communities.

[1] Center for an Urban Future, New York’s Older Adult Population is Booming Statewide, February 2019

[2] Meals on Wheels of America, Delivering So Much More than Just a Meal Fact Sheet, United States, 2018

[3] For home delivered meals, in FY17 DFTA reimbursed providers on the average $9.58 compared to the national average rate of $11.06.

LiveOn NY Releases New Report, Beyond Bricks: Affordable Senior Housing with Services

For Immediate Release

WRITTEN BY: Jenna Gladfelter, Public Policy Associate

CONTACT: Katelyn Andrews, Director of Public Policy, kandrews@liveon-ny.org, 212-398-6565 ext. 244

New York, NY – On Tuesday, February 25th, 2020, LiveOn NY hosted an event entitled Beyond Bricks: Affordable Senior Housing Symposium — the largest event in New York City to focus on both aging and housing. Stemming from our work with our Affordable Senior Housing Coalition, Beyond Bricks brought together housing executives, management companies, elected officials, and other representatives from public, private, and governmental organizations within the housing and aging services industries.

Deputy Mayor Vicki Been delivers keynote address

Deputy Mayor Vicki Been kicked off the symposium by delivering the keynote address. Been has extensive experience fighting to make New York a more affordable and equitable city; now, she leads the Administration’s efforts to grow and diversify New York City's economy, invest in emerging industries across the five boroughs, build a new generation of affordable housing, and help New Yorkers secure good-paying jobs. The Deputy Mayor laid the groundwork for the day by sharing about the City’s commitment to affordable housing, and the steps that are being taken to help older adults obtain and secure affordable housing.

Our first panel, entitled Developing Health: How the State Can Connect Health & Housing, focused on the intersection of health and housing and how the State can best leverage existing, low cost community-based services to address the housing need. With Lauren Weisenfeld of The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation as moderator, we were joined by Nicole Ferreria of NYS Homes & Community Renewal, John Cochran of the NY State Office for the Aging, Michael Gusmano of Rutgers University, and Sydelle Knepper of SKA Marin. In partnership with Selfhelp Community Services, Michael Gusmano completed a study of Selfhelp housing residents compared to older adults in the surrounding community. On average, Selfhelp residents had a 30% less rate of hospitalization, and were discharged one day earlier than nonresidents. Overall, the findings of this study suggests that investments in housing with supportive social services have the potential to reduce hospital use, and thereby decrease medical spending for older adults and enable them to remain in their homes longer.

Council Member Cornegy Jr, Council Member Salamanca Jr, Public Advocate Williams, & Scott Short of RiseBoro Community Partnership

For our second panel, we were joined by Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Council Member Robert E. Cornegy Jr, and Scott Short, CEO of RiseBoro Community Partnership. The topic of discussion was entitled The Drafting Table: What Commitments are Needed to Meet the Demand for Senior Housing? Council Member Salamanca reported that 63,000 New Yorkers slept in shelters the night before. “We need more housing for these seniors,” said Salamanca. Public Advocate Williams recognized NIMBY-ism, or Not in My Backyard, as a real obstacle to building new housing; but the solution is to involve the community in the process. “There are some communities who want to remain the same — but if the city looks like it does in 100 years, then we failed.”

Mackenzie Price, PhD from Frameworks Institute, a nonprofit think tank that advances the mission-driven sector’s capacity to frame the public discourse about social and scientific issues, delivered closing remarks for the event. Frameworks has done a great deal of research regarding both housing and aging. Price challenged attendees to consider how they are framing their messaging of affordable senior housing. “It’s not just what you say; it’s how you say it,” said Price.

LiveOn NY also released its new report, entitled Beyond Bricks: Affordable Senior Housing with Services, which highlights several of the affordable senior housing models throughout the city, as well as individuals who live in them. The report also includes targeted recommendations, including increasing city subsidy for service coordinators, making investments on the state level, and reviving the Federal HUD 202 program entirely.

Statement on the Fiscal Year 2021 State Executive Budget

For Immediate Release: January 22, 2020
Questions: Katelyn Andrews, Director of Public Policy, kandrews@liveon-ny.org

There are small victories to be encouraged by in Governor Cuomo’s Fiscal Year 2021 budget release. Most notably, LiveOn NY is pleased with the positive steps forward associated with $798,000 in new funds for the Wellness-in-Nutrition program; continued funding for Affordable Senior Housing capital; continued funding of $15 million to address unmet needs for seniors across the state; and $868,000 in new funds for in-home and community services for older adults. With that said, we are dismayed by the continued neglect of cost of living adjustments (COLA) for the workforce contracted through the New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA); by disregarding these needed wage increases, the state continues to put the human services workforce at financial risk as they age. Further, we are disheartened by the continued stagnation of the NYSOFA budget as a whole. While the proposal’s overall budget has increased by 1.9%, funds for older New Yorkers decreased by .8%, despite the fact that seniors are the fastest growing demographic in our state. Progress within our state must be enjoyed equitably across the lifespan and at LiveOn NY we know that there’s more that can and should be done to make this a reality. As budget negotiations continue, we implore the state to do more for older New Yorkers and the cost-effective system of services that serves them, while ensuring older adults are held harmless from feeling the effects of any changes to Medicaid.

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