New York City Council
Committee on Aging: Chair, Council Member Hudson
September 7, 2022
Oversight - Improving Older New Yorkers’ Access to City Services
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.
LiveOn NY acknowledges the work of the Mayor Eric Adams Administration, the City Department for the Aging (DFTA) led by Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, the New York City Council led Speaker Adrienne Adams and the Committee on Aging led by Aging Chair, Council Member Crystal Hudson.
Background
LiveOn NY is appreciative of the City’s investment for older adults and the aging sector in the FY23 Adopted Budget by including an additional $3.2 million to expand DFTA's Geriatric Mental Health Program (DGMH), $60 million to provide a cost-of-living adjustment for human services workers, $14.9 million for the home-delivered meals program, $3 million to improve IT education for older adults, among other key investments. This budget moves the aging services sector in the right direction, from a significant human services workforce investment to additional funding for home-delivered meals to keep older adults fed.
Nonetheless, we also recognize there is more work to be done to better support older New Yorkers. While the aging population continues to be the fastest growing demographic, with 1 in 5 New Yorkers expected to be 60 and older by 2040, the City must go further to ensure all older New Yorkers regardless of their background have access to equitable aging services to safely age in community.
Therefore, we invite the City to utilize our aging policy agenda, Aging is Everyone’s Business, released by LiveOn NY in partnership with Hunter College Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging, which is a bold policy agenda that provides actionable policy solutions to make New York a better, more equitable place to age.
Further, LiveOn NY recommends the following to improve access to aging services for older adults and community-based organizations.
Recommendations
Combat Hunger
DFTA should assess and allocate funding for the significant inflationary impacts on raw food, gas prices, and other infrastructure needs for contracts
Many of LiveOn NY’s members have raised their concern of the impact inflation cost for raw food, gas prices and other infrastructure items. For example, one of our members saw a 40% increase in raw food cost due to inflation this year. The unavoidable financial strain has created challenges for providers to continue to meet the growing capacity for home-delivered meals, in addition, providing congregate meals at Older Adult Centers.
Nonetheless, LiveOn NY is appreciative of the City Council's recent announcement of $3 million in funding for the repair and replacement of an estimated 44 hotshot vans for the City’s home delivered meals program. This critical investment in the infrastructure will literally and figuratively keep the wheels in motion for providers to expand capacity and continue to meet the growing need for home-delivered meals throughout New York.
The City should continue to support new models of service including grab-and-go meals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity among older adults was deeply exacerbated by issues not only economic, but related to access as older adults were required to “stay at home” to reduce the chances of contracting COVID-19. New models of service such as grab-and-go were critical and successful in ensuring, who may not be comfortable congregating due to COVID risks, or for personal reasons are less willing to meet their nutritional needs by eating at an Older Adult Center, have the option to take their meal home, a decision that ensures one’s nutritional needs can be met in the environment of one's choosing.
Affordable Senior Housing
LiveOn NY recommends the City allocates funding to develop 1,000 units of affordable senior housing with services per year. While the Adopted Budget included investments to support affordable housing programs, the City needs to go further to fully address the need for affordable senior housing. The investment of a minimum target of 1,000 new units of affordable senior housing with services per year, is 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 called for by the United for Housing coalition. 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.
LiveOn NY also recommends the City increases increase the per unit reimbursement rate for the City’s Senior Affordable Rental Assistance (SARA) services from $5,000 per unit, to $7,500 per unit, to fund two housing staff positions at each building to provide support for the residents to more adequately address social isolation and significant case assistance needs.
Proposed Legislation
LiveOn applauds Aging Chair Hudson for introducing a legislative package aimed at promoting critical services and supports for us all to age in our communities in New York City, and thanks Council Member Hudson and cosponsors.
LiveOn NY offers the following feedback on the proposed legislation:
Intro.1696
LiveOn NY supports the intent of Intro. 1696, which would require the Department for the Aging to require older adult centers to expand their programming to include linguistic and cultural programs relevant to the local communities in which they reside. This bill would allow the City to work to ensure all older adults have access to equitable culturally and linguistically component services to safely age in community. This is specifically important for our growing diverse aging population in the City. Nonetheless, LiveOn offers two specific recommendations for this bill:
To utilize the Mayor’s Office of Nonprofit Services to push for technical assistance and training directly for immigrant-focused and/or smaller, culturally diverse nonprofits. As DFTA looks to grow its service portfolio to increase linguistically diverse programs, there must be a pipeline and support system - coupled with new and additional dollars - to support expansion.
In addition, funding will be required to support resources and staffing capacity including the hiring of multilingual staff at Older Adult Centers. The network of Older Adults Centers already provides extensive language and culturally appropriate services throughout the City. However, given the growth of new needs, funding must be increased to ensure that new needs can be met.
Intro. 1538
LiveOn NY supports Intro. 1538, which would require a know your rights pamphlet for older adults. Throughout the City, a variety of aging services are available for older adults yet too often older New Yorkers and caregivers are unaware of the breadth of aging services available within their community. This bill will provide a culturally and linguistically appropriate know your rights pamphlets to older adults, caregivers and others, through outreach, educating them on the range of services and support available including age discrimination, elder abuse, food insecurity, housing support and more.
Intro. 1650
LiveOn NY supports the intent of Intro. 1650 which aims to provide housing stability for older adults by entitling any person who is 60 years of age or older to full legal representation in eviction or termination of tenancy proceedings in housing court. Across the City, older adults face difficulties with finding affordable housing with rising rent prices and over half of older New Yorkers are rent-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on rent. While this bill is a step forward to address the housing crisis among older adults, we urge the City to incorporate a social services/legal services model which would provide both the legal and social services support that older adults will need to remain in their homes. We also urge the City to work in coordination with community-based organizations with existing housing programs and legal services (ex. The Assigned Counsel Project) that are an additional trusted resource for older New Yorkers. Further, while legal and social service supports to address housing insecurity are critical, LiveOn also urges the City to strengthen existing programs, such as the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) program and affordable senior housing programs, as noted above.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.