With OACs operating at full capacity, the City has the opportunity to take steps to create long term solutions and make meaningful investments to ensure all New Yorkers can access equitable community-based services in their community.
Testimony on the New York City Aging Budget
Rather than cuts, it’s time for equity for aging and for the City to just pay. We believe that every New Yorker deserves the ability to age in community with access to services regardless of one’s zip code or background. 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.
Testimony to New York City Council on Housing and Buildings Preliminary Budget
Today, more than half of older renters are rent-burdened, as are a third of older homeowners. Further, roughly 2,000 older New Yorkers are living in homeless shelters, a number that is expected to triple by 2030 without significant intervention. LiveOn NY’s own research has found that there are more than 200,000 older adults languishing on waiting lists for affordable housing through the HUD 202 program, each waiting for 7-10 years on average for a unit to become available. This challenge is mirrored by the thousands of applications that come flooding in each and every time a new affordable senior housing lottery opens on Housing Connect.
Testimony to New York City Council on Recovery Meals and Home-Delivered Meals
We recognize there is more work to do in order to fully root out senior hunger in the City, including for the thousands of older adults who will continue to need home-delivered meals beyond the close of the Recovery Meal program in June. It is critical that the City use this moment and the momentum of a new Administration and City Council to go beyond short-term solutions, to instead executing long-term investments aimed at rooting out older adult hunger more holistically.
58 Organizations Call on Mayor Adams to Exempt DFTA from the 3% Budget Cut
Last month, Mayor Eric Adam announced a 3% budget cut under the Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) across most City agencies to close the gap in the City budget for Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023, and the years ahead. In response, 58 organization called on Mayor Adams in a letter to exempt DFTA from the budget cuts.