City Council Candidate Responses

District 25

1. Please briefly share your background and note any experiences you may have in engaging older adults, whether professionally or personally, and in connecting with the non-profit sector.

Alfonso Quiroz

As a long-time community organizer, I have worked with numerous groups and non-profits across Queens to make life better for our residents. Through my work with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, 37th Ave Coalition and the Queens Theater, I have advocated for building an economy for working class New Yorkers and supporting small businesses. I worked personally assist many seniors and senior centers with securing city funds and programs in my time as Deputy Chief of Staff in the NYC Council as well.

Shekar Krishnan

I have dedicated my life to fighting for housing justice, fighting for our communities, and advocating for civil rights. From the moment I first began my career in law, I have fought for tenants and communities under threat from landlords, developers, and a city that didn’t care about them. My clients have been seniors, immigrants, and people of color. I have argued and advocated ceaselessly for accessibility and senior accommodations, for proper SCRIE/DRIE benefits, and against tenant harassment by unscrupulous landlords. Outside of my professional work, I have been an outspoken community leader and a staunch ally for a variety of organizations and advocacy causes in our neighborhoods of Elmhurst and Jackson Heights.

2. As we live longer and healthier lives, what are your priorities with respect to promoting equity across all ages in our City?

Alfonso Quiroz

I think one of the biggest issues facing New Yorkers, especially in Central Queens is access to equitable healthcare. As Jackson Heights and Elmhurst became ground zero for COVID, we saw how our lack of infrastructure and hospital beds were detrimental to our aging residents. Furthermore, expanding access to programs like SCHE and SCRIE to ensure older New Yorkers can afford to stay in their homes is crucial to maintaining a healthy, aging society.

Shekar Krishnan

As a housing rights lawyer, my first concern is making sure that our seniors can stay in the homes and communities that they built their lives in, without having to worry about drastic increases in rent or a lack of mobility/accessibility in their home. Services for seniors and senior centers should be easily accessible in our communities. In that regard, I will push to greatly increase the availability of free assistance for SCIRE/DRIE, expand the number of senior centers and make sure that they are physically, linguistically, and culturally accessible and inclusive, and fight to improve transit such as Access-A-Ride and accessible subway stops. I will also advocate to ensure improved minimum safe staffing ratios are healthier and elder care facilities. Furthermore, I will push to make sure the the Commission on Human Rights and the Attorney General’s office take swift and strong action against age discrimination. I am proud to be the only campaign in this race that has hosted a community discussion on advocacy for our seniors, from supporting senior centers, to accessible services, to supporting the organization that serve our seniors -- these are all core issues reflected in our Seniors platform as well.

3. Do you support increasing the budget for the Department for the Aging (DFTA), which funds programs such as Senior Centers, NORCs, home-delivered meals, and more? Please give rationale for your response and specify any specific funding changes you are most committed to achieving.

Alfonso Quiroz

Absolutely. I support all these initiatives but mostly increasing access to capital and program funding for senior centers and staff. NYC has done a tremendous job feeding hungry New Yorkers over the past year, but at the same time loneliness, social isolation and mental health issues have skyrocketed due to the pandemic. Senior centers provide invaluable service to millions of New Yorkers and are often overlooked. I support LiveOn NY's request for an additional $10 million towards senior centers.

Shekar Krishnan

Yes - our lives are getting longer and healthier and so we need to correspondingly increase the resources available for our older populations and communities. We have NORCs here in Jackson Heights that are a crucial part of our community that I’ll continue to advocate for and ensure city resources for. Furthermore, our current society requires more advanced accommodations than before, such as tech access in the digital age so that our seniors can stay connected with friends, family, and city services. We should be aiming not for adequacy but for fulfillment, not for surviving but for thriving.

4. Do you support implementing a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) increase for city-contracted human service workers and the full implementation of the Indirect Cost Rate (ICR) initiative for non-profits? Please explain your response.

Alfonso Quiroz

Yes. As cost of living in NYC rises far above increases in wages, COLA is the least we can offer these essential workers.

Shekar Krishnan

Yes and yes. Human service corporations are vastly underfunded because of governmental failures such as unfunded/underfunded contracts and complex bureaucracies. So many organizations are barely able to stay afloat, often with less than two months of operational funding available at any time. We must make sure that our human services workers are paid full living wages and also that the service organizations are able to continue providing their high quality care. The Massive cut to the ICR program was a moral failure in the budget and we must restore the ICR and strengthen our critical non-profits that serve so many New Yorkers.

5. Given that many older New Yorkers rely on limited fixed incomes and would prefer to age in community, rather than entering costly nursing homes, how will you address the need for affordable senior housing with services for a growing older population? How will you evaluate/respond to affordable senior housing proposals during ULURP?

Alfonso Quiroz

This year in the state budget, we are unfortunately seeing many cuts to Medicaid programs that help seniors stay in homes including disruptions to the CDPAP program. We should continue to fund these programs and expand access to SCRIE and SCHE to help existing New Yorkers stay in their homes. I also will want to see housing secured for aging populations in any new ULURPs that are built in my community.

Shekar Krishnan

We must enshrine housing as a human right.
I have dedicated my life to fighting for housing as a right for all - safe, decent, and affordable housing for all, in their own communities. I fully support expanding affordable senior housing and providing resources for NORCs -- I am committed to advocating for the cherished NORCs in our Jackson Heights community -- to ensure reasonable accommodations and accessibility upgrades for residents. I believe that the ULURP process is fundamentally flawed and requires massive overhaul in order to strengthen the control of people and communities rather than corporations and developers. We need community-rooted, comprehensive land use process that stops displacement and affirmatively furthers fair housing. As part of that process, I will certainly support the creation of affordable senior housing, including LGBTQIA+-friendly senior housing, that benefits the people of the community that the housing is being created in.

6. While many older adults wish to be connected, many lack the financial resources or training necessary to fully access technology, exacerbating the digital divide. How would you encourage the City to address this?

Alfonso Quiroz

As we begin to reopen, our senior centers and libraries will become important community hubs especially for older New Yorkers. I am committed to fully funding these programs and organizations to expand access to technology and training for seniors.

Shekar Krishnan

The digital divide is a rapidly growing problem, for seniors, students, and marginalized communities. The technology gap is a real, pervasive problem that has been both exposed and expanded by the pandemic. Everyone must have access to high-speed broadband and the internet. I will fight to provide free high-speed internet, access devices, and language/tech accessibility resources and services to these communities. This includes equipping senior centers and community spaces with wifi. Beyond connectivity alone, we also need to provide tech literacy opportunities, from basic to advanced levels, coupled with effective language accessible options, to allow communities to really tap into and use tech to its fullest capacity. These programs need to be targeted in an equitable manner, prioritizing the least served neighborhoods with the highest needs and utilizing local resources such as community based organizations, libraries, and community centers.

7. During COVID-19, Senior Centers continued to work remotely, offering services in new ways to ensure their clients’ needs were met. To date, providers have not been authorized to operate in-person, despite restaurants, movies, and other entities, which older adults could also attend, being open. Further, community-based organizations, in many cases, have not been leveraged in the new meal delivery system. What are ways that you feel the City should work with nonprofits and engage older adults in the event of a future emergency?

Alfonso Quiroz

The City should be more proactive and not reactive in care for older adults for future emergencies. That means funding programs that implement contingency plans for seniors, and expanding funds to acquire technology to keep seniors connected to important resources.

Shekar Krishnan

We must always prioritize people over profits, first and foremost. I am proud to have been the only campaign in this race to host a community discussion on senior issues, from supporting our senior centers to ensuring support for nonprofit organizations that serve our senior communities. I believe that our city must take a two-pronged approach to potential crises: We must be fully prepared and equipped as a city, with a top-down network of agencies and services that are fully interlinked and coordinated to be as efficient and effective as possible. But these services and agencies must be listening to and following the lead of community-based organizations and service organizations that already know the communities they serve and can best inform on-the-ground decision-making by tailoring the response to each community. Older adults cannot and must not simply be treated as dependents, but must be fully integrated into the response - both for accessibility and special requirements but also as persons with agency and contributors. Finally, responses targeting older populations should account for essential needs but also address quality of life concerns.

8. With 1 in 5 New Yorkers over the age of 60, what are the changes you would seek to make to create a more age-friendly district? Please consider addressing the physical infrastructure of your district (walkability, accessibility, etc.), health care access, safety net resources, and other district specific items of note.

Alfonso Quiroz

My main priority for seniors and all residents of my district would be to increase H&H funds to expand capacity at Elmhurst Hospital. Moreover, I would like to see more accessible stations along Jackson Heights and Elmhurst transit hubs. I pledge to make all of my district office locations and events accessible to all New Yorkers.

Shekar Krishnan

In our district, here in Elmhurst and Jackson Heights, one of the greatest challenges is accessibility. Outdated infrastructure means that our transit systems are inaccessible and many or even most of our buildings lack physical accessibility and other accommodations. Our district is also incredibly diverse - one of the most diverse communities in America - and the lack of language and cultural accessibility in services and facilities for seniors is a major issue for our aging immigrant population. Finally, our entire district and much of central Queens is served by Elmhurst Hospital - with 500 beds for more than a million people - and very few senior care facilities and community-based health care options. We must absolutely push to increase public health funding for both the hospital and for community-based healthcare.

9. In the event of a budget shortfall, how would you push for the City to close the gap? Are there agencies or programs you feel should or should not absorb cuts? Please be specific.

Alfonso Quiroz

Shekar Krishnan

We can and we must raise taxes on the ultrarich and on the massive corporations that benefit so greatly from our labor and custom without paying their fair share of taxes. A small increase on merely the richest handful of billionaires could provide funding for so many city priorities. The budget is a moral document and we must make sure that funding is targeted to the most vulnerable communities with the fewest resources. I will always fight to fully fund our public health, public housing, and public education and will push to increase services rather than decrease them. In fact, research by the Roosevelt Institute shows that for every dollar of services we cut, we lose roughly two dollars in economic gross domestic product. Conversely, for every dollar we tax from the rich and invest into services, we gain anywhere from $1.25 to $2.15 in growth and activity. By enhancing our social safety nets, we can prevent the spiral of conditions that drops communities into inescapable poverty and such up-front investment saves money and lives in the long run.

10. How should your constituents look to measure your success in achieving your responses outlined above?

Alfonso Quiroz

I will regularly report to my constituents on new initiatives and projects. Furthermore, I will welcome meetings with any non-profit or constituent to discuss issues related these goals I have outlined here.

Shekar Krishnan

I am a firm believer in accessibility and accountability in all leadership, elected and otherwise. Just as I am accountable to my clients and colleagues as the co-founder of Communities Resist, a legal services organization for housing justice, I must also be accountable to our communities. To me, success is communities that are growing stronger together and staying together. It is a safe and welcoming neighborhood that gives our most vulnerable communities a place to thrive. It is when we’ve made this place, our district and our city, a place that everyone can call their home.

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