LiveOn NY Testifies on NYC Emergency Meal Transition

New York City Council
Committee on Aging, Chair, Council Member Chin
Committee on Economic Development, Chair, Council Member Vallone
September 20, 2021
Oversight - Home Delivered and Emergency Meal Services for Seniors through DFTA’s HDM Program and GetFoodNYC

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

LiveOn NY’s members include more than 100 community-based nonprofits that provide core services which allow all New Yorkers to thrive in our communities as we age, including senior centers, home‐delivered meals, affordable senior housing, elder abuse prevention, caregiver support, NORCs, and case management. With our members, we work to make New York a better place to age.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity was deeply exacerbated by issues not only economic, but related to access as well, as older adults were advised to “stay home” to mitigate risk of contracting the virus. Senior Centers, which offer nutritious meals to older adults, were forced to close their doors virtually overnight and even today these spaces operate with significant capacity reductions. Recognizing that many individuals relied on Senior Center meals for more than half of their daily nutritional intake, in the Spring of 2020, an emergency home-delivered meal program was instituted, which became known as GetFood. The City’s emergency GetFood program scaled rapidly to meet the growing need for nutritional assistance yet represented a temporary solution to a more systemic hunger problem. 

Today, that very program, GetFood, which laudably worked to keep thousands of New Yorkers fed throughout the pandemic, is poised to come to a close with preparations underway for clients to transition to alternative or existing meal programs by October 15th. For the more than 16,000 older adults still receiving meals through GetFood as of August, the success of this transition will be critical to their ability to remain nourished.

LiveOn NY supports the City’s overarching goal to ensure a seamless transition of clients to existing meal systems without interruption of ensured nourishment. We also recognize that transitioning such a large number of meal recipients from the GetFood program to the traditional home-delivered meal program creates questions of immediate capacity of the current HDM providers. To the extent that capacity to immediately absorb a potential apex of 16,000 clients is unfeasible within a particular catchment area, we recognize that short-term subcontracting of meals might yield the desired continuity of service.

However, it is critical that the City goes beyond ensuring continuity of service through this short-term transition of GetFood contracts, to instead executing long-term investments aimed at rooting out older adult hunger more holistically. Reaching this goal cannot be done without making immediate and significant investments in the non-profit home-delivered meal system that is best positioned to make meaningful strides towards this goal.

To execute this goal, LiveOn NY recommends the following:

1. Within the November plan, the Administration must invest $16.6 million to serve existing clients within the traditional home-delivered meal program. This investment will allow the Department for the Aging to increase the reimbursement rate to reflect the rising cost of raw food, changes in the labor market, and heightened costs of insurance, gas, and packaging. Currently, the reimbursement rate for home-delivered meals is capped at $9.58 cents, an arbitrary rate irreflective of the empirically verified average reimbursement rate for urban areas of $11.78 — as found by Mathematica in 2015. The current rate creates real challenges, leaving barely enough for provider’s to offer delivery drivers minimum wage, competing for the same market as Uber which, according to Glassdoor, pays roughly $48,685 annually for similar work. The effect? Only a quick search on Indeed will bring you 18 ads for delivery drivers within New York City’s home-delivered meal system -- that means many of LiveOn NY’s members are spending time unsuccessfully attempting to hire home-delivered meal drivers due to low wages set by government contracts. Those 18 current vacancies represent 18 meal routes that somehow still need to be staffed, and exist at a time when these contracts are about to absorb upwards of 16,000 additional clients. Quite simply, not investing in this system is a recipe for disaster.

2. In addition, the Administration must invest the required funding to the GetFood clients transitioning to the home-delivered meal contracts, at the higher rate. Both this funding and the requested $16.6 million in funding for existing HDM clients should be allocated not only through June 30th of FY22, but in the outyears as well, as it is reality that an individual who is hungry on June 30th, will be hungry on July 1st as well. 

3. Within the November plan, the Administration must make a $3.6 million capital investment in van purchases by traditional HDM providers contracting with the Department for the Aging. Such an investment would, quite literally, put the wheels in motion towards expanded capacity for this mission driven system to serve GetFood clients that will continue to require meal delivery services long term. Further, such an investment would recognize that the expanded demand for home-delivered meals is unlikely to be a short-term, emergency situation, as demand for home-delivered meals has historically risen year-after-year, a fact mirrored by the rapidly expanding older adult demographic citywide. Appendix A offers cost-estimates supporting this request. 

4. Expand investments in case management to ensure all clients can be screened for case management eligibility and receive this critical service should they be eligible. Further, exacerbated by the long-term health impacts of isolation and other stressors experienced over the past year and a half, it is likely that some if not many of the 16,000 meal recipients may require some level of case management to remain independent and safe in their communities. This demand comes on top of consistent increases in demand for case management that have historically led to waiting lists for case managers, requiring additional funding, each year.

5. Beyond this, the City must begin including COLAs and inflation factors into all City human services contracts. Without this, the wages of workers under these contracts, the majority of whom are women and Black and brown individuals, are slated to remain stagnant in a City where the cost of living is notoriously high. The decision to actively avoid building in the true costs of a core function of City government - ensuring the provision of services for those most in need - creates inaccurate outyear budget projections irreflective of what it will actually take to do business, and all but ensures wage stagnation for this Black and brown workforce. 

To close, I would like to go beyond the statistics and the data to highlight the point of all of this work: the people, each with their own story, family, history, and uniqueness all their own. During the pandemic, we heard from one provider, JASA, about their rushing to deliver an emergency food box to an older client who reached out with only about “two potatoes” left in the house. Similarly gut wrenching, was the story of an older adult who had been surviving on cat food after fear and fatigue left her unable to get groceries; in this instance, our member, Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center stepped in to ensure she had the food she needed. This is the need we are confronting and the constituents who we put at risk when underfunding their very source of respite. 

The recommendations above are not “nice to have” solutions to hypothetical issues, they are the reality of what New York City needs to commit to in order to ensure that no individual opens an empty cupboard in the richest City in the world.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Leading Aging Advocates Present Fresh Agenda for Making New York City a Better Place to Age

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and a historic election, LiveOn NY and Hunter College’s Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging present new ideas to help the City’s future leadership seize the opportunity to ensure that New Yorkers of all backgrounds can thrive as they age

August 11, 2021 (New York, NY) – LiveOn NY, a senior advocacy and membership organization, and Hunter College’s Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging, released “Aging is Everyone’s Business: Policies for Building a New York for All Ages,” a comprehensive policy agenda that seeks to inspire the City’s incoming elected leaders to make New York a better, more equitable place to age.

The policy agenda provides smart, actionable solutions in nine domains that affect the lives of all New Yorkers: good governance, access to food, housing, technology, financial security, social engagement, human services, healthcare, and infrastructure.

These recommendations are critical in the wake of a pandemic that exposed devastating inequities among New Yorkers of different socioeconomic groups and put older New Yorkers of color at highest risk. LiveOn NY and Brookdale are releasing this vision at a time when New York City is only months away from a major political transition; one that will usher in a new Mayor, a new Comptroller, four out of five new Borough Presidents, and where nearly three out of four City Council members will be new.

With New Yorkers living longer and healthier lives, this agenda envisions a future where everyone has the opportunity to grow old with dignity and confidence. Every recommendation in this agenda considers first and foremost the needs and experiences of the most marginalized older adults, including those who are lower-income, racial minorities, LGBTQIA and gender non-conforming, immigrants, and those who are living with disabilities.

Allison Nickerson, Executive Director of LiveOn NY, said “Our City is approaching a moment where we have the chance to change our course and re-envision how we view aging across the lifespan. This aging agenda offers the City a framework to utilize that ensures all New Yorkers can live in an equitable and just city where we can all confidently age in place.”

Dr. Ruth Finkelstein, the executive director of Hunter College’s Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging, said “Disasters reveal all the cracks in our foundation. The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception -- stark inequities were revealed, stemming from systemic racism, ageism, and under-investment in poor communities.  This visionary aging agenda challenges the new administration to address these realities and to make New York a great place for everyone to live and grow old.”

Examples of recommendations offered in the report include:

• Create an emergency food plan to ensure that all older adults have uninterrupted access to food before the next pandemic or natural disaster happens.

• Commit New York City to fighting ageism in all of its forms, along with racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination.

• Build or preserve 1,000 units of affordable senior housing with fully funded services, per year.

• Make basic technology education and training available to every older New Yorker so they are able to meet basic needs online.

• Open public schools after school hours so that community-based organizations can run social programming that brings older adults together.

• Boost the salaries of the nonprofit workers who serve older New Yorkers.

• Expand the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) program to roll back and freeze rents to 30 percent of income for lower-income older New Yorkers and take other big steps towards curbing the homelessness crisis among older adults.

• Invest in programs and training that help older patients access telehealth.

• Expand and increase funding for the MTA’s E-Hail Program, which provides on-demand, door-to-door service for New Yorkers with mobility impairments.

• Prioritize street maintenance that removes hazards to pedestrians.

Read the full report here: https://bit.ly/3CxLeYV

---

Press Contact: 

Katelyn Andrews, Director of Public Policy, LiveOn NY kandrews@liveon-ny.org, 609-458-6294

Brianna Paden-Williams, Communications and Policy Associate, bpaden-williams@liveon-ny.org 908-868-7681

Debbie Raskin, Hunter College, draskin@rubenstein.com, 212-843-8028

About LiveOn NY

LiveOn NY is an advocacy and membership organization. Our members include more than 100 community-based nonprofits that provide core services which allow all New Yorkers to thrive in our communities as we age, including senior centers, home‐delivered meals, affordable senior housing, elder abuse prevention, caregiver support, NORCs and case management. With our members, we work to make New York a better place to age. Visit us at, www.liveon-ny.org/

Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging

The Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging is CUNY’s aging research and policy center, located at Hunter College. Since 1974, the Brookdale Center has been working to improve the lives of older adults through research, professional development, and advancements in policy and practice. We work to ensure that aging is framed not as a disease, but as another stage in the life course. Visit us at https://brookdale.org/.

###

---

New York State Testimony on the Home Care Workforce: Challenges and Solutions

New York State Assembly
Senate Standing Committee on Aging
Senate Standing Committee on Health
 Senate Standing Committee on Labor
Chairs May, Rivera, and Ramos
July 27, 2021
Nursing Home, Assisted Living, and Home Care Workforce – Challenges and Solutions

Thank you Chairs May, Rivera, and Ramos for the opportunity to testify and highlight both the challenges and solutions in relation to supporting the homecare, nursing home, and assisted living workforce in New York State.

LiveOn NY represents the diverse network of nonprofit organizations that help older New Yorkers to thrive in their communities. Through advocacy, mobilization and coalition building, we advance systemic change to ensure that New York is an equitable and inclusive place to age regardless of wealth, racial disparities and other barriers.

With a base of more than 100 community-based organizations, LiveOn NY’s members provide core services throughout New York, including senior centers, congregate and home‐delivered meals, affordable senior housing, elder abuse prevention services, caregiver supports, transportation, NORCs, case management, and home care.

Today, we have an opportunity to discuss a key pillar in the continuum of care that enables thousands of older New Yorkers and people with disabilities to age in place: home care. In many ways home care, along with the entire continuum of community-based services, are the critical bulwarks to ensuring individuals can age in communities, rather than in institutional settings, as research has shown to be preferred. 

Unfortunately, however, like much of the network of services that supports an individual's ability to age in place, our home care system relies on a workforce that is both underappreciated and underpaid. This is not an accident, it is a policy decision.

Currently, the median annual earnings of New York’s home care workers are only $22,000. To put that in perspective, the median salary for fast food workers in New York state has grown to $24,429. As fast food workers and others have earned laudable, hard fought wage increases, the gains only further demonstrate the work that needs to be done in other industries, namely home care, to ensure all workers receive a livable, competitive wage.

Without wage increases in the home care industry that are commensurate and simultaneous to gains in other industries, the subsequent wage compression will only serve to exacerbate an already strained industry. A recent study of home care associations found that on average 17% of home care positions went unfilled, likely due to low wages for an emotionally and physically demanding role. “As a result of these staff shortages, many individuals with unmet home care needs experience hospitalizations that might otherwise be unnecessary, and many enter nursing homes, a costly alternative to in-home care that became especially dangerous during the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Given the high cost associated with the alternatives to home care, it leads one to question if we are spending more on less desirable alternatives than we would be by appropriately funding the work of home care in itself. This hypothesis has recently been confirmed by CUNY research, which found that “wage increases and health insurance coverage for the State’s home care workers would require significant resources, but those costs would be more than offset by the resulting savings, tax revenues, and economic spillover effects.”  Further, as articulated in the report, “improving compensation for home care workers would help to alleviate the existing shortages in the occupation, and also spur employment growth in other fields.”

The lack of investment in home care attendants is a striking example of the lack of a long-term strategy around care in our state. Given this, LiveOn shares our thanks to the legislature, and Senator May and Assembly Member Kelles in particular, for sponsoring and passing S4652 / A6590, a bill to Reimagine Long-Term Care in New York State. We encourage Governor Cuomo to sign this legislation upon delivery, so that New York can immediately get to work in creating a more caring and coordinated long-term care system.

This work is critical, not only in response to COVID-19, but also in advancing the State’s overall efforts to affirmatively promote equity.

Today, the vast majority of home care attendants, as well as unpaid caregivers on whose shoulders the burden of care often falls during shortages, are women. More specifically, more than 90% of the homecare workforce are women, one in four individuals are immigrants, and more than 60% are individuals of color. Should these demographic trends continue within this rapidly expanding job market, a State decision to continue to provide low-wages to home care attendants would only serve to further engrain our deepest societal inequities, all but ensuring the likelihood of home care attendant’s living and aging into poverty. Therefore in addressing the home care wages and resulting shortage, New York will also be making an overdue step towards addressing both racial and gender wealth gaps, and building a more caring economy.

To make strides towards this urgent need for equity and an improved system of long-term care, LiveOn NY’s offers the following recommendations:

Recommendations

First, enact and fund Fair Pay for Home Care, S5374 (May) / A6329 (Gottfried). The purpose of this legislation is to “establish a base wage for home care workers at 150% of the regional minimum wage,” thereby ensuring the role of home care workers remains competitive, at least in comparison to positions funded at minimum wage. Without such a mandate and corresponding funding from the government, wage compression will continue to diminish the viability of this demanding, highly emotional role, thereby exacerbating the existing home care attendant shortage.

Simply put, this legislation is good policy. It is caring: ensuring that older New Yorkers and individuals with disabilities will have access to the support of professionals who are paid appropriately for their work. It is equitable: immediately and directly lifting the wages of women, immigrants, and individuals of color who comprise this workforce. It is fiscally responsible: with research finding the potential to create 18,000 good paying jobs, with an associated economic impact of $3.6 billion. And it is what New Yorkers want: creating a system of care that betters the odds that we all can one day age in the communities we know and love, as is preferred.

In reality, we can’t afford not to institute fair pay. 

Second, provide funding for New York State Office for the Aging’s (NYSOFA) Expanded In Home Services for the Elderly Program (EISEP). Currently, there are thousands of older New Yorkers on waiting lists for home care services and other supports, such as transportation and case management, through the EISEP program. While exacerbated by COVID-19, waiting lists for this program are not new. LiveOn NY has been tracking waiting lists for these programs for years, and given limited state funding, the waiting list for case management services in New York City alone have not dipped below 1,000 individuals waiting for services since 2016. Just last year, total waiting lists for EISEP services were as high as 11,000 individuals statewide. 

In response, LiveOn NY was pleased to see the legislature fight for an allocation of $8 million in the FY22 budget towards addressing the waiting list, however, addressing the waiting list in full would have required a total investment of $27 million. While federal stimulus funds have helped address waiting lists in some cases, this need is not going away; particularly as our state's older adult population continues to rapidly grow, outpacing the occasional increase in funds allocated to NYSOFA to address point-in-time waiting lists. 

As we look to the Fiscal Year 2023 budget, it is critical that the State provides the funding necessary to support the EISEP program in full, both by allocating enough funding to address existing waiting lists, and looking at historical waiting list data to project and allocate funding towards future need. This, in addition to the Fair Pay for Homecare legislation, will ensure both that home care workers are adequately supported, and that older New Yorkers living above the Medicaid threshold have access to home care and community-based supports, rather than languishing on waiting lists hoping for care.

Third, work with providers and consumers to determine a path to ending the State’s 24 hour rule, which mandates that workers tasked with 24-hour shifts be compensated for 13 hours. LiveOn NY’s members, such as the Chinese-American Planning Council, have been on the forefront of standing with their workers in advocating to the State to redress the inequitable pay experienced by workers under this rule. Given the legal complexities created and the pay disparities, it is critical that the state not only amend this rule, but provide the funding necessary to hold providers harmless while instituting any such changes determined to be appropriate.

Finally, expand investment in affordable senior housing with services. As we look to retool the long-term care system at-large, and in recognizing that the growth of the older adult population will require some level of congregate support to reach the scale of support that will be necessary. LiveOn NY recommends New York State prioritize investments in affordable housing with services for older New Yorkers. Once stably and affordably housed, the availability of a service coordinator in buildings’ has proven to lower hospitalization costs and delay or altogether negate the need for institutionalization. By investing in the light-touch supports that might be necessary to ensure individuals can age in communities, as is preferred, New York can preclude unnecessary nursing home utilization and support an individual’s ability to age in place. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and we look forward to continuing to work together to address the needs of home care attendants across our state.

LiveOn NY Final Look at the 2021 New York State Legislative Session

New York, NY – LiveOn NY is proud to see several bills that we have supported pass the legislature prior to session ending on June 11th. From affordable housing, to investing in the care economy, to combatting elder abuse and food insecurity, each piece of legislation passed marks a meaningful step forward for all New Yorkers as we age.

“These legislative wins are a signal of progress as we move towards a state where New Yorkers of all ages can grow old with the necessary legislation that supports everyone across the lifespan,” said Allison Nickerson, Executive Director of LiveOn NY. “We hope to see these bills signed into law, and to then build on this progress to create a better New York for all ages.”

We at LiveOn NY are committed to continuing this momentum into next year’s legislative session, and we look forward to working with our legislative champions to realize more victories, both legislative and budgetary, for older New Yorkers.

In the immediate, many of the legislative victories below require a signature from the Governor to be enacted, with this in mind, we encourage the Executive Branch to ensure these meaningful bills are swiftly signed into law.

Legislative Victories

• Investing in Care Act S4652 / A6590 (May/Kelles)

  • Directs the commissioner of economic development, in consultation with the commissioner of health, labor and OCFS to study, develop, and implement a long-term strategy to support the growth of the caregiving industry in New York state.

• Reimagining Long Term Care Task Force S598 / A3922 (May/Cruz)

  • Creates a task force to study the state of long-term care services in this state”

• Statewide SNAP Restaurant Meals Program S64 / A1524 (Persaud/Reyes)

  • Establishes a statewide restaurant meals program as part of the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP)

• Elder Abuse Enhanced Multidisciplinary Team S6528 / A7634 (Persaud/Cruz)

  • Establishes an elder abuse enhanced multidisciplinary team program under the office for the aging consisting of professionals for complex cases of elder abuse, including financial exploitation, physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. This piece of legislation has been a priority for LiveOn NY, AARP NY, Lifespan of Greater Rochester and our partners.

• 5-Year Housing Capital Plan S2193 / A3807 (Kavanagh/Cymbrowitz)

  • Establishes a requirement for the state to create and fund a 5-year capital plan for the development, preservation, and capital improvement of affordable housing. A long term, sustained commitment to affordable housing from the state is necessary if we ever hope to meet our housing needs. The 5-Year Capital Plan bill has been a top priority for LiveOn NY, the New York Housing Conference and our partners.

• Affordable Housing Insurance S5231 / A5574 (Kavanagh/Cymbrowitz)

  • Requires the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) in coordination with the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (HCR) to study and report on the recent significant increases in insurance premiums for housing units and to make recommendations to the Executive Chamber and the Legislature to address the causes for such increases.

• Allowing Compassionate Care-Giving Visitors S614 / A1052 (May/Bronson)

  • An act to create a standardized program to allow personal care and compassionate care visitors at nursing homes.

Work Still to Do

• LGBT Bill of Rights S85 / A7807 (Hoylman/Bronson)

  1. An act to establish the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender long-term care facility residents' bill of rights.

• Elder Parole S15 / A3475 (Hoylman/De La Rosa)

  • An act related to parole eligibility for certain incarcerated persons age fifty-five.

• Fair and Timely Parole S1415 / A4231 (Rivera/Weprin)

  • An act related to findings of the state board of parole necessary for discretionary release of incarcerated persons on parole.

• Home Care Jobs Innovation Program S4222 / A7540 (May/Kim)

  • An act to establish the home care jobs innovation program and the home care jobs innovation fund.

---

To learn more about LiveOn NY’s legislative priorities, contact Director of Public Policy, Katelyn Andrews, at kandrews@liveon-ny.org.

LiveOn NY Testifies at City Council Aging Hearing on Senior Residences and Communities During the Pandemic

New York City Council
Committee on Aging
Chair Council Member Chin
June 22, 2021
Oversight - Serving Seniors in Senior Residences and Communities During the Pandemic

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

LiveOn NY’s members include more than 100 community-based nonprofits that provide core services which allow all New Yorkers to thrive in our communities as we age, including senior centers, home‐delivered meals, affordable senior housing, elder abuse prevention, caregiver support, NORCs, and case management. With our members, we work to make New York a better place to age.

With our City on the road to recovery, we are presented with the opportunity to re-envision how we serve older adults in senior residences and throughout our community. The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered the growing need for aging services as well as shined a light on the visible inequities in supporting all New Yorkers as we age. 

Senior Residences 

While New Yorker’s have heard of the stark and heart wrenching realities that took place in nursing homes during the COVID-19 crisis, the dichotomous experiences of independent senior residences has been less explored to date. While loss was a reality across New York, HUD 202s and Senior Affordable Rental Assistance (SARA) buildings fared significantly better than one might have feared. The challenges in this relative success were significant, as providers were not only worried about safety, but of ensuring older residents remained fed and avoided social isolation during this time.

The stars in confronting these challenges were not only the non-profit organizations that stepped up to connect older residents with the City’s emergency feeding programs, or in other pop-up programs such as LiveOn NY’s work with World Central Kitchen, Citymeals, and others, but the Service Coordinators who remained a lifeline for tenants throughout the pandemic. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the availability of service coordinators in buildings saved lives during COVID-19.

Unfortunately, not all senior residences can afford to hire service coordinators or staff the building to the extent that would be ideal. As the City looks to become a leader in public health, this, creating a fund for senior residences to hire service coordinators to assist older New Yorkers in the enhanced needs that come with aging in place, is the empirically proven first step in that direction. Our member, Selfhelp Community Services, has research proving the effectiveness of this investment, as the presence of a service coordinator in buildings, even prior to COVID, meant reduced health care expenditures, namely: lower emergency room use, shorter stays per use, and increased use of primary care services.

Further, as the population ages, it is critical that increasing  investments be made by the City to meet demand to combat this crisis-level shortage of housing supply.

Many older New York rely on affordable senior housing with services to comfortably age in place. The need for affordable senior housing with services continues to rise with many older New Yorkers living on fixed incomes that cannot keep up with rising rent cost; experiencing mobility challenges that limit housing options within an aging rental-stock. In 2016, LiveOn NY found that an estimated 200,000 older adults were on waiting lists for housing through the HUD202 program in New York City. 

In addition, NYCHA developments also represent one of the few affordable housing options for older adults in our City. Just as the buildings are aging, so are the tenants that occupy them, making the need for quality, safe services in NYCHA paramount to the success of the community. 

• The City must work to continue to increase capital funding for public housing to support ventilation upgrades and other critical infrastructure improvements that will improve both residential and community space within NYCHA;

• Increase the supply of affordable housing by investing in the construction and preservation of 8,000 units of affordable housing annually, including 1,000 units with services to be set aside for older New Yorkers. This recommendation is included in the New York Housing Conference led United 4 Housing Coalition report which lays out numerous goals to equitably address our City’s affordable housing crisis.

• Restore and baseline all one-time funds for NYCHA Social Clubs. All funding for senior programming in NYCHA community spaces should not rely on one-shot funding from the Administration, but should be sustainably baselined and incorporated into the full scope of DFTA services;

Communities

While strides have been made, particularly with the reopening of senior centers, there is still more to be done. For years, the Department for the Aging (DFTA) remains critically under-resourced, receiving less than half of one percent of the overall City budget, in contrast to the rapidly increasing older adult population. 

New York City is entering a critical phase of the recovery, as we progress forward in building a New York for all ages. The City must continue to show its commitment to older adults with critical investments in senior services:  

The City should support essential services that include: 

• Restoring All City Council Aging Discretionary Funds To FY20 Levels 

• Restore and Baseline all Executive One-Time Funds, including funds for NYCHA Senior Centers. 

• Use FY21 accruals to cover costs associated with reopening in person senior services as well as $30 million for HVACs repairs, safety precautions, and Senior Center upgrades. 

• $48 Million Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for essential human services workers, who have been on the frontlines throughout the pandemic. 

• $16.6 million for Home-delivered Meals that would provide $13.6 million for weekday meals and $3 million for weekend and holiday meals, both to increase capacity to meet new demand and bring the per-meal rate to the national average. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.