CSCS: Council of Senior Centers and Services of NYC, Inc.

NY STATE OFFICE FOR THE AGING (SOFA) BUDGET
CUT BY $9.8 MILLION
ADDITIONAL LEGISLATIVE ADD-ONS, $5 MILLION, FOR SNAP HOME-DELIVERED MEALS, EISEP CASE MANAGEMENT & HOME CARE, AND COMMUNITY SERVICES FOR THE ELDERLY (CSE) NEEDS TO BE RESTORED

Governor David Paterson’s budget included the following cuts to SOFA’s budget:
•    $7 million in COLA increases for services funded through SNAP, EISEP, and CSE deferred for FY2010-2011.
•    $890,000 – elimination of the Congregate Services Initiative program
•    $2 million of state funds in SOFA’s budget would be cut and replaced with ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) federal stimulus money which will exist for only one year making this an additional $2 million cut to SOFA.
•    $5 million – ARRA federal stimulus money was used to fund SNAP, EISEP and CSE. These funds are legislative add-ons and good for only one year.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1.    Please call your state assembly members and senators immediately with the message: “NO CUTS TO THE STATE OFFICE FOR THE AGING. CUTS TO MEALS-ON-WHEELS, TRANSPORTATION, HOME CARE AND CASE MANAGEMENT WILL ENDANGER THE LIVES OF OLDER NEW YORKERS.”
2.    Invite your state representatives immediately to your senior center, NORC, or program to discuss the cuts. It is important that seniors advocate for no cuts and ask questions during your state representative’s visit.

The state budget will be completed by March 31st.  Because of the difficult financial times the state is in, state assembly members and senators must hear from constituents in their district that they are opposed to cuts to the State Office for the Aging.  These cuts hurt elderly New Yorkers and family caregivers who depend upon the services to help keep their loved one in the community.

On Christmas eve, the U.S. Senate took a historic step toward protecting our elders from being beaten, neglected or exploited – our Senators, for the first time, passed the full Elder Justice Act by including it in their health care bill.

It is critical that the House of Representatives hears from you today.

Please take three minutes and send your representatives an email by clicking here and urge them to include the Elder Justice Act in Health Care Reform.

If you haven’t yet watched the documentary “An Age For Justice” take a few minutes and view it at www.elderjusticenow.org/videos.

For further information, please contact Karol Markosky, (212) 398-6565 x227 or kmarkosky@cscs-ny.org

CSCS is pleased to inform you that the NY State Office for the Aging was not cut. There was a proposed $5.5 million cut which would have impacted the SNAP home-deliver meals program, EISEP case management and home care, funding for transportation, and other services.  CSCS worked closely with the state legislature to prevent the cuts. There was a 12.5% across-the-board cut to all Senate member item funds. Please check with your State Senator to follow up on this. Please urge your Senator to keep your funding as a priority as it is up to the Senator where to cut funds.

Please send thank you letters to Governor David Paterson, the Assembly and Senate Aging Chairs and your local state representatives.  Thank them for not cutting the services listed above that seniors depend upon to age in place in their homes and communities. It is important to thank them as there will likely be more proposed state budget cuts next year.

Governor David Paterson
State Capitol
Albany, New York 12224

Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr.
Chair, Committee on Aging
900 Rogers Place
Bronx, NY  10459

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz
Chair, Committee on Aging
3107 Kingsbridge Avenue
Bronx, NY 10463

Good News - The city withdrew the senior center RFP on Dec. 19th. The 19,000 letters sent by seniors opposing the rfp sent a strong message to City Council and Mayor Bloomberg. Too often, we don’t thank those that participate in advocacy. CSCS has created a “thank you” certificate for seniors

Bad News - Senior services were cut by another $2 million between now and June 30th. Elder abuse services were totally restored - and important victory. However, totally eliminated were services like social adult day care for people with Alzheimer’s and other critical services. See our city budget alert.

ADVOCACY WORKS!!!

We just sent out a winfax and an e-mail about the fact that the senior center RFP was withdrawn.  We are also pleased to let everyone know that DFTA is now working make sure that City Council and Borough President Funds are available for local centers.  Additional highlights include:

• City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs announced the withdrawal of the senior center rfp today at a City Hall press conference. Also present were Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo, Chair, Committee on Aging, and Councilman James Vacca, Chair, Subcommittee on Senior Centers as well as the new DFTA commissioner, Lilliam Barrios Paoli
• It is our understanding that DFTA is working to amend City Council funds for meals and transportation along with Borough President funds into your budgets. This funding will return to the way it had been for FY2009 and FY2010.

We want to let everyone know that CSCS is proud of the ongoing advocacy its members did over this past year on the senior center rfp. The seniors spoke strongly through the 19,000 letters they signed.. Thank you.

We wish the best of luck to the new Commissioner Lilliam Barrios-Paoli (see the press release).  Visit the CSCS website at www.cscs-ny.org to stay in the loop.

CSCS has taken a leadership role in opposing Mayor Bloomberg’s flawed plans to restructure senior centers, with the possibility of 85 closing (see CSCS testimony explaining the problems with the plan). In the last few weeks, there’s been an outpouring of tremendous support from seniors and their elected officials. Working with Speaker Christine Quinn and City Council members Arroyo and Vacca, CSCS delivered over 17,000 letters individually signed by seniors to Mayor Bloomberg, stating opposition to this plan. We’ve also asked seniors call the Mayor’s Office and 311 to let them know what the public is thinking.  The letters and calls continue to come in.

As recently reported in NY1over 500 seniors packed City Hall for the City Council Committee on Aging review of the RFP. Testimony was given by the five borough presidents, Comptroller Bill Thompson, Assemblywoman Deborah Glick and others in opposition to the Mayor’s Plan.

We’ll keep you updated as the situation progresses here and at our web page that lists all the latest events on the Opposition to RFP page on our website.

There is an assault on senior services. This past year in the aging services network has been the most volatile and challenging in the 35 year history of senior centers and services in NYC. The provider network and seniors they serve have been faced with the following dynamics:

Major restructuring, “modernization”, of aging services by the Department for the Aging (DFTA). Three back to back RFP’s within 18 months– reducing 32 homebound elderly case management contracts to 23 regions; 97 meals-on-wheels contracts to 20 large regions citywide; and the ”regionalization” of senior centers in an RFP released November 3rd. Of major concern in all this restructuring is the lack of attention paid to the needs of an increasingly diverse and low income elderly population. Addressing diversity is a core value of community-based services. The community-based network of aging services is being eviscerated.

For a full analysis see our Connect the Dots page on the CSCS website.

Due to a budget deficit at the NYC Housing Authority (NYCHA), the city is planning to close dozens of senior centers located in NYCHA buildings. In 2003, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Department for the Aging (DFTA) and NYCHA which exchanged $30 million of city funds for federal HUD funds to help operate the 100 senior centers located in NYCHA buildings. DFTA continued to administer the programs. Only $18 million was added into the city budget to meet NYCHA’s deficit - $195 million overall, with about $70 million for community services. It is unclear how much of these funds will go to senior centers as youth programs, day care and community centers are also at risk.

To its credit, the Bloomberg administration has recently reconfigured the poverty measure. This resulted in poverty among elderly New Yorkers climbing from 18% to 32%, or one out of 3 seniors falling below poverty from one out of 5. In May, 2008, City Planning released a study on neighborhoods that lack sufficient supermarkets. Not surprisingly, the areas that lack supermarkets overlap greatly with the areas where poor elderly New Yorkers live and attend NYCHA senior centers. NYCHA is also the largest landlord of poor elderly in NYC – 60,000 heads of households, are age 62+.

We urge NYCHA, DFTA, the Bloomberg administration and City Council, as well as state and congressional elected officials, to do all it can to prevent the closing of senior centers that would deprive poor seniors of meals and
services. Food prices are escalating. Seniors living on a fixed income are already facing challenges affording food.

As you probably know, there were across-the-board cuts to state agencies. It is an overall 6% cut to SOFA funded agencies.  Some of their new initiatives were cut by 50%.

CSCS worked to mitigate cuts to member item funds. For senior centers and other senior services, this is not pork, it’s meat and potatoes. There is no state senior center funding stream and existing funding for senior centers is insufficient. This money pays for meals, transportation, social work services, rent and utilities, adult day services, exercise classes, art, computer, ESL classes, and a gamut of other services.

Check with your elected officials immediately about the status of your agency’s member item funds.

LOCATION: CITY HALL
DATE: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11TH
TIME: 12 NOON
IF YOU WANT TO BRING SENIORS, JUST SHOW UP

In testimony at a City Council budget hearing last week, NYCHA announced that, due to budget deficits, they were planning to close all 147 senior centers. This will also impact NORCs. In response a press conference has been called by Councilmembers James Vacca, Chair Of Subcommitee On Senior Centers And Rosie Mendez, Chair Of NYCHA Committee

City Council needs to loudly object to this. This on top of all the restructuring plans and budget cuts at DFTA. Obviously, thousands of seniors will be left hung out to dry by the city. What is going on?

IT IS CRITICAL THAT SENIORS IMMEDIATELY CALL, CALL, CALL THEIR COUNCILMEMBERS, DFTA AND MAYOR BLOOMBERG TO STOP THIS OUTRAGEOUS PROPOSAL. SEND THE MESSAGE IN ANY LANGUAGE.. YOU MUST CALL! THE BUDGET PROCESS IS OVER IN A FEW WEEKS.

The message is: “Don’t close senior centers. How can you even think of closing 147 senior centers? Doesn’t anyone care any more? Do whatever you need to do to make sure senior centers and NORCs in housing authority buildings don’t close. Thousands of seniors will fall through the cracks.”

Call Mayor Michael Bloomberg and DFTA Commissioner Ed Mendez Santiago – call 311 and ask for the Mayor’s office. The Department for the Aging has a memorandum of understanding with NYCHA for funding to keep senior centers open utilizing NYCHA funds. DFTA has responsibility in this proposal.