Local Lawmakers and senior residents want Mayor Bill de Blasio to look elsewhere for savings when it comes to the Fiscal Year 2020 New York City budget, instead of targeting much-needed senior centers in public housing.
That was the message City Councilman Robert Cornegy, Jr., Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright, along with seniors from the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Sumner Houses Senior Center sent to de Blasio yesterday in his call for the shuttering of 12 senior clubs.
In his FY 2020 Executive Budget released on April 25th, de Blasio outlined his plan to close the senior “clubs” and consolidate them with others throughout the city. The proposal is part of the Mayor’s plan to find $750 million in savings for the city between February and April. Under the savings program, the Mayor mandated for the first time a savings requirement for each agency under his administration. This included the city’s Department for the Aging (DFTA), which fun the senior centers.
The requirement for each agency was defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and was an agency by agency targeting process. According to the announcement, the senior centers were designated because of under-utilization and low standards in regards to senior center health and safety expectations.
“The Mayor negotiated a budget of over $92 billion and I think it’s ridiculous that this would even be a subject of discussion. All across the city of New York, seniors are getting together to send a resounding message to the Mayor, that this proposal is unacceptable and to even have a discussion about cutting services to Senior Centers is out of the question,” said Cornegy.
“This is a priority. This is not something we think we won’t or hope might be good. This is what our budget is supposed to provide money for, the priorities of our community. The budget should be a reflection of the city and of this community. And I am here to remind our Mayor as well as the City Council that a priority is our seniors,” said Wright.
The Sumner Houses Senior Center is open Monday-Friday to all seniors within the area and also welcomes any who have disabilities. The center provides programming in a host of areas including congregate lunch and breakfast, education and recreation, health management, physical health exercise, case assistance, information and referral, and transportation.
The center has been open since 1985 – over 30 years – and currently provides programming to nearly 60 seniors on a daily basis, and about a hundred on special event days, according to Sumner Houses Tenant Association President Adorn Dubose.
“I am appalled at you Mayor de Blasio. That you are doing this to the seniors. Why take them out of their comfort zone? Leave them where they’re at. So with you in mind, we need you to fix this. And we want you to fix it today,” said Dubose.
Under the new plan, seniors are to be transported to an alternative senior center within a ¾ mile distance, according to DFTA Commissioner LorraineCortés-Vázquez.
However, Sumner Houses seniors are expected to be transported about 1.5 miles away to the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Center in Bushwick for senior-specific programming.
Many of the seniors present at the protest, like Frank Jones, 61, and Gus Clarke, 76 who are regular attendees, and longtime residents of public housing in the area, refuse to go the distance for a new club citing the convenience and neighborhood atmosphere already present at their current center.
“It gives the seniors something to do. Because if you close the center all their going to do is sit in their house, because they can’t sit in the park because of NYCHA rules now and they really have no place else to go. A lot of people from the neighborhood like this center,” said Jones.
“I come here Monday through Friday. I grew up in the Sumner Houses, I moved here in 1956. When I was 15-years-old. I look forward to coming here every day. I would not go to the new center. Why? When I live right across the street. All my friends are here. I would do anything for them, they would do anything for me,” said Clarke.
The Mayor and the City Council are in the midst of budget negotiations that are expected to go until the end of June.
“Those clubs, we found were underutilized, could not provide the same quality of service as our DFTA programs could. So, seniors will go to an established senior center that specializes in supporting seniors. There’ll be free transportation provided that will also save us money while providing a better product to our seniors,” said de Blasio in his initial announcement.
