Testimony on New York City Executive Budget

New York City Council

Finance Committee

Chair Brannan

Committee on Aging

Chair Hudson

May 24, 2023

Executive Budget Hearing - Finance

My name is Brianna Paden-Williams and I am the Communications and Policy Associate at LiveOn NY. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

LiveOn NY’s members include more than 110 community-based nonprofits that provide core services which allow all New Yorkers to thrive in our communities as we age, such as older adult centers, home-delivered meals, affordable senior housing, NORCs, and home care. LiveOn NY is also home to the Reframing Aging NYC Initiative, part of the national Reframing Aging Initiative aimed to counteract ageism and improve the way policymakers, stakeholders, and the public think about aging and older people. With our members, we work to make New York a better place to age.

Background

When LiveOn NY testified last on this budget we were ringing the bell on a catastrophic divestment from older adult services throughout the city with inflation ravaging many of our food providers and waitlists for homecare and case management growing by the day. Somehow the crisis has only worsened with additional cuts to key programs like Home Delivered Meals and Older Adult Centers that would see our capacity for reducing food insecurity diminished and centers threatened with closure. What started as a $64 million dollar hole has been dug deeper now totaling $76 million when the Mayor’s $12 million dollar cuts are factored in, not to mention the lack of funding for all other programs that already have so many New Yorkers waiting for service.

With older adults as the fastest growing population in the city, and a disproportionate growth in older adult poverty, the need for these services will only grow in the coming years. Divestment coupled with increased pressure on the system is a recipe for disaster and potentially the start of a vicious cycle for providers that will further cut our ability to provide community-based services to older New Yorkers trying to stay in their homes and remain independent. This budget must be a turning point in our city’s ageist tendencies to cut costs on the backs of the people who built New York, and instead actively invest in creating a better place to age for us all.

Therefore, LiveOn NY recommends the following investments, many of which were championed in the City Council’s Preliminary Budget Response, and we hope to see continued prioritization of as the City reaches a final budget:

Critical Investments in NYC Aging (also known as the Department for the Aging or DFTA) Services

Combat Hunger

The Mayor must reverse his destructive cuts to aging and make the sector whole with $64 million in additional investments including:

This investment would include an additional $14 million to address the inflation cost for raw foods, gas and other items for home-delivered meals as well as $46 million for inflation cost for congregate meals in Older Adult Centers. LiveOn NY found in a recent study that our member organizations have experienced an average 27% increase in the cost per meal compared to last year due to significant inflationary cost. For some organizations, they have run out of money in their contracts to continue to sustain the capacity of the community-services including home-delivered meals and congregate meals. The inflationary cost to provide meals to older adults has put a financial strain on many providers over the past year forcing many providers to reckon with uncertainty of being able to sustain in the future.

Furthermore, this investment would provide $4 million to support weekend and holiday home-delivered meals which are not provided through current contracts and did not receive the same investment to address reimbursement rate as weekday meals received.

Support the Workforce

The City must just pay all essential human service workers a liveable and equitable wage.

Poverty level government contracts have left human services workers severely underpaid for years. This workforce that is composed mainly of women and people of people have kept New York City afloat throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet the wages of these workers have remained stagnant despite the rising cost of living in New York City. While last year’s budget included a $60 million baseline funding for human services workers, this does not fully address the pay and gender inequity that is crippling our City.

As a result organizations are faced with increased staff turnover as underpaid staff leave nonprofits for better paying jobs in other sectors, depriving New Yorkers of services from the most experienced, well-trained staff and jeopardizing high-quality services. It is essential for the human services providers to have sustainable funding to meet the needs of our communities while also having sufficient wages for ourselves and families. To address this crisis, the City must implement changes that address the inequitable pay of human services workers. LiveOn NY recommends the City establish, fund, and enforce a 6.5% automatic annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) on all human services contracts.

Promote Community Care

Allocate an additional $29.4 million to address the unmet needs of older adults through Aging NYC funded services including:

●      An additional $7.5 million investment to expand digital literacy programming including devices to facilitate virtual programming for older adults as well as expand technology programming accessibility and to support technology expansion

●      $1.4 million to support continued growth in demand of the case management program to ensure all clients can be screened and receive this critical service should they be eligible. Exacerbated by the long-term health impacts of isolation and other stressors experienced during COVID, many older adults will require some level of case management to remain independent in their communities. In a recent survey, LiveOn NY estimated that more than 1,300 clients are currently on waiting lists for case management. This comes on top of consistent demand increases for case management that have historically led to waiting lists, requiring additional funding each year, and indicating a need for early and significant investments to avoid the continued cycle of recurring waiting lists.

●      $15.4 million to support continued growth in demand of the home care program, including expanding the hours of home care service available to older adults requiring additional support.

●      $5 million to support communications and marketing outreach for NYC Aging funded programming for community-based organization outreach to older adults

Address the Housing Crisis

Allocate funding to develop 1,000 units of affordable senior housing with services per year.

LiveOn NY joins the United for Housing Coalition in calling for a $4 billion annual investment to fund a comprehensive affordable housing plan that must include a minimum target of 1,000 new units of affordable senior housing with services per year, as part of a total target to construct no fewer than 8,000 new units of housing dedicated to serving extremely low income and homeless households annually. As waitlists and limited housing stock pose an acute challenge for older New Yorkers, a considerable investment and consistent unit targets per year will be critical to paving a pathway out of this crisis.

This investment would build upon the clear success of the City’s Senior Affordable Rental Assistance (SARA) program, which has created community assets in every borough, including examples such as WSFSSH’s Tres Puentes in the Bronx and HANAC’s Corona Senior Residences in Queens. These two building are examples of what is possible through housing, with Tres Puentes not only offering 175 new units of affordable senior housing, but providing space for a new Older Adult Center, health center and pharmacy on site, and the Corona Residences offering 67 affordable senior units built to the environmentally friendly Passive Housing standards and a new Pre-K on the ground floor.

LiveOn NY also recommends the City increase the per unit reimbursement rate for SARA services from $5,000 per unit, to $7,500 per unit, allowing for increased staff to more adequately address social isolation and significant case assistance needs.

This increased reimbursement rate would make services better available to support an aging and formerly homeless tenant population, in turn enabling more older New Yorkers to age in place and avoid institutionalization.

Support Local Needs

Fund an additional $2.6 Million for Support our Seniors and continued full funding for all discretionary initiatives.

Many programs, particularly smaller, hyper-local nonprofits that serve hard-to-reach senior populations rely on discretionary funding to ensure their communities can be served. Therefore, it is critical that all aging services discretionary are fully funded in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget.

In addition, LiveOn NY is requesting an additional $2.6 million for the Support Our Senior Initiative that would provide an additional $50,00 per district on average to better support older New Yorkers, in particular for services or programs including transportation, social isolation, technology and more.

Conclusion

To truly make New York a better place to age, where we can all thrive in community, we must build a caring economy that supports all older New Yorkers regardless of their background. From a livable and competitive wage for all human services workers to equitable policies and programs that support all New Yorkers, New York can become a more equitable place to age.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

LiveOn NY Celebrates Older Americans Month with SAY YOUR AGE as Calls for More Investment in Aging Grows.

LiveOn NY Celebrates Older Americans Month with SAY YOUR AGE as Calls for More Investment in Aging Grows. 

 The Campaign Will Feature Older New Yorkers Who Challenge Stereotypes 

and Encourage the Public and Policymakers to Rethink Aging

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK, May 18, 2023 – Today, LiveOn NY, an advocacy organization launched an anti-ageism campaign called SAY YOUR AGE to change how people think and talk about aging and older New Yorkers. The campaign kicked off with a new PSA ad in Brooklyn in partnership with City Council Member Crystal Hudson, Chair of the Aging Committee, and will run throughout the City through May in honor of Older Americans Month.

Against a backdrop of research that reveals ageism (discrimination based on age) is a reality that impacts older adults with 82 percent of them experiencing one form of ageism daily, SAY YOUR AGE encourages people to speak out and rethink aging. “The campaign turns our negative connotations around aging into positive images, and features the diversity and contributions of older people,” said Allison Nickerson, Executive Director LiveOn NY. “We are working to fight ageism at all levels, including a city budget that hasn't prioritized older adults and aging services remaining at less than 1% of the overall City budget. In the lead up to the adoption of the budget we want to combat the negative narrative about aging to advance policies that support us all as we age.” 

“Too many of our neighbors are routinely discriminated against because of their age, sowing deep insecurity and anxiety about what it means to grow older in our City,” said Council Member Crystal Hudson, Chair of the Council’s Committee on Aging. “Yet, to age is a gift. And the ‘Say Your Age’ campaign is a cause for celebration. It’s an opportunity to let our older neighbors rejoice in their old age. It is an opportunity to highlight the contributions and lives of everyday older New Yorkers and challenge our society’s perception of what it means to grow older. It is our chance to present, for all to see, the immense joy, the rich lives, and the diverse experiences of our older neighbors, because hopefully one day we’ll be so lucky to grow old in this beautiful city we call home.”

In addition to the PSA, “SAY YOUR AGE” campaign uses a “Participatory Photography” approach to engage community members to use their photos and their stories to promote the change they want to see. The Say YOUR AGE campaign consists of a PSA, video and a website where New Yorkers can learn more about ageism and how to combat ageism. It features real older New Yorkers who are active and challenge the stereotypes that some have about older adults.

LiveOn NY created the campaign in collaboration with F.Y. Eye, a NYC-based nonprofit media agency that amplifies social issues around the country. Thanks to a donation from LinkNYC, the “SAY YOUR AGE” campaign will be shared citywide via scores of kiosks reaching close to a million New Yorkers. 

“It is critical that there are powerful, positive messages uplifting aging in the public square,” said Andrea Wilson, Creative Manager of F.Y. Eye. “These PSAs and their strategic placement will help shift attitudes and create a more supportive, inclusive culture for all New Yorkers at every stage of life. We’re proud to partner with LiveOn NY to build a more informed, caring public to strengthen community wellbeing.”

The campaign aligns with the national “Reframing Aging Initiative,” a multi-year strategy to counteract ageism and improve the way policymakers, stakeholders, and the public think about aging and older people. The Reframing Aging Initiative takes a holistic approach using an evidence-based communication strategy as the core to create collective change in public discourse, policies and practices. 

Learn more about the SAY YOUR AGE campaign, by visiting our website: https://www.liveon-ny.org/say-your-age

About LiveOn NY

Founded 44 years ago, LiveOn’s mission is to represent the diverse network of nonprofit organizations that help older New Yorkers 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. LiveOn’s member network includes 120 nonprofit agencies that run more than 1,000 community programs and serve over 500,000 older adults annually.  For more information, please visit our website, https://www.liveon-ny.org/

About F.Y. Eye

F.Y. Eye is a nonprofit media agency revolutionizing social impact communications through the power of media, community, and art. Since 2005, their work has increased equitable access to information, resources and services in NYC. Through strategic research and design, F.Y. Eye’s programs center nonprofit work in the public square to strengthen community wellbeing and connect vulnerable populations to critical community resources. Visit fyeye.org

Press Contact: 

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

Highlights from LiveOn NY's 28th Annual Aging Advocacy Day

On Thursday, May 11th, LiveOn NY hosted our 28th Annual Aging Advocacy Day at which we were joined by over 400 older adults and aging service professionals who took to City Hall Park to demand their fair share of the City budget. Thank you to the following Council Members who joined us and gave remarks during this event: 

• Speaker Adrienne E. Adams,

• Council Member Crystal Hudson, Chair of the Committee on Aging,

• Council Member Christopher Marte,

• Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan,

• Council Member Lynn Schulman, Chair of the Committee on Health,

• Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez, Chair of the Committee on Technology,

• Council Member Althea Stevens, Chair of the Committee on Youth Services,

• Council Member Chi Osse, Chair of the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, & International Intergroup Relations,

• Council Member Nantasha Williams, Chair of the Committee on Civil & Human Rights,

• Council Member Julie Won, Chair of the Committee on Contracts,

• Council Member Lincoln Restler

Thank you to each and every older adult, professional, and advocate who joined us at City Hall Park in the fight to #AdvocateforAging and #JustPay human services workers.

And a special shoutout to our members and the older adults who spoke:

• Bobbie Sackman, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice,

• Frances Garavuso, St. Nicks Alliance,

• Larinda Hooks, Director of Older Adult Services/Economic Development, Elmcor Youth & Adult Activities, Inc.,

• Sylvia Calaf, Neighborhood SHOPP,

• Ruby Rosario, Director of Guess Older Adult Center, Neighborhood SHOPP,

• Susanna Li Hom, Homecrest Community Services

In addition to our Advocacy Day Rally, LiveOn NY spearheaded other advocacy opportunities, giving older New Yorkers and our members more ways to fight for the funding that aging services deserve.

These opportunities included an #AdvocateforAgingNYC Tweetstorm, Calls to City Council Members, and a Letter Writing Campaign.

Our advocacy doesn't stop here

You can continue to advocate for older adults in the New York City Budget by printing out and filling out the linked form below. In just a five minutes, you can you send a letter to Mayor Adams calling for key investments aimed at better supporting older New Yorkers living in the five boroughs.

LiveOn NY encourages professionals to share this opportunity with your clients, encouraging all stakeholders to participate! Through increased participation, we can make our voices heard in the fight to Advocate for Aging and Just Pay in this year's budget.

LiveOn NY Responds to Mayor Adams’ Proposed Cuts to Older Adult Food Programs

LiveOn NY Responds to Mayor Adams’ Proposed Cuts to Older Adult Food Programs

Mayor Adams’ proposes $12 million in cuts to congregate and home delivered meals programs

Mayor Adams has proposed over $12 million dollars in budget cuts to the aging sector’s congregate and home delivered meals programs in a year when costs are greater than ever. Inflation has seen costs rise by over 25% for providers and has created new needs of over $60 million dollars. These cuts are only a fraction of a percent of the overall budget, but represent tens of thousands of meals and financial solvency for older adult centers throughout the city. There are currently 1.7 million older New Yorkers, the city’s fastest growing demographic.

Mayor Adams’ Key Cuts: 

• $7 million cut in funding for Older Adult Centers 

• $5 million in funding for the home-delivered meals program

• Elimination of the $1 additional one time reimbursement rate for home-delivered meals for FY24

“The cuts to NYC Aging proposed by Mayor Adams in his Executive Budget illustrate a significant departure to his pledged commitment that all essential services should be fully funded in Fiscal Year 2024. These proposed cuts directly impact the stability and wellness of the 1.7 million older adults and ignore the reality that older adults are the fastest growing demographic in New York City. It also refuses to reckon with the fact that these cuts will disproportionately hurt older adults of color, LGBTQ older adults, and other groups who have been historically excluded from city services and continue a legacy of discrimination in who our government chooses to prioritize for funding.

To simply maintain existing services, the city would need to add an additional $60 million dollars into an already strained, underfunded system.  Instead, in a time of increased need and skyrocketing food insecurity and costs, the Mayor's decision to cut over $12 million to the older adult food budget alone will leave the most vulnerable older adults in our city hungry, and the nonprofits that serve them without funding. This is unacceptable.

The cuts will also potentially cause closures or consolidations of Older Adult Centers in our city which provide vital services that allow older adults to thrive. We cannot dismantle a system that provides so many New Yorkers a place to build community, sign up for benefits that keep them healthy and in their home, and participate in meaningful programs that truly impact their lives. 

These cuts are also pennies in the city budget, and to tout this $12 million dollars as savings in a $106 billion dollar budget is a cruel message that New Yorkers who created the vibrant and incredible city we all love and continue to keep it that way are worth less than a ten thousandth of a percent of the city’s overall budget. The existing funding for all aging services in our city is already less than half of one percent of the overall budget and these cuts are truly an attempt to destroy the social safety net for older adults in our city.

As we all grow older, ensuring that we can all age in a community with access to services regardless of one’s zip code or background should be a priority for the City. We must invest in these services now so that we are able to create a city where older adults can thrive and remain a part of their community.

Testimony on New York City Preliminary Budget on Aging

New York City Council

Committee on Aging

Chair, Council Member Hudson

March 14, 2023

Oversight - Preliminary Budget Hearing - Aging

My name is Brianna Paden-Williams and I am the Communications and Policy Associate at LiveOn NY. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

LiveOn NY’s members include more than 110 community-based nonprofits that provide core services which allow all New Yorkers to thrive in our communities as we age, including older adult 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. 

Background

Aging services are essential services with over 1.8 million older adults 60 and over living in New York City. Yet older adults have not been prioritized by the City, despite an essential human services workforce administering critical services that provide the necessary support for older adults to age in community. Over the past year, community-based organizations have been faced with significant inflationary costs for raw food, gas and items, coupled with a growing waitlist for aging services that does not have the equitable funding from the City to meet the growing demand for community services to support older adults. 

The lack of prioritization is evident in the FY24 Preliminary Budget with Mayor Adams including a $25 million cut to the NYC Aging (also known as Department for the Aging), despite the increased demand for aging services. As we all grow older, ensuring that we can all age in community with access to services regardless of one’s zip code or background should be a priority for the City. 

Rather than cuts, it’s time to invest in older New Yorkers and for the City to pay the human services workforce a just and equitable wage. It’s time for the City to enact a more equitable budget that holistically supports these professionals that work tirelessly to ensure that no older New Yorker falls through the cracks. 

Given this, the following investments are critical to building a truly equitable City for all ages. 

Critical Investments in NYC Aging (also known as the Department for the Aging or DFTA) Services

Support the Workforce

The City must just pay all essential human service workers a liveable and equitable wage.

Poverty level government contracts have left human services workers severely underpaid for years. This workforce that is composed mainly of women and people of people have kept New York City afloat throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet the wages of these workers have remained stagnant despite the rising cost of living in New York City. While last year’s budget included a $60 million baseline funding for human services workers, this does not fully address the pay and gender inequity that is crippling our City. 

As a result organizations are faced with increased staff turnover as underpaid staff leave nonprofits for better paying jobs in other sectors, depriving New Yorkers of services from the most experienced, well-trained staff and jeopardizing high-quality services. It is essential for the human services providers to have sustainable funding to meet the needs of our communities while also having sufficient wages for ourselves and families. To address this crisis, the City must implement changes that address the inequitable pay of human services workers. LiveOn NY recommends the City establish, fund, and enforce a 6.5% automatic annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) on all human services contracts.

Combat Hunger

LiveOn NY requests $64.8 million in additional funding to combat hunger among older adults including:

This investment would include an additional $14 million to address the inflation cost for raw foods, gas and other items for home-delivered meals as well as $46 million for inflation cost for congregate meals in Older Adult Centers. LiveOn NY found in a recent study that our member organizations have experienced an average 27% increase in the cost per meal compared to last year due to significant inflationary cost. For some organizations, they have run out of money in their contracts to continue to sustain the capacity of the community-services including home-delivered meals and congregate meals. The inflationary cost to provide meals to older adults has put a financial strain on many providers over the past year forcing many providers to reckon with uncertainty of being able to sustain in the future. 

Furthermore, this investment would provide $4 million to support weekend and holiday home-delivered meals which are not provided through current contracts, and did not receive the same investment to address reimbursement rate as weekday meals received.

Promote Community Care

Allocate an additional $29.4 million to address the unmet needs of older adults through Aging NYC funded services including:

• An additional $7.5 million investment to expand digital literacy programming including devices to facilitate virtual programming for older adults as well as expand technology programming accessibility and to support technology expansion

• $1.4 million to support continued growth in demand of the case management program to ensure all clients can be screened and receive this critical service should they be eligible. Exacerbated by the long-term health impacts of isolation and other stressors experienced during COVID, many older adults will require some level of case management to remain independent in their communities. In a recent survey, LiveOn NY estimated that more than 1,300 clients are currently on waiting lists for case management. This comes on top of consistent demand increases for case management that have historically led to waiting lists, requiring additional funding each year, and indicating a need for early and significant investments to avoid the continued cycle of recurring waiting lists.

• $15.4 million to support continued growth in demand of the home care program, including expanding the hours of home care service available to older adults requiring additional support.

• $5 million to support communications and marketing outreach for NYC Aging funded programming for community-based organization outreach to older adults 

Address the Housing Crisis

Allocate funding to develop 1,000 units of affordable senior housing with services per year.

LiveOn NY joins the United for Housing Coalition in calling for a $4 billion annual investment to fund a comprehensive affordable housing plan that must include a minimum target of 1,000 new units of affordable senior housing with services per year, as part of a total target to construct no fewer than 8,000 new units of housing dedicated to serving extremely low income and homeless households annually. As waitlists and limited housing stock pose an acute challenge for older New Yorkers, a considerable investment and consistent unit targets per year will be critical to paving a pathway out of this crisis.

This investment would build upon the clear success of the City’s Senior Affordable Rental Assistance (SARA) program, which has created community assets in every borough, including examples such as WSFSSH’s Tres Puentes in the Bronx and HANAC’s Corona Senior Residences in Queens. These two building are examples of what is possible through housing, with Tres Puentes not only offering 175 new units of affordable senior housing, but providing space for a new Older Adult Center, health center and pharmacy on site, and the Corona Residences offering 67 affordable senior units built to the environmentally friendly Passive Housing standards and a new Pre-K on the ground floor.

LiveOn NY also recommends the City increase the per unit reimbursement rate for SARA services from $5,000 per unit, to $7,500 per unit, allowing for increased staff to more adequately address social isolation and significant case assistance needs. 

This increased reimbursement rate would make services better available to support an aging and formerly homeless tenant population, in turn enabling more older New Yorkers to age in place and avoid institutionalization.

Support Local Needs

Fund an additional $2.6 Million for Support our Seniors and continued full funding for all discretionary initiatives.

Many programs, particularly smaller, hyper-local nonprofits that serve hard-to-reach senior populations rely on discretionary funding to ensure their communities can be served. Therefore, it is critical that all aging services discretionary are fully funded in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget.

In addition, LiveOn NY is requesting an additional $2.6 million for the Support Our Senior Initiative that would provide an additional $50,00 per district on average to better support older New Yorkers, in particular for services or programs including transportation, social isolation, technology and more. 

Conclusion

To truly make New York a better place to age, where we can all thrive in community, we must build a caring economy that supports all older New Yorkers regardless of their background. From a livable and competitive wage for all human services workers to equitable policies and programs that support all New Yorkers, New York can become a more equitable place to age. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.