Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:07:01)

Good afternoon and welcome to today's New York City Council hearing for the Committee on Aging.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:07:07)

If you would like to testify, you must fill out a witness slip with one of the sergeant-at-arms, even if you signed up already. At this time, please silence all electronic devices and no one may approach the dais. Chair, we are ready to begin. Thank you. Good afternoon, I'm Council Member Susan Zhuang. I serve as the chair of the Aging Committee on Aging. It's an honor to be chairing my first budget hearing on the fiscal 2027 preliminary budget for the New York City Department for Aging., as known as NYC Aging. Thank you to DFTA's new appointment commissioner. Welcome Lisa Scott-McKenzie for joining us. We are joined by Council Member Schuman, Council Member Abdul, and that's it, right? Following testimony and the questions with NYC Aging, we will hear testimony from the public. Approximately 2:30. Thank you for the older adults advocates and join us today. I will keep my comments here brief and request the Commissioner keep your comment oral testimony brief too so we can move on the questions from Councilmembers. I'd like to share we are starting a new tradition. In the Aging Committee, which every single hearing we will show a picture of an issue seniors are facing. It's essential that we are here. Oh, and today we have the picture of one of the senior centers in NYCHA building from last testimony. They said it's pouring when it's raining outside, it's pouring inside. Those are the pictures. And the next time we'll have better board and put behind me. Yeah, look at the hole on the wall, big hole on the wall. This is the situation our senior facing every day. It's essential that we here on council and at NYC Aging come face to face with real issues seniors deal with. They, they affect seniors living every day. Every day, seniors and the people who serve them are forced to exit in those conditions. We must hold all agencies accountable, not only just NYC Aging. So I committed to you today, we will hold up an image at every hearing. So no one can deny reality. Seeing this will convey the urgency and the seriousness of the situation. Older adults and the older adult provider network, we have faced challenges in the past few years due to the pandemic and the budgetary constraints, as well as inflation and the increased cost of living. I look forward to work collaboratively with providers and the administration to help city's 1.8 million older adults overcome those challenges. NYC Aging has a critical role to play in assessing and meeting the needs of older adults and collaborating with provider network and the City Council. We must harness best practices, and create innovative approach to best serve our city's growing population of older adults. NYC's age— NYC Aging's fiscal 2027 preliminary budget is $573.5 million, which is approximately $32 million less than fiscal 2026. Adopted budget, as the council's discretionary initiative funding is not yet included for fiscal 2027. Despite serving almost 20% of the city's population, NYC's budget continues to account for less than 1% of the city's overall budget, which is simply not sufficient to meet needs of all the older adults in the city. The preliminary budget includes two minor new needs to more accurately budget for expected cost for the indirect cost rate and the cost for living adjustment for human service contract, but none for direct service or program for older adults. As chair of this committee, I look forward to working alongside the administration to come up with a new way to create, fund, and implement new and expanded, expanded service for older adults. NYC Aging's capital commitment plan, the smallest in the city, total $75.9 million over fiscal 2026 to 2030, which over 300 older adult centers, a promising about 40 NORCs in New York City aging network. This funding is insufficient to properly address all the infrastructure needs. I believe the capital program would be enhanced to to help refurbish centers, improve kitchens, and connect older adults to much-needed technology and resources. In addition, DFTA should advocate for additional capital funding to be added in HPD's budget to create more affordable older adult home units across the city. It's a big priority of mine, as older adults are struggling with Rising rents and a lack of accountability, accessibility, affordable, older adults-friendly units across the 5 boroughs. In today's hearing, we would like to get a deeper understanding of NYC Aging's expense budget, its capital plan, the impact of its service. Metrics that are used and the key aging services and programs, including case management, home-delivered meals, and other center programs. We would also like to devote into metrics report reported for NYC Aging in fiscal 2026 preliminary mayor's management report. I would like to thank committee staff who have helped prepare this hearing: Saimul Hamid, Senior Financial Analyst; Julia K. Jaramillo, Assistant Director; Christopher Pepe, Senior Legislative Counsel; Joshua Newman, Policy Analyst; and my great staff, Caitlin Oreck, Deputy Chief of Staff, and Jennifer Thorpe Moskong, Director of Budget and Legislation. I'm sorry if I pronounce anyone's name not correctly. English is my second language. I have excuse. I will now pass the mic to Committee Counsel to administer the oath to members of administration.

Committee Counsel (00:15:15)

Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon. If you could both please raise your right hand. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee, and to respond honestly to council member questions? Commissioner?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:15:27)

I do.

Committee Counsel (00:15:28)

Chief Financial Officer? I do. You may proceed with your testimony.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:15:32)

Absolutely. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Zwang and members of the Committee on Aging. I am Dr. Lisa Scott McKenzie, the Commissioner of the New York City Department for the Aging, NYC Aging. Before I go into my testimony, I have to say, viewing photos like you showed us a few moments ago as Commissioner, they're dramatic and deeply disturbing. So definitely you will see more from DFTA. Obviously, it's not wholly our problem, but we will join forces with all the others, such as NYCHA, to ensure that our older adults are in safe, functional environments. I have pledged to go out to all all of the 308 of our centers and, uh, take a look at what our older adults are experiencing every day. And again, I've said, I— it's not the beautiful sites that I want to see first. I want to go first to those sites that look like what you just showed us. So if you would be as kind, we would definitely invite you also to come along with us and advocate for our older adults. Absolutely. Now I'll move into my testimony. I am joined this afternoon by Jose Mercado, our Chief Financial Officer. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss NYC Aging's preliminary budget for fiscal year 2027, FY '27. I'm speaking to you this morning on my 9th official day as Commissioner for New York City Aging. I am very excited to serve as the head of this agency delivering vital services to nearly 2 million New Yorkers over the age of 60. We, of course, do this through our partnership with hundreds of contracted providers across a range of programs, and much of our success is due to the relationship we have fostered over the years with these dedicated professionals in aging services. I am proud to bring my years of experience working at the New York City Health and Hospitals, most recently as the Chief Operating Officer at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, to this new role. I am committed to bringing the same innovative innovative approach to aging services and pursuit of excellence in the way we serve older New Yorkers to my time as Commissioner. We believe that New York City's older adults have earned the right to age gracefully and with dignity in the communities they have built. Nurturing and fostering that reality for older adults is fundamental to the work of this agency. To support this important work, our FY '27 preliminary budget projects $573.5 million in funding, of which $469.5 million is in city funds. This includes allocations to core programs you are all familiar with, including $240.8 million to support older adult centers, $78 million for home-delivered meals, and $47.4 million for case management. The work done by OAC's HDM programs and our CMA providers combat poverty and financial insecurity while also connecting older adults to in-home services which addresses their needs when struggling with activities of daily living. There are also allocations of $36.5 million to support home care for homebound older adults who are not Medicaid eligible, which allows older New Yorkers to age in place, and $16.3 million for NORC programs, which provide similar services as OACs other than meals, for recreation and combating social isolation, but includes nursing services. Finally, $14.2 million for caregiver services supporting the 1.3 million caregivers and their care receivers in the city, and $7.1 million for transportation services allowing older adults to be connected to community centers, houses of worship, shopping, and medical appointments. These numbers tell only a portion of the story beyond the services included at NYC Aging and show the human side of what we do to make New York City fully age-inclusive inclusive. As this administration has made clear, there are key challenges in the city financially, and NYC Aging is always prepared to prioritize the needs of older adults and our core aging services while limiting the impacts of these challenges. Nonetheless, we are still keenly aware of these challenges, which have been exacerbated by changes to the federal landscape and the need for continued and increased investment from the state to support the growing number of older adults throughout New York. We also continue to advocate that our state and federal partners share the financial responsibility of serving older New Yorkers living in the city. Over the current fiscal year, we are proud of our work done along with the work of our nonprofit partners in addressing some notable recent successes and upcoming items we are looking forward to. In November of 2025, New York City Aging celebrated its 50th anniversary. As the largest Area Agency on Aging in the country, we are proud to be the first in a number of accomplishments, including developing the Community Care Plan, creating the Cabinet for Older New Yorkers, and utilizing our platform as an agency to take us from age-friendly to age-inclusive. New York City Aging's commitment to service and leadership will build a future where every New Yorker can age with dignity and respect. In FY25, New York City Aging once again hit a post-pandemic record of 10 million meals served to older New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs. This includes 6.1 million meals served at the 300+ OACs in the network and 4.2 million meals delivered by our HDM providers. As we have said before, when the Older Americans Act was passed more than 60 years ago this July in 1965, A key reason for creating that pivotal legislation was to address older adult poverty nationwide through nutrition and supportive services. While the significance of what it means to be an older adult may have changed since the 1960s, the basic human needs for dignified aging—meals, health, agency, safety, and income—remain the same. Last fall, we launched a dynamic Ageism Stops With You campaign. Focused on calling out ageism regardless of age. This means both older and younger New Yorkers that age discrimination affects us all. This reminds all of them, and we should call it out, reject it, and challenge ageism together. This multilingual campaign is not the only effort our agency has put forward combating ageism, but is complemented by our anti-ageism high school resource guide and the intergenerational My New York Story campaign, Both these endeavors have been developed through the Cabinet for Older New Yorkers and were recognized as Programs of Merit by Generations United. We are proud of the work we are doing to fundamentally push against ageism in New York City. Finally, last July, we were pleased to release the State of Older New Yorkers report, which was developed based on the results of our milestone service needs assessment administered in 2024. We have learned much information about the way older adults perceive their environment and aging in New York City, and we have learned about the work and challenges our agency needs to overcome in order to better meet the needs of older adults. This report has informed our work and allowed us to develop a better understanding of what older New Yorkers are really experiencing on a daily basis. We are thrilled about these recent successes and some key programs supported in this preliminary budget. Which shape our core services and improve the lives of older adults in New York City. Two of New York City Aging's core services are OACs and the HDM program, which are intrinsically connected to providing meals and nutrition assistance to older adults. In recent years, we have altered our own thinking and clearly see congregate or home-delivered meals as programs which provide food as medicine. These are essential services for healthy living and preventing the social isolation that affects older adults at a very basic level. This work done by OACs, HDM programs, and our CMA providers combat poverty and financial insecurity, which address their needs when struggling with the activities of daily living. Not only does the HDM program provide meals to homebound older New Yorkers, their interaction with the delivery person, which for many of our clients may be the only direct human interaction for the day, supports our ongoing effort to combat social isolation, again, a critical aspect of our community care approach. This program continues to follow the strict guidance set by the state and is open to all those who meet the criteria. Additionally, because financial insecurity remains among the most critical needs of older adults and it is highly correlated to food insecurity, NYC Aging is continually evaluating our efforts and exploring areas for improvement. While workforce programs continue to be a way for older adults to avoid long-term poverty, meal— meals programs are a lifeline to older adults struggling with financial and food insecurity. This includes enhancing meal options for recipients, embracing the diversity of our city by increasing the availability of culturally aligned meals, and promoting uniformly high-quality and nutritious meals. Over the past few years, per meal reimbursement rates have gradually risen to help meet the needs, the needs of our providers serving these critical needs. These have been key improvements to service and our providers that we have met through partnership between the administration and council leadership. As the number of older adults in New York City continues to grow, it is imperative that we continue to grow the community care support systems which allow older New Yorkers to remain in the communities they built and truly age in place. We do this through home care and caregiver services, which greatly serve those who are homebound or in need of additional supports. Home care services are provided through Medicaid reimbursement, and for those who do not qualify for Medicaid programs, through the Expanded In-Home Services for Elderly Persons (ICEP) program, where case management hours are reimbursed to providers. Without this, ISEP clients are at a disadvantage when Medicaid home care workers are incentivized to take on those clients because the pay is higher. There is no distinction between ISEP and Medicaid home care workers. They are primarily women of color, and this exacerbates inequity because of the salary. Currently, the home care program at New York City Aging is funded at $36.5 million for FY '27. Many older adults are caregivers for their aging parents or others. Many are caregivers who also have full-time jobs. The caregiver program offers options for respite care through home care or participation in social adult daycare. There are an estimated 1.3 million New Yorkers who function as a caregiver. We know that the cost of maintaining an older adult in institutionalized care is far higher when compared to the cost of community care options such as supporting caregivers. We know that the cost of— it costs, excuse me, on average $160,980 to house an older adult in institutionalized care, whereas the average cost of community care services is roughly $32,000 per person per year. In FY '27, funding for the caregiver program is currently projected to be $14.2 million. We are additionally excited to announce that a citywide caregiver campaign just launched today and will help to educate New Yorkers about this incredibly important program at NYC Aging. Caregiver supports positively impact the health and well-being of older adults while aligning with the cultural background of the individual. This is why community care is so incredibly important to the future of older New Yorkers. As the New York City population ages rapidly, ensuring older adults can age in place is paramount. Naturally occurring retirement communities are a vital piece of the community care puzzle. Through contracted providers, New York City Aging currently funds 36 NORCs across the city, delivering essential social services directly to where older adults live. NORC programs are uniquely positioned within people's homes and communities, offering services distinct from traditional older adult centers. Just like caregiver supports, NORCs are a fundamentally sound investment in community care that saves the city money while improving lives. NORC staff also intervene early to prevent the negative impacts that lead to costly institutionalization. Beyond healthcare, they empower older adults to advocate for their daily living needs. Currently, the NORC program is funded at $16.3 million in New York City. Because they are embedded in the community, NORC staff provide vital healthcare management to address long-term housing issues. These are key interventions that prevent older adults from being forced into institutional care. Just this year, the governor's 2026 State of the State address underscored the immense value of this model by proposing to double state investments in NOORCs to $16 million. This commitment highlights the immense impact that this program has, and we know that Council has contributed discretionary funds to NOORC programs as well in the past years. These integrated services keep older New Yorkers safely in the communities they helped build, which is their overwhelming preference. Maintaining and expanding NOORC funding is essential to our shared goal of making New York City a truly age-friendly city, and we welcome your continued advocacy and investment in these critical community anchors. In conclusion, I continue to be proud of the great work that NYC Aging and our providers accomplish with our resources. This past year has shown where NYC Aging is prepared to prioritize vital programs that truly meet the needs of older New Yorkers and continue to advocate for innovations in aging services which look to the future. Even in the face of challenges, we continue to be good stewards of public dollars. That said, given the need for further investment from our state and federal partners, we continue to be concerned about the current uncertainty and what changes may affect NYC Aging. It is imperative now more than ever that New York City receive its fair share of aging services funding and that federal grants continue to be dispersed for these vital programs and services. We are grateful to the chairs and committee members for your ongoing advocacy and continued partnership to support older New Yorkers. Thank you for your time today. Mr. Mercado and I are happy to answer any questions.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:30:28)

Thank you, Commissioner. And then we just joined by— with us, Councilmember Brewer. Congratulations. We're going to move to the question Q&A. We're going to move to Q&A portion of this hearing. Congratulations, Commissioner, again. I enjoyed the conversation we had yesterday. I'm excited to work with you. And— but a lot of people still don't know yet. I'm going to ask the question again. What's your priority for the agency?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:31:08)

Well, we have taken a look at the— an overall look at the agency. Obviously, again, it's my 9th day, so there's a lot still to be uncovered. But we found that we really have a great mission-driven agency that has done great work in partnership with this council. So we want to thank you so much for all that you've done and how you've supported the work that we do. But as far as some of our changing mission, we are looking at ageism, and we know that that ageism has been at the foundation of all the work that's been done over the last few years. But now we're starting to realign and recognizing that, uh, today folks are dealing with, and especially our older adults, are dealing with the real meat and potatoes issues of food insecurity, of a safe place to live, an affordable place to live, and especially providing the best environment possible when we do have places like our OACs where it should be an area of respite for older adults.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:32:08)

Yes. And also, like you just said, OAC, this OAC is in NYCHA building. What's your plan to work with other agencies? Because if, like the last testimony we had, advocate told us, this situation, it's raining outside, it's pouring inside, and it's in NYCHA building. NYCHA building doesn't let the OAC fix the issue. What's your plan to working with other city agencies?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:32:39)

Well, exactly as you've said, we definitely need to partner better with NYCHA, and we will do that. I know that we have an escalation process right now where you have a ticket, and we do have a liaison that works along with us, but I'd like us to really advocate a lot more strongly that these environments are looked at immediately. We are not a capital agency, as you all know, but we can make use of monies that we may have that are due to overspending and others to be able to, to effect some of these repairs. And of course, of course, NYCHA, as one of the city agencies, I'm sure that they're eager to help us solve this problem. So we will work with them and whatever other agencies we need to in order to make sure that we don't have centers that look like this.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:33:25)

Thank you. And also, second question, older adults represent about 20% of city's population. 2021 CUNY Graduate Center study report that the population of older adults age 65 and older in New York State will increase to 25% between 2021 and 2040. In the city alone, Population older adults will be increased by 40% by the year 2040. This is a big increase. What metrics does NYC Aging track or monitor regarding older adults population growing, demanding more programs and more service?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:34:14)

Well, we are looking at metrics, and I'm sure Jose may want to to add some things, but we are looking at metrics that help us to identify the total number of folks that would need our assistance. Of course, allowing there to be some overflow because we do recognize that there are folks that we may not know about that are 60 and older that will enter some of our centers and require additional services as well. So while I don't have those numbers in front of me now, and I'm happy to bring them back for our next meeting, we are tracking the need and meeting the need according to our recent numbers.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:34:50)

I'm a data person also. Me too. So when the number of seniors increase, but the percentage of seniors also increase, and, uh, but we did not see the percentage of the budget in the city increase. Is there any plan of increase of percentage of the budget for seniors? This year?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:35:11)

Well, there are innovative approaches, and of course, our partnerships with some of our nonprofit agencies as well, to be able to address the needs and properly assign the needs. Because through case management, we should be able to assess our older adults and then be sure that we're meeting their actual needs. And not all of that is a budget issue. Some of it is budget neutral. We found through our Cabinet for Older New Yorkers that we have been able to come up with approaches that don't cost a lot of money, but actually increase the service and increase the service the, the offerings of services that we have across the city?

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:35:48)

I'm in the ground every day. A lot of senior center OACs, they come to me, always say, Susan, we don't have enough budget, we have to cut this, we have to cut that. And this year, from the budget so far, I haven't seen increase of money for OACs, but I see the cut. Is there any plans for our OACs for the budget? Oh, yes.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:36:14)

We did release a concept paper very recently, and we were waiting for the results of that to get a better picture of whether or not we do need to make further adjustments. But I would open the floor and say to you, please, if you do hear that, you know, I can't speak for the past, but I can speak for the future, and I'll say if you get that, please pass it on to us because we want to be able to ensure that we're meeting the needs. And if there are ways that we can look at our budget and use it in a different way to meet those needs, we're willing to do so. That's great to hear.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:36:46)

Probably you're going to have a full list.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:36:49)

Good, we've got lots of work to do.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:36:52)

And then we just joined by Councilmember Hudson, um, and also Councilmember Lee. Oh, our finance charity.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:37:03)

Good, hi, how are you?

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:37:09)

For the mayor's savings exercise, did we have any idea what aging NYC DFTA able to save and what area they're going to save? For me, I see DFTA already don't have enough funding. How are we going to save more? Which area that you guys going to look at it to save?

Committee Counsel (00:37:34)

Um, hi. And so I— we're currently looking at ideas, so we're still working through that. No, that's kind of— again, we're still reviewing what we have because Commissioner mentioned earlier we're looking at all our budgets, reviewing them. So currently we have made no decisions regarding any savings at this point in time.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:37:52)

And we really want to be very thoughtful in this process because again, we don't have an infinite budget. No one does. But we want to be sure that we're meeting the needs and we're meeting our older adults where they are and our providers to be sure that what we are funding, we're funding the right things. And if there's something that we can draw back on, that we're drawing back on the right issues.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:38:18)

And we also hear going to end the 2-for-1 hiring policy, but it was a concern to hear that agencies will only permit to fill half of their vacancies. With senior growing, I don't know what's the situation with DFTA.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:38:40)

Well, I'm happy to say that at this point, we only have 2 positions that have been approved by OMB that we're actively hiring for. At this point. So we're doing quite well with our staffing, and our vacancy rate right now is 2 percentage points lower than it was last year. So we're doing well for now, and we will continue to monitor.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:39:06)

Okay, um, I still have a lot of questions, but I want to go, uh, let my colleagues ask a question first, then we'll go back to my questions. We have Councilmember Schuman, and then followed by Councilmember Brewer.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:39:19)

Thank you very much, Chair, and, uh, welcome, Commissioner. So, uh, one of the questions I have is, um, sort of in continuing the vein of, uh, Chair, um, there are communities like in my district where there are no senior centers. And I know in terms of the capital, the capital is not there, but in Richmond Hill there is no senior center. So there are any plans to— how— what are the plans to deal with that? I'm so happy you mentioned that because definitely we want to be sure that we have centers in areas of need and underserved communities. So it is something that we will look at, and I'd be happy to bring you back some information on that in the very near future. Okay, no, I appreciate that because there are seniors and they get together in small groups and they do their own thing, and so they don't have a structure. So that's very important. And also, you know, I would like to also invite you out to my district. The amenities to some of the senior centers are not great either. Either in my district, not to the extent that you have at NYCHA, but there, you know, you'll see, and we have, in my district, we have a lot of Holocaust survivors and they come for lunches at different places and it's just, you know, there's stuff coming off the walls and there's like, you know, the tables are not, you know, all of that stuff, so we should talk about that. What kind of meals, and do you have money for meals for, for seniors? Like, how does that work?

Committee Counsel (00:40:50)

So currently, all those— so majority of our OSCs basically have money. Okay. So they all have meals, you know, so they get reimbursed based on specific cost. On, on average, you know, the meal cost is about $5 on average. Um, so currently, I mean, so right now, for just so you know, we currently are— we've provided 3.2 million meals. Currently, there are no— as of January. So currently, we have no outstanding invoices for meals at this point in time.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:41:20)

Okay. And the last question that I have is, what are your plans in terms of moving? I know you're at Lafayette Street now, I believe, and you're moving to 14 Wall Street. So can you tell us a little bit about that? Yes. First, I want to take you up on your invitation. You mentioned that we should go out to your community. So absolutely, let's plan that as soon as possible. You know, it's a major priority of mine to see and feel the same things that our older adults see and feel every day. You know, and as I've mentioned, I don't just want to see the glitzy programs. I actually want to go to those programs where there are real needs so that we can make a bigger impact when we do correct those issues. But yes, we will be moving in the very, very near future. There are renovations that will take place first. It's listed right now as a Mayoral renovation, so we're expecting that this will help us to not only retain the quality, talented staff that we have right now, but as we move forward and continue to have needs to attract additional staff, that, that will help us as well. We also have several spaces within our building where we invite our older adults in for training and for counseling, interview prep, and other types of services. So we, again, if it's going to be our overarching goal that we provide the best spaces, safe, functional, we want to do the same thing when they're coming over to DFTA. What— is there a timeline for the move? Uh, well, we're working out the timeline right now, so I don't want to commit to something that's not in stone yet, but it will be in the near future. And what A big issue for seniors— by the way, I'm one of a handful of older adults on the city council, so this is important to me. Um, uh, loneliness is a big issue for seniors. So what plans do you have? I didn't see anything in the testimony around that issue. Yes, social isolation, loneliness. Uh, well, the first thing that we're doing, as I mentioned in, in the testimony, you might not heard me, but we do have those congregate settings at all of the OACs. So our older adults do have the chance to network and socialize and so on. And then some of them don't want to go to an OAC, or maybe they can't get to an OAC. So those home-delivered meals, they do have that consistency with the driver that's coming every day. They become accustomed to them and become comfortable. But I I am a technology person, and I do feel at many of our centers we have started to train up some of our seniors to be able to use some of the devices that are out there, such as language translation apps, which would open the door to additional communication and connection and socialization for our seniors. So these are some of the avenues that we're exploring. But again, as I mentioned, we're looking at innovative approaches. We know that there are several ways to be able to provide additional services and to allow that sense of belonging and connection. So it is an area of focus for us. Okay. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:44:42)

Thank you. We also joined by Chair Millie. I have a follow-up question. Sure. So in Councilmember Schuman already asked for moving, um, on the budget, said including moving aging headquarters cost $27.1 million. And also for our city agencies, total project, total funding is $75.9 million for fiscal 2026 to $30 million. So this is basically half, almost half of the total budget for city agency for 4 years. Why this moving is quite expensive?

Committee Counsel (00:45:39)

Moving the headquarters. Hi. So yes, it's— so part of that is renovating the buildings to ensure that it basically meets the needs of the older adults, training centers, as well as staff.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:45:56)

Is any bidding process inside? Who is the landlord? And why this building is so expensive? Basically, it's half the budget of 4 years' DFTA, the moving expense.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:46:10)

I'd like to review those numbers again, and if there are changes, we will be sure to share those with you. But I would say that it did go through the bidding process. It went through OMB. So they've already addressed those hurdles early on in the process. So the final number— and I'm not going to say right now that is the final number, but we will share that final number with you. And it was in line with with what makes sense moving an agency of our size and also having to have those special amenities for our older adults when they enter our center. It's not just your basic vanilla box type of movement. These are not just offices. These are spaces that are designed to support the work that we do.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:46:54)

So this is not the direct service cost to, like, similar to senior center. It's only just moving. We like to see the numbers. I think the public also interested to see all the numbers.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:47:10)

Okay, we will definitely bring that back for you.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:47:12)

Thank you. Thank you. And also, we, um, Councilmember Brewer.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:47:18)

Oh, thank you very much, and it was nice to meet you on your first day at the Encore Dinner. That was very special. Um, I have a question about case management because I know that in many cases that is the I don't know what the right term— meat and potatoes of some of these centers, and they do never have enough. So the PMMR said there was an increase in the number of clients. I'm sure about that. And an increase in case management hours. And there's a large number of older city citizens who were served. But what is the current funding amount for case management in your budget for '26 and for '27? And is there a waiting list for case management services? I know the answer is yes. And then how many clients are on that list? And just generally, how are you going to address case management? That is, like I said, what keeps people housed and served and so on.

Committee Counsel (00:48:12)

I want to hear more about case management. Hi, regarding the budget, so there was actually additional funding added during the November plan for case management, $4 million. So currently our budget for '26—

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:48:25)

can you talk up a little if you could?

Committee Counsel (00:48:27)

Sorry, can you hear me? Yep. Can you hear me better? All right, sound like a Verizon commercial now. But anyway, um, with case management, um, so currently our budget is $55.5 million, which includes that additional money for that one year. $35 million, you said? $55.5 million. All right. Yeah, and same thing, that is baseline for '27 as well. So now, just so you know, for example, this does not include any additional ICR from— and things of that nature.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:48:52)

And what's the waiting list? How many more people do you have on the waiting list? 455. Okay. Okay. So right now, we have 455 clients that are waiting for full case management services, which actually is a decrease of 38% from the same time 2 years ago. Okay. So you feel that there's— that sounds low, but I appreciate that that's the number that you have. And that is those— what do you consider case management? What is on your— what do you consider case management? Well, this would not be an everyday, you know, because we know the ratio is— the council has requested a ratio of 65 cases per caseworker. Right now we're at 164. 164 as opposed to— okay. Right. So we're just a smidge under, but we are working obviously to make sure that we do reach that target goal that you have mentioned previously, and this would not include the day-to-day interaction, of course, one person with 65 people. So case management for us would be that, uh, you do have that social worker that would be covering 64 cases. That would be their caseload. Okay, I think that's helpful. More to be discussed. I'm a big supporter of the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens. We're all trying to find housing, and they were able to do home sharing for 100 hosts and guests very recently. So I want to know if that's a program that you think should be expanded, funded, etc. Obviously, the notion behind it, as you know, somebody has vacancy in their apartment and then they match and it ends up saving money. Last year, about $1.3 million is what the city saved. So I want to know if you know the program, if you think it should be expanded. It's a great, I think, model. What do you think? Well, thank you for sharing that. You know, again, 9 days in, I don't want to say it should be expanded or maintained. What I'll say is that we will definitely take a deep dive and make sure that this is something that is meaningful to the organization and meaningful to the folks that need to use the program, and we'll bring that answer back for you. Okay. And the other thing is hoarders. Hoarders are a big problem for— talk about case management. That is, you know, almost all by yourself you got to deal with it. So my question is, what are we doing to prevent eviction? APS is obviously the last resort. Is that something that's— I know you have a big ageism agenda, I'm like real granular. So I have tons of hoarders and we spend hours, we sometimes we clean them, sometimes we call APS, et cetera. How is that fitted in? Unfortunately, they're often older adults. Yes. And I want to just circle back one moment, if you wouldn't mind, on the case management issue. The number that we mentioned, this includes individuals that are waiting for a full evaluation. Okay. They're still receiving services like home-delivered meals,, where they qualify in, in the interim. So on the issue of hoarders, obviously we do have a tenant eviction specialist unit that would assist with issues like that. And as our case management workers are working with, with these, older adults, they also assess if there are environmental issues where they would need additional assistance. So it is something that we are looking at as well. It's— it is an issue among, our older adults, as we know, because many of them either don't have the resources or they're not able, they're not bodily able to be able to do those things on their own. I'm just saying, I think perhaps it's good to be reactive, but I'm just saying perhaps look at some of the dockets at housing court, something to be more proactive so we don't want them to lose their homes, you know, they're going to end up in shelter. So I would love to see that. Just finally on SCEE, we love SCEE, we have work with finance, we have somebody there every week helping tenants. However,— but due to memory loss and so on, people don't get their forms in, they don't do the lease right, the owner doesn't— loves to not pretend or pretend they doesn't know about the lease renewal, etc. So how are you— that's working with another agency, I understand that, but finance. But how are you, like, dealing with SWEET? There's so many people who are not signed up, we know that, but even those who are signed up, we spend hours every week, you know, lines out the door. With people who don't have the right SCRE information. They don't want to lose it, they want to get on it, they don't remember, etc. Well, thank you for that, and we welcome the partnership with you so that we can also advocate for what's needed there. At those older adult centers, we do have staff that work with the older adults to complete their applications, so they do have some resources. And of course, we want to do additional outreach so that they are aware that they have those services available to them. It's one of those things that I think the mayor and others should be doing it because a lot of those folks don't go to senior centers. They don't— or they're older adult, whatever the hell they're called.

Chair Susan Zhuang (00:53:48)

But it's something that just needs a lot of attention. Thank you. Thank you. And I actually— we, our office did the research about Screen and a Dream. People qualified, only 42% of people applied because I see a lot of advocates nod their heads. Yes, it is the truth. It's because people don't know the program. Later on, they lost their apartments, they lost their homes. This is definitely a joint partnership between all the city agencies. We need advocates. Even my office, we help people to apply also. We need to have a campaign in the between city agency and between all the council members, even with mayor. We should let people know this program exists. Apply before you lose your home. And, uh, the next one we have Council Member Abdul.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:54:51)

Good afternoon and, uh, congratulations and welcome to DFTA. Thank you. And the City Council budget hearing. Um, so I have a couple of, a few questions actually. Um, so, you know, federal funding is declining due to the removal of, uh, the pandemic-era funding.

Committee Counsel (00:55:16)

How are you planning to close that gap and prevent, uh, service reductions? So last, so last So the fiscal cliff. So last year, New York City covered all federal funding that went away. And currently it's all baseline funding right now. So there are no specific fiscal cliffs regarding federal funding.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:55:39)

Okay. And with home-delivered meals appears to have declined by 25% compared to the same period last year, what factors are contributing to that? Decline, and what steps is DFTA taking to ensure that seniors that need meals are receiving meals? And on, you know, on Councilmember Zhuang's point, what is the outreach and, you know, marketing and education to, you know, seniors about the services that are provided for these communities? We have throughout the city and in the Bronx, we have a lot of food deserts. And is, you know, DFTA doing anything to service those food desert areas? Have you identified areas that are in greater need? So those are my questions for now. I have a few more, but— Okay. Well, thank you so much for your questions, and obviously we all are very concerned about the federal environment now and some of the changes, and we're monitoring what may be the impact on New York City aging. I do want to get back to you. This is one time that I'm going to have to say that I'm going to lean in a little bit on my 9 days. And I'm going to say, I would like to take a deeper dive into some of these reductions. Obviously, we know we've spent more in the budget, and I don't know if you want to mention that, but if there's an area that we need to take a deeper dive, I'd like us to do that.

Committee Counsel (00:57:23)

So as you can see, for example, I mean, HDM has been growing every year, and as a result, support for the council—

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:57:28)

Can you speak into the mic? Sorry. Yeah, because we can't hear you.

Committee Counsel (00:57:32)

No, you're off. No, you hear me now, right? Sorry, like it's like Teams, right? Anyway, um, so as you know, for example, historically HDM has been increasing as well as the council has been supporting the rate increases over time. So the budget has grown, so you know that. I mean, regarding the actual— like I said, the commissioner will get back to you regarding the reduction in the, in the actual meals. I think there's probably a data issue there, but we'll get back to you on that.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:57:59)

Okay. Can I ask another question? Um, so on staffing, you have about a 13.9% vacancy rate. Um, how are you ensuring that, um, there's adequate oversight of the over 1,400 contracts, uh, with nonprofits that you have across the city? Um, and do you— are there any issues with providers, uh, receiving funding, having funding delays because of—

Committee Counsel (00:58:35)

So regarding on-time payments, we don't have any outstanding invoices to providers. And so we're— normally, if invoices come in, we have a 2-week turnaround. So regarding delayed payments, that's not one of our issues at all. Okay. We do have, again, a robust— like I said, in terms of staffing, we have I mean, staff who are constantly contract managing the programs. And so if there are any issues, I mean, they normally get to one of us, or again.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (00:59:00)

Okay. And I do have a specific question about a center in my district, the Throggs Neck Senior Center. It's been closed for, I want to say, close to 2 years or less. But, you know, it's fallen in disrepair. It's under NYCHA, but it's now, I believe it's a Section 9 PACT building. And so, so that transition from NYCHA to, to PACT or even RAD, it feels like we're caught in like limbo here as to who is responsible to make the repairs to the senior center, which is much, much needed. About 58% of the tenants in NYCHA housing in my district are over the age of 65. Yes. Which is significant. And I'd say to you, we are aware that there are some centers or OACs that are in NYCHA facilities that the building itself has infrastructure issues. And that is one of them where there are issues there with the HVAC, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, and the roof. Aside from the site that we operate there, So again, this is another area where we need to partner with NYCHA and to see what can be done. And it, it might call for us to take another look, and perhaps if there's some swing space or something else that we can find in the neighborhood, we may have to take a look at it and make a hard decision, because our overarching goal is that we are going to have safe, functional environments for every one of our centers. We know it's going to take time, but we will work tirelessly to get there because, as I feel and as I've shared with the team at DFTA, if I don't feel I can send my grandmother there, my mother can't go there, and I don't want to be there, then I don't want to have anyone else in that environment as well. So we will work towards making sure every one of those centers is a place we feel proud of. Yeah, currently they're using the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club, but during the summer they can't use it because it's like full-time summer. The kids are there for like day camp, um, and so now during the summer they won't have a space to— they won't have a place to go to. And they've talked about transporting— does DFTA pay for the agency that's running that center to transport people to other centers and how would that work? I know a lot of seniors, they like being in their community and don't like the idea of having to get on being transported someplace else. I would say that a lot of the senior centers are full to capacity, so just adding more people won't necessarily work. So we have to figure that one out, I would— sooner rather than later. We do, and we know that it may take more innovative approaches for us to be able to serve our older adults, but I'll tell you, I agree that they should not be bussed into other communities. You know, that's what's happening. Their preference is to stay within their own communities and to have a home base somewhere close to where they actually live, where you can build those connections and that sense of belonging in a certain community. So yes, we do need to find other approaches and other methods. I haven't found them in 9 days, but we will work towards coming back to you with some ideas that make sense. And again, welcome your advocacy and of course, our community leaders and elected officials too, to help us to better serve those that deserve to age gracefully in place. Have you thought about working with other agencies or organizations like public libraries and even DOE schools to provide a space where our seniors can go and also interact with some young folks who can learn from us? Absolutely. I consider myself one of the few seniors on this committee. But yeah, well, think of it as we're paying it forward. We're getting it ready for the folks that will come after us. So any steps that we take now will set the foundation for great work in the future. But yes, we have looked at some of those areas. You know, we've talked about being able to access space where we can have additional programming for our older adults in larger spaces, air-conditioned spaces. We know, you know, the cooling season, as much as we'd love it to be today, it will be here pretty soon. And so we're looking We're looking at that in connection with the cooling centers that we need to offer for our older adults in the summertime. So we're looking at a lot of different approaches. Again, once we start to solidify some of these a bit more, I think that's a better time for us to have a real logical, cogent discussion about what we can do.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:04:15)

Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. If you don't tell anyone, people think you are 25. And then we just joined by Council Member Dinowitz, and the next one, Finance Chair Lee.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:04:31)

Hi everyone, welcome Commissioner, and it's always good to see Jose, uh, who's been helpful. Um, and, uh, it's great to— well, scary a little bit to be in this new role, but as, uh, some folks at DFTA know, it's great to see the staff as well, and of course the advocates Having run a social service nonprofit with two senior centers and a Meals on Wheels program for 12 years, I fully appreciate the work that DFTA has done in supporting our communities. One comment I will make, though, is that I think that part of the reason why the budget is increasing, even though the number of seniors have not necessarily for homebound delivered meals, is because of the fact that the costs have been increasing. We have been trying to catch up with the national levels of rates for HDM. So I think that's part of it. Because I think back when I was— this was in 2014 or 2015— as a subcontractor, we were only getting reimbursed $5.25 per meal, which was even at that time extremely, extremely low. And so I just wanted to actually check on the fact that the subs are also getting their indirect rates and fair share of the contracts as well as the main. Not to say that we want to take away from the main contractors, because obviously we don't. But how do we increase that pie? And so if you don't have it today, because I get you're on day 9, but if you don't have it today, I'd love to see updated numbers in terms of where the reimbursement rates are with the mains versus the subs, if you can provide that. And then also, I know that I'm very well— like, one of the things I hate are unfunded mandates because that cost should not have to fall onto the providers. And so when we did our 7-day meal delivery service for 7th Day, the bill that we passed, Um, I, I specifically wanted to make sure there was language in the bill that was subject to appropriation. And so just in your conversations with OMB and with the mayor's office, does it look like there will be— and I know that we're doing the budget dance right now, but I would gladly advocate for you guys to obviously get funding in the budget for the 7th day meal, because as we know, a lot of the seniors, the homebound meals, it's usually only just than just the one meal a day that they get. So I just wanted to check in on that as well in terms of how those conversations are going with the administration.

Committee Counsel (01:06:48)

So I'm going to go back to the very first question. So currently it's, you know, as we all know, it's $14.78 per meal. So now, unfortunately, we don't get involved with the conversations regarding subcontractors and what they negotiate with the prime.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:07:02)

But do you guys have a sense of what those numbers are?

Committee Counsel (01:07:06)

So it varies from provider to provider. It's not consistent across the board.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:07:09)

What's the floor and what's like the, what's the range?

Committee Counsel (01:07:12)

So I can give you that. We'll send, we'll give you that information. I don't want to kind of give a guess right now, but we'll provide that.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:07:20)

Okay. And I'd say on the other issue, obviously a lot more conversation needs to happen surrounding that. I have some preliminary numbers of the cost and I'm not so sure the bill addresses the funding vehicle for this. It does. Yeah, it was basically on the administration to see if we can put money into the budget for that. Yeah. Okay, so a lot more conversation. I'd really love to have those conversations over the next few weeks or so, and it's something that we can discuss because looking at the preliminary numbers, we're talking about an astronomical number that would need to be— it would be a pretty heavy financial lift. It's about $300 million, right? Yeah, from what I remember. Yes. Okay, because I haven't looked at the number, but I remember $300 million is sticking out. Okay. Okay, so further exploration and discussion and definitely something for a future meeting. Okay. Yes, and I will advocate that for a future need as well. Um, so really quickly shifting gears because I'm putting on my hat of my former committee chair role as mental health chair, um, obviously the, the senior mental health, uh, is super, super important. And just wanted to know, I think some of the advocates are expressing concerns, or health providers also, about the contracts. And so if you could differentiate the contracts that you may have that support mental health programs within New York City Aging, and then with geriatric mental health, I know there are groups like SPOP and others who are very unique in the sense that they serve they have both the Article 31 as well as the DFTA contract. And so I remember there was— I don't know if this has been fixed yet. I'm sure you guys can answer. Like, even when I was at KCS, we have an Article 31 as well as DFTA contracts. And so the question I would always ask is, why are the two contractors separate, especially when we're serving linguistically sensitive populations? And if you could speak to when the contracts are going to get renewed or when there are new RFPs coming out and those changes could be looked at.

Committee Counsel (01:09:28)

So I'm going to talk about the renewals. So currently we have about 173 contracts which will be renewed roughly. It's, it's Transportation, OACs, NORRCS, and so forth. So we are renewing contracts that will end in 2027. Um, so we'll get back to you with them with a nuance regarding, again, between the direct mental health contracts and the article 10, you said?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:09:55)

Sorry, what was the article? It's Article 31 for the outpatient mental health.

Committee Counsel (01:09:58)

Yeah, so we'll get back to you on that nuance.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:10:00)

Yeah, because I just want to emphasize that I think that if there's value in a nonprofit that has the DIFTA contract, and if they have the Article 31, I would just really advocate that they should be allowed to provide those services within one organization.

Committee Counsel (01:10:15)

Yeah, there's a lot of nuance, and I believe, like I said, we'll get back to you on that.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:10:20)

Okay, thank you.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:10:23)

Thanks, Chair, and congrats, Chair. Thank you. Next we have Council Member Hudson, former agent here.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:10:31)

Thank you so much, and happy to be here as a, as a committee member, although obviously very sad to no longer have the— to no longer be the chair, um, although grateful for my new, uh, chairmanship or chairpersonship Um, and welcome, as everyone has said, Commissioner. I look forward to spending some time, um, and getting to know each other. Um, I've introduced legislation to permit older adult centers to opt to provide grab-and-go meals to their clients, as many older adults prefer not to eat in congregate settings due to health concerns following the COVID-19 pandemic. What is the department's current position on grab-and-go meals and whether they're permitted in OAC contracts?, and are there any limitations given state guidelines? Well, uh, thank you for the warm welcome, and I'm looking forward to working with all of you to, uh, continue the great advocacy and the work that we do for our older adults. Grab-and-go meals, um, definitely we are in support. Um, any avenue or vehicle that we can use to provide, uh, meals for our older adults, uh, get it into their hands in the way that they prefer, we are in support of. I know that there are some changes that we do need to take a look at because I'm aware that there's an additional cost and pretty much just the cost per container that some folks are worried about. So again, I'd say as we did on the earlier topic, I would like to have additional discussion, conversation. It is something that I would like to join you in advocating for, but we do need to have more discussion. Okay, happy to, to have that discussion. And also want to, um, just say that I fully support adding $300 million to the budget to, to feed older adults 7 days a week. Um, just want to get that on the record. Um, there's a proliferation of private for-profit social adult daycare centers that are in many cases busing older adults from across the city and pulling attendance from city-operated older adult centers. Not to mention they're charging Medicaid daily for things like measuring blood pressure. Is this on NYC Aging's radar, and if so, what is your position on them, and are you working to get folks out of those centers and into ours? Well, it is on our radar. It's a topic that's very concerning, uh, to us, but, um, we have better control obviously over the centers that are under our purview, so, uh, we'd to have some discussions with some of these newer centers that are, are popping up around the city. But we also need to have that pipeline to our older adults and really explaining to them the services that we do have available at the centers that we have within the city that would probably benefit them a lot more in the long run, and especially the issue that we talked about earlier with remaining in your own community, having that connection. Having that sense of belonging, being able to share with people that you'll more than likely see every day, or that could be alerted, let's say, if the senior has an issue. Persons that are right within their own community will recognize, oh, you know, I didn't see them today. So we want to continue that type of surrounding, that type of environment, the feel and experience of the New York City centers. So yes, again, another area that needs to be explored more, but it's definitely on our radar. Okay, um, and currently older adults make up 20% of New York City's population, and by 2040 that percentage will increase to 40%. Given the rapidly increasing older adult population, are there any plans to expand funding for NORCs on the administration side? The current funding of $16.3 million seems wholly inadequate given that our city will have more older adults than children under 18 by 2030? Essentially, many large residential buildings across the city will very soon be naturally occurring retirement communities. Well, we welcome the aging to remain in New York City, so we know at some point, especially with folks living longer and hopefully folks continuing to want to stay in New York City, the numbers will rise substantially over the next few years, and it's a very big tent, we know that. So yes, we will have additional conversations with the administration regarding the needs at that time or preparing now for the needs proactively so that we're not hit with a crisis in 2030. But yes, it is something that we have already started discussing at, uh, DFTA, and we'll continue preparing and working along with all of you so that we can prevent any crisis in 2030. Thank you. And last year you embarked on an $800,000 anti-ageism ad campaign which included subway ads informing workers about ageism and how to spot it. Can you explain the decision behind prioritizing anti-ageism advocacy, and do you have any metrics to measure the campaign's success? Well, I will— I don't think we have the metrics with us today, and we will bring you some additional information on anti-ageism. And as I did mention, we will be revising somewhat the the sole focus on ageism because we do believe that our older adults have many more substantial issues they're dealing with today. As I mentioned earlier, the meat and potatoes issues of making sure that there's food on the table, that they're in safe environments, they have an affordable place to live. So there may be some modifications to the campaign, but we will bring you the metrics on, on the ageism platform. Great. Thank you. Um, and I know that you are aware that you have one of the smallest city agency budgets, um, in New York City and in city government. And, uh, it shouldn't be that way with the growing older adult population and the older adult population that already exists and the importance of people aging in place. I wanna state for the record how much I will always continue to advocate for more funding for your agency and hope that Well, I know you will be a partner in that, but I hope that the administration is able to increase the budget significantly to reflect the importance of the older adult population here in New York City.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:16:48)

Thank you, and thank you, Chair. Thank you. And I want to follow up to clarify the cost for legislation that could provide home-delivered meals 7 days a week. For building 280. Um, you said $30—

Committee Counsel (01:17:07)

$300 million, but previously we heard $27 million. Yeah, that's correct. $27.7 million. That's the cost to bring 7 meals for HDN.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:17:16)

$27 million, not— $27.7. Yeah, that was— okay, $27 million.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:17:19)

Yeah. Okay, thanks.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:17:20)

And the next should be even easier to secure then. Yeah.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:17:29)

And then we have Co-chair Mealy. Thank you, Chair Spang. Thank you, and congratulations. Thank you so much. I have so many, but I know sooner or later you and I will be speaking, and I have such a passion for my seniors. It's— they call me the guru. So what percentage of, um, you think your budget will be handling the, um, the centers with, uh, AC for the summer, cooling centers, because we have to prepare before. Last year I feel it was almost a failure. I couldn't find real cooling centers for our seniors. This, this is between life and death. So could you give me that percentage really quick because I have some other questions?

Committee Counsel (01:18:16)

So it's actually not a percentage, um, so So we've been basically, to your point, we've been looking at since last year, looking at all the different sites that need to basically be repaired and authorizing those going forward. So we can give you a list of those centers where the HVACs are being worked on and so forth. Well, again, it's based on health and safety depending on which ones are needed to be repaired. So we've been starting that process last year, and we're actually now doing the process with the providers and notifying them about the cooling centers and then determining which ones also need to be fixed really quickly, so that's kind of our focus right now.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:18:46)

And I just want to add on to that just a little bit. Our centers do have AC, and there's a report that comes out every September that mentions the AC status at every one of our sites. But of course, you are aware of my background and the fact that emergency preparedness has always been extremely important to me, and now that I get the chance to focus my emergency management skills on our older adults. There is no more important issue during the summertime than AC. I will be your partner. So you can expect that. I just wanted to mention though, because I didn't get a chance to say, you know, everything that we do, we definitely want to meet the needs of all of our older adults. And our goal is to ensure every New Yorker can age in place in New York City. We welcome the partnership with the council. We will continue to work with anyone that wants to work with us because, as I mentioned earlier, we do have a big tent. It's going to call for all of us to advocate and to work really tirelessly to be able to provide all that we need for our older adults, but we want them to have everything they deserve. Thank you, and I'm looking forward to that. Last budget cycle, we were told that an RFP would be released around the end of calendar year 2025, with new contracts set to start at the beginning of fiscal '27. To date, the RFP have not been released, and it's unclear when it will be. Will you know when an RFP will be released? Just for full knowledge, I'm one that came in office and our senior center was closed. I can give you the percentage of how many people we lost because that center— food, pool room, exercise room, arts and crafts room, big dining room— closed. When I came in, I made it a mandate. Now it's coming out of my own budget because I know that's a life and death situation. I've been asking now, when will an RFP that it could get off my budget and get onto yours to make sure that we all doing our fair share. So would you know when that RFP or an RFP will be released and when a new contract is expected to begin? And the capacity of— it's being new now. Have you budgeted that in?

Committee Counsel (01:21:21)

How much more the contracts will cost? So currently the proposed RFP, it will be probably released sometime in the fall of '27. '27, I got it. Okay, right. So, you know, so that's probably sometime, you know, November, December, with a start date of July of 2027.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:21:41)

July of 2027. Okay. Will additional capacity be included in the RFP to fund centers in part of the city with a high older adult populations that may not that currently have adequate New York City funding, like myself, and OACs, will additional capacity be included for the new expansion of programs at OACs? And please put in detail, since I'm the one doing it. I have boots on the ground. I have seniors doing boots on the ground, teaching them sign language. We have campfires and movie nights. We had just speed frienshipping with our seniors. This has been a center— went from 15 people coming to now 45 because I'm making sure those programs are in. So how can we really partner to make sure every senior center has that? I moved to Hugh Gilroy now, but what other capacities can we partner in to make sure that our seniors have fun and feel they are welcome at every senior center. When I take my show on the road, y'all better watch out.

Committee Counsel (01:22:53)

I'm coming with my boots on the ground. So currently, for example, we have a specific budget and I'm going to say for that RFP, it doesn't include expansion. However, again, the commissioner— however, the commissioner is 9 days in. She'll be evaluating the RFP and the proposal again. So this is an opportunity for the commissioner to evaluate how we operate. And how we basically run these RFPs. So again, right now there is no expansion, but the commissioner is 9 days in. She's going to be revaluing all the RFPs that were going to come out. So we'll—

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:23:25)

that's kind of right now where we're at. And I'm chair of the senior centers and seniors food insecurity. So this budget, I'm going every center to see to make sure that all of them up to capacity and getting the food that they really need. Let me congratulate you for— I'm trying— for the boots on the ground, for the fine language, for all of that. You know, one of the joys, I would say, of being the commissioner is that you can look at how our older adults are viewed in the city. And one of the very first comments I made about our older adults is that not everyone is frail and elderly. You know, there's a huge number of us that want to have fun, and we recognize that we're in the Big Apple and we want our bite too. So we have very similar views when it comes to how our older adults should be treated and some of the services that we should offer for them and entertainment and all those things that make life worth living in New York City. Thank you. And Chair, no, we had a Yeah, um, staff. Whereas if the city is funding these programs, why are the seniors have to pay out of their own pockets? I would love to have a conversation about that because something is wrong with that picture. I just found out one senior center I gave extra money and now they have to pay $125 to go on a trip. I feel our seniors have paved their way, blood, sweat, and tears, built this city, and now in their retirement they still have to pay when things should be free. So, Chair, I'm looking forward to— and Commissioner, we're going to get down to the bottom. I don't mind them paying a little, maybe. I really don't want them to pay anything, but I think $125 is egregious. So not talking about the food, they got to pay $2 or $5 just to have breakfast or lunch. Some people don't eat because they don't have the dollar, $2, or $5. That's just a statement.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:25:38)

Thank you, Chair, for indulging me. Thank you.

Committee Counsel (01:25:40)

Thank you. Can I just really quickly— so again, it's a contribution. They don't have to actually pay for the meals. It's not— again, they're not required to pay for the meals. They don't know that.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:25:51)

It's a contribution. That's actually— do the directors know that? Yes.

Committee Counsel (01:25:54)

Where they can't Yes, they should be. It's posted. It should be posted. It's a contribution.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:25:57)

They don't have to pay anything. It's my job now to make sure it's posted because a lot of people don't eat because they don't see that sign and they don't want to feel embarrassed being turned away to eat if they don't have a dollar or $5 just for lunch. So I'm looking forward to partnering with you on that to make sure every senior knows it's not embarrassing to not have the money to eat because they have paid. Their way already. Thank you so much, Chair. You're so welcome. And I, I'd say just really quickly, um, it is our goal that every older adult eat, and we certainly don't want anyone embarrassed seeking a meal. So maybe if there's some proactive approach letting our older adults know, um, of the fact that they don't need to pay for these meals, uh, I, I think we can do more in that respect.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:26:49)

Thank you. Um, Follow up with the meal questions. I share my personal story last time. My grandma enjoyed those congregate meals. She love it and she sometimes couldn't finish, she bring home for dinner. And also, in New York City aging plan to— is New York City aging plan to increase funding for OAC provider to address growing food cost?

Committee Counsel (01:27:16)

Increasing client demands and the high cost of the food. So, I don't know if you know, but we actually monitor the budget very closely. And we basically ensure that providers who actually need additional funding— so, for example, there's always going to be underspending in some of these contracts. And what we do is every quarter we look to see exactly where the underspending is and move money appropriately to ensure that providers can cover their costs, whether it's food costs, utilities, and things of that nature.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:28:08)

And inflation— I'm sorry, inflation is certainly a part of that discussion because we're not immune. We're just as subject as everyone else. So we want to be sure that we are offering rates that make sense.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:28:23)

And also some providers, some area need kosher, and I see COPO is here, they need halal food, also culturally sensitive meals. Do you know which— how the provider contracts those— give out the contract? What's the percentage of minority contractors and how they designate to pick the contractors?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:28:53)

Okay. So, thank you. Instead of addressing it as a percentage, what we're doing is that every one of those centers. Every one of our OACs, they are— it's part of their contract that they must know their community, they must provide culturally aligned meals, and if that calls for a specialized meal, a kosher, a halal, then it must be offered at that center. I think now we know that we're in one of the most diverse cities in the world, so we are very, very cognizant of the fact that we need to meet the cultural community needs of each one of our constituent areas. So I'd say just overall we're doing well, but if you need to have specifics, we can bring that back as well.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:29:40)

A lot of time we see very often we don't— the small business owner, if they are people of color, they don't get the contract. And also, do you guys make sure this kind of issue will address in with DFTA contract?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:29:57)

Yes, we do, and I'd have to say, you know, we differ on that opinion that a person of color would not get the contract because it is a very competitive process. We don't control the process, but there are— the bidders will decide, you know, if they want to bid on a particular contract or not. We have an equitable process for selection of the vendor, and sometimes you may have some displacement. We may have a vendor that's been offering a service for a very long time, but through the competitive process, you may have someone that is a better choice for that particular time. So from our standpoint, it is a competitive process. You know, there's no color assigned to the contract.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:30:43)

So it will go to whoever is the best vendor. Okay. Got it. But I'd like to see the numbers by race, by— is if it's a minority-owned business. As a city, as New York City, as such big city support minority business, we like to see they provide our senior support also. Absolutely. And also for the budget for OACs, over 300 OACs currently fund through DFTA. A lot of time, New York DFTA continues to have the smallest capital plan of all our city agencies. How do we, as we enter the budget cycle for fiscal 2027, what additional resources our DFTA can advocate to help the OACs to improve their capital projects?

Committee Counsel (01:31:45)

So as the commissioner mentioned earlier, we don't we have a capital budget, but we actually don't manage the capital budget. So for us, for example, what we've been looking at is more about the expense budget and actually looking at health and safety issues. And that would be where we can then basically actually provide them funding for the providers so they can actually do all the work. So that is actually much easier for us than actually having a capital process, because a lot of the capital budget is managed by DDC and is their, is their bandwidth to actually like renovate all all these different sites.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:32:15)

So that's kind of what we're looking for more. And I'm sorry, Jose, I would say also that we are monitoring outcomes. So I know that in 2025 we completed 27 projects, and we're still looking at the list of priority projects for 2026. But the goal always is to make sure that we're in safe, functional space. So if there are any issues or any sites that need to be prioritized because of the fact that they're not meeting that very simple basic goal We will be happy to add them to the list of the projects that need to be prioritized.

Committee Counsel (01:32:49)

So we also like to thank the council for providing us with $5 million for health and safety of 55 projects, some major renovations, kitchens, roofs, and things of that nature. So we would like, again, we would like to continue if that would be something that could be done for '27. Again, that is the quickest route to get the money to the providers to renovate a lot of these sites. Respect of the NYCHA sites.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:33:12)

But yes, again, thank you very much for that. When you talk about the New York City Council budget, we do have a question. Council members allocate NYC Council discretionary funding to supplement in-district work for a variety of population— populations, including older adult center services in the north. Separate from agency contract and they are deliverable. We have heard from providers in the last few years NYC aging has required provider receive discretionary funding to hit specific, very special program outcome related to intent of counsel discretionary contract in order to receive discretionary funding. Commissioner, can you explain New York City agent intent and expectation behind this policy, and why NYC agent require this additional expectation to unlock council funding?

Committee Counsel (01:34:19)

And has council been consulted in rollout of this policy? Uh, so any—

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:34:25)

so what we expect is everyone to provide Give us, for example, yeah, let's say we, we give a discretionary to nonprofit and the nonprofit give us what they want to do. They have already have the discretionary description of that funding, and then DFTA coming to say how you needed to do another thing, 1, 2, 3, a lot of time. And then if they don't do it, they don't get funding.

Committee Counsel (01:34:53)

That is a lot of provider told us. So I would like to get examples of that because right now the business process, the way we do is, for example, is when you do an allocation, there's this— there's basically the purpose of funds, there's a budget you give, a budget that we request from you guys, right, from the provider, and they provide units. That's a simple process, nothing difficult. Like I say, if you're— if you're basically— if you can give us examples, because we do—

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:35:15)

we do process. Okay, you can give me— okay, like I just gave $250,000 $250,000 to your assistant— no, $250,000 to my senior center. It was for educational boat ride, a pool table, exercise equipment, and now it's like the provider I gave it to, it's either they could do it or not. So how are you watching that? We gave out discretionary money And now I gave it, they don't have to do it. So how are we watching that? So that's kind of— right. So there is a business process. That's not what she's talking about, right?

Committee Counsel (01:35:58)

So I'm trying to figure out, you give me those examples.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:36:01)

Like, that's an example I need to know.

Committee Counsel (01:36:02)

So right now, for example, in your case, I would say, you know, so in your case, for example, that's money that was given to Fort Greene, correct? I'm just kind of specific. So we actually asked for a budget, right? You got a certain allocation. We want to know a budget so we can then track it against the spending, right? You wouldn't want to know exactly what was spent or not, right? That's how we track it. We know exactly what the line item is, how much it costs. Again, we've— like I said, we don't stop anyone from getting a discretionary award.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:36:27)

If the senior center that you— or someone who you gave the money do not do those allocations to what it's supposed to be, what is the recourse, right?

Committee Counsel (01:36:37)

So I would say, for example, if you— we can have a separate conversation to go through the process so you guys feel comfortable. And so whole thing. But again, there is a business process. We do not stop anyone from receiving discretionary funds. That is this funding that you guys give to the, to the providers. So we don't stop any of that. I just— it's kind of like I said, we should have a separate conversation. It's exact— give us examples so we can review it. Like I said, mentioned earlier, because it's kind of hard for me to believe this because we really track this every month. We have metrics and seeing exactly what the spending is, exactly how many people are invoicing. Matter of fact, we actually go to discretionaries to find discretionary providers to ensure that they actually get the money when it's due for them. So we are constantly trying to make sure they submit invoices on time. So I'm a little taken aback by that. But again, we would love to have a conversation to see exactly examples of this.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:37:20)

Yes. And I'd love to really connect with anyone that has an example like this because definitely DFTA does not want to be a barrier to any one of our sites moving forward on any of their projects. If there's a specific issue or a challenge, we should be able to work together to be able to overcome those hurdles so that our centers and our sites and our older adults have what we want them to have, and particularly if there's money already on the table.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:37:50)

And the other question I have is not related to senior center, uh, DFTA fund. A lot of time there's a senior group in the base of the basement of the church. Some council members give $5,000 to them to buy coffee every day they meet. Some people meet twice a week, some groups meet 3 times a week, some close in the summer because the youth need to use the space. So this type of organization has a very hard time to get their $5,000 every year. And they come to our office all the time, and we be told it's a conflict of interest, we cannot help them. But in our— some people's private time, they try to help.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:38:46)

Is there any way we can make that process easier and smoother? Well, I, I welcome your advocacy on this. You know, maybe there is a way that we can join forces. Um, again, 9 days in, I can't say that definitely is, But why shouldn't we explore it? Let's look at it together with some of our nonprofit partners in the community. Maybe there is a way that we can work to better keep folks in those churches or other areas where they feel comfortable and where they feel connected. We don't want to break that connection ever. We want to do all that we can to support them. So let's find a way.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:39:24)

Yeah, I have a nonprofit They haven't get money from 2023. The other council member before me give them $5,000, and then when I go there to visit, they said, Susan, don't give us money, we cannot get it, it's fake. This is what they said to me, it's fake. So it's very disappointing, uh, how hard for those like small group— it's not small, they have 200 people meet once or twice a week. It's not that small. If those people don't come out to meet, um, probably they're gonna stay home all week. A lot of people in wheelchair. It is very sad. Only $5,000, they couldn't get it. Yeah, I love to work with you about this issue. This is not just my district has this issue. A lot of council members has similar issue.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:40:13)

Well, let's do a deep dive. Yes. And let's find out where, where the barriers exist.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:40:17)

Exist, and then let's get them out of the way. Yeah, I have some questions about housing. We all know we did a survey between council members. A lot of— most of council members said, 74% council members said they have issue about senior housing. For many adults unable to afford the rent increase, and then they get kicked out from their building or some environment they, they don't have leveled sidewalk or walkway. And our older adults make almost 20% our city's population. Does NYC Aging keep track of how many buildings, units our city plan to do and which one is suitable for our senior residents?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:41:15)

In partnership with HPD, we would like to work with them on taking a look at that issue specifically because we know that there are some monies available for minor repairs and things like that that should help some of these older adults to be able to stay in their homes with minimal modifications that would make it a more safe safe environment. So yes, that, that is an issue I think we should explore more deeply, because if we can keep our older adults in their homes that they love and they prefer, in the communities that they love and they prefer, that would be part of our mission at DFTA.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:41:53)

And also, I heard from some nonprofit developer said the SARA program for seniors is very, very slow and very, very hard to get Is ADFTA able to help us to advocate for this issue? Because even they want to build senior housing, first it's not profitable, and then it's the process is very slow. It's kind of discourage people, don't build. And also, if the developer build the other, like say homeless shelter, they can make more money. So as any developer, they will definitely choose the other plan than for seniors.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:42:36)

Is any way we can work together as a partnership to advocate for this issue? As you know, I see senior housing— seniors and older adults need to be prioritized when we talk about building affordable housing or any type of setting in New York City. If the goal is for older adults to remain in New York City, then we know they have to be in an affordable place. So yes, we would like to advocate along with you. We will work with HPD. We'll look at the Cabinet for Older New Yorkers where we have some interagency collaboration that perhaps may be able to assist us in moving this forward. But I'd say we need to shake every tree and go down every road that we can in order for us to be able to ensure that our older adults do get some priority placements and that we do have in all of those contracts for these developers and builders some priority for them so that they're looked at before everyone else. I know that may not sound fair to some, but for the older adults that have earned it, they deserve it.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:43:42)

Yeah, thank you. I love to hear that. And also, we— I do believe we need to have a plan with HPD and also NYCHA They have a lot of apartments empty and not fixed. No one able to move in. I heard that the large number there. We have the building already built. We only need to fix, let people to move in, have regular life. But we just don't— I don't understand what's the problem there, what's the gap there, why not able to happen. Well, it's—

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:44:17)

I know it's not your issue, your department, but I'm just going to make one comment. The cabinet for older New Yorkers includes our organizations like NYCHA so we can have them at the table. Perhaps they can give us— shed some light on the issue for us, and they can certainly help us.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:44:32)

Maybe we should have a task force for seniors for housing issue. And also, we have— my district in Bensonhurst has the highest number of SNAP theft. That's, that's very bad for all the seniors. How NYC Asian work with the city agency to address this issue? Because most of people get scammed as seniors, and we have a line of people the beginning of the month, every single month. And my office come up with a video, teach senior how to use that app, lock, unlock. It is very It's very difficult. I have 30 seniors sitting in my office. Ada, my former deputy chief of staff, give them training how to use it. But for senior, take them, first they don't speak English at all. And they don't know how to use iPhone, like high tech. And for them, they get older, the finger get bigger. It's very hard to lock, unlock. And then they forget the password. It's impossible for them to use. And then every single month when they open their banks and they don't have money there because money coming 12 o'clock at night, 12:15 in the morning, it's gone. And it's repeated. We can see it's like some bronze grocery. The person living in Brooklyn have no idea where that grocery is. The money is gone. And repeat, we try to have meeting with state and they always say they look into it and then nothing happened.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:46:18)

Well, there's a few ways that we can address this issue, and it is a huge issue. We know that there's two forms really of the theft that's occurring with SNAP. One is that they, the perpetrators, are using the skimming devices, so they to somehow extract the client's information from the skimming device. And then the second is just flat-out identity theft. So in addition to partnering with NYPD, and we do partner with them on this issue, letting them know when we have received reports of this type of incident, I know that they're tracking and they're specifically looking at the number of older adults that have, have been affected by this issue. But we're also on the DFTA side, we have outreach to the older adults and we're teaching them how to protect themselves from cyber attack. But as you mentioned, you know, some of it may be technology issues also, and maybe there's additional training that can be offered in multi-languages so that we can help our older adults to be able to protect themselves so that they don't have this issue reoccurring every month.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:47:29)

I have a follow-up question about technology. A lot of time, the seniors, especially people in my neighborhood, English is their second language. A lot of people don't speak English at all. They don't know how to use this high tech. Even they don't know how to use iPad, iPhone. They don't know how to use FaceTime. Different neighborhoods have different needs. This is my neighborhood, and I spoke to some senior organizations. They are doing all the fancy artwork, but how do we address this issue? Can we have more training for high-tech? Sure. It's not really high-tech. It's really basic training, how to use iPad, iPhone, how to unlock, lock your SNAP benefits when you are not using. This type of training, can we advocate for more funding and more training in OACs, neighborhood organizations, and partner together with DFTA?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:48:34)

Absolutely. You know, I would never say no to, to additional training in this respect, but I will say right now we have 113 of our centers that offer a technology lab for our older adults. So they can take advantage of that right now. And as you mentioned, very basic training, basic things about how to log on to an iPad, how to get into your banking statement, how to use these basic technologies so that you can improve your life every day and protect yourself from cyber threat. So 113 of those centers right now offer it.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:49:10)

And of course, we should have it at all 308. And also, how much funding is budgeted for NYC Older Adult Technology Program in fiscal 2026 and in the out years?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:49:27)

If I don't have that number now, then we'll bring that number back for you on how much funding is actually allocated for that purpose. You guys think it's going to get expanded? Well, you know, training, if you think about it, we talked about some budget-neutral things that we can do as well. You know, if we already have trainers at some of these centers, maybe there's an opportunity to expand the training in the places that we already have it. So there are things that we can do. As I mentioned earlier, we want to use innovative approaches, not just the old traditional models that maybe don't work for us anymore. So perhaps there is a way for us to expand training. There's also training that can be offered virtually. And once we start to teach our older adults how to use some of these platforms, that they may not even have to leave their homes to attend. So let's look into other ways that we can address this problem that may not always call for additional dollars.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:50:24)

Thank you.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:50:25)

And also, we have more questions from Councilmember Abdul. Hi. So I do have a question about DFTA and Department of Homeless Services and our, our shelters. As you know, you know, homelessness is impacting seniors at a higher rate than ever. We have more— the fastest growing population of homeless adults are seniors. And wanting to know, um, how you can, you know, help provide services to those seniors, not just once they've entered our shelter system, to get them out of the shelters and back into, um, whether it's transitional housing or supportive housing. Absolutely. And as noted previously, affordable housing and having a safe place to lay your head at night, that is one of our goals. True— that speaks to our true mission at DFTA. So it is an area that's on our radar, of course. And of course, with my background, I'm very well aware of how difficult it is to get older adults into an appropriate setting. And it does take a while. It does take some complex solutions for these problems because not everybody fits into a particular bucket. You know, many of our older adults have have different comorbidities that have to be managed while they're there, as well as other issues, behavioral, mental health. So we want to be sure that as we're strengthening these, these areas or these settings where we can send older adults to, that they're really appropriate to the individual that we're sending there. So again, this is an area that I'd like to spend a lot more time, advocate strongly to ensure that again, our seniors and our older adults that have earned the right to age gracefully in place have a place to call home and someplace to, uh, really serve as a stable environment for them. We know that, uh, when older adults are unhoused, it really, uh, impacts every area of their life. Very difficult for you to maintain your health, very difficult for you to maintain relationships when you're constantly moving around. And may not have that stability. So it's a major area of focus for us. And I, I just want to follow up on the, the question about, uh, about funding. Um, you know, your cuts in federal funding, the city is making that up, but at the same time, the city is looking for savings in all of the agencies. Um, um, your, uh, your Fiscal 2027 budget is, uh, less, uh, it's about $32 million less than the fiscal 2026 budget at adoption. So, and then, you know, add to that, you know, you mentioned inflation, rising fuel costs, um, you know, food costs of food, just about rising costs and everything. So how, how are you going to be able to balance that and still be able to provide the appropriate services to our senior communities?

Committee Counsel (01:53:54)

So the question— I know the $32 million difference is that that doesn't include the discretionary money. So the reductions you see from point A to point B, it doesn't include discretionary. And so as we mentioned earlier, we tend to look at the budgets every month to see, for example, where specific issues or concerns from providers are coming to, those that are underspending, we move those that are basically overspending and covering costs.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:54:14)

So we've been, been doing that delicate balance on a regular monthly basis. And I have to say, we're not alone in this effort. We are in constant discussions with OMB just to be sure that we have the appropriate funding to be able to continue the services that we need to offer for our older adults. We have older adults who don't want to receive prepared meals but need help buying healthy produce, healthy food that they can cook themselves. We have in many places, like I mentioned, we have food deserts and lack of adequate green markets. And supermarkets, how can DFTA help kind of close that gap? Well, we've— DFTA has done a great job in sponsoring farmers market nutrition programs and making— giving older adults access to coupon booklets. And when you look at some of the numbers over the last year or so, we do notice that We have been able to distribute 70,000 coupons, and these booklets have been used through the end of last October. This represents $1.75 million given directly to older adults, and we'll continue to sponsor these programs because we know there are food deserts in some places where folks cannot get these fresh produce, produce items that are so central to their budget, central to their life, central to their health. We talk about food being medicine. You want to make sure that folks are being— that have access to these healthy vegetables and fruits and things that they need for healthy living. So that is one way that we're addressing the issue.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:56:18)

Thank you. Thank you. That's a lot of questions. With the recent start of new administration, the time required to appointment new commissioners, and the budgetary concerns regard city's overall fiscal outlook. The preliminary plan did not include many new needs and the program expansion. Can DFTA provide the committee with new needs request that proposed not in this fiscal year?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:56:55)

Well, I'll say our needs always outpace our resources, unfortunately. Um, my 9 days in, I haven't had an adequate chance yet to really assess where the new need capacity would be, where it is that we actually need to focus more of our new needs on. So we will ask that we are able to come back and present some of these new needs.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:57:21)

Thank you. And the OAC updates. The preliminary committee plan includes $6.0 million in fiscal 2026 funded by Brooklyn Borough President for innovation at 15 OAC sites. Can, uh, DFTA confirm the sites are being funded and provide detail on the scope of each project? Yeah, we'll share that with you.

Committee Counsel (01:57:49)

Yes, it is, it is done. All the— there are basically— no, they're basically, um, it's new allocation of funding to different sites. They're in the process of basically being— the funding being used. Okay.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:58:03)

And we'll share the list with you guys. And also there's a lot of capital requests also. Um, is you guys have idea how many capital requests has NYC Aging received from providers so far in fiscal 2026?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (01:58:25)

Yeah, so we haven't received the final number yet, but when we do have that information, we'll be happy to share it with you.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:58:53)

Okay. For the Leonard Covello Older Adult Center upgrade, the preliminary plan includes $7.7 million across 5 years. Funded by the council and additional $11.3 million across a 10-year capital commitment funded by administration for this OAC. What kind of repair and innovation will this project address in this site, at this site?

Committee Counsel (01:59:25)

What's the timeline of this repair? So it's actually, it's a huge this roof is, it's the boilers, it's kitchen. It's a very— it's a city-owned site, so it's a lot of renovation that's occurring. I can— we can give you back— again, we don't manage the project, it's being managed by DDC. We will get— we can give you exactly the information you want in terms of timeline. So who is overseeing DDC? It's a DDC project, it's a city-owned site. So again, a lot of it's repairs to the roofs, the boilers, the elevators.

Chair Susan Zhuang (01:59:55)

So it's a very extensive repair job. So all the repairs is DEC, not you guys, right?

Committee Counsel (01:59:59)

We don't— like I said, as the commissioner mentioned earlier, we have a capital budget but managed— but a lot of it's managed by other city agencies. A big chunk of it is actually managed by DDC. Some of the projects are managed by HPD, some of them are managed by EDC, and some of them are actually managed by NYCHA. So we're just kind of— that's— if you see a lot of money, a lot of it we work with different agencies to kind of get a lot of these repairs done.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:00:25)

The PMMR indicates that there was a decrease in number of caregiver persons served in the first 4 months of fiscal 2026. In the past 4 months of fiscal 2026, total, a total of 1,971 caregivers were served, a decrease of 20 down 3.5% from previous year. Why fewer caregiver? Much like suppose in my mind with the data, the number of people growing, the caregiver should increase.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:01:22)

Why they have decrease? This is not under them either. Okay. Thank you. And, um, I understand that it's an issue that has to do with VIVE and our data collection methods, so you may not have all of the accurate information there. So I would ask that we're allowed to come back and share the information once we've kind of reevaluated and made sure that it's accurate.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:02:00)

Got it. Thank you. Didn't we ask this one? Yeah. Possibly the answer. So the preliminary plan included includes $19.7 million in city funding, which is baseline beginning in fiscal 2027, for the indirect cost of human service contracts. Why was additional funding required? How was the month—

Committee Counsel (02:02:30)

how does NYC agency anticipate additional funding to be added in the out year? So the $19 million is for the indirect cost rate. So that's actually costs for overhead for the providers. So that was actually not baseline in the current— when, when the OMB funded all the federal funding, that piece was actually missing. So now that's being baseline going forward. Same thing with the COLA, like you mentioned, the $6.9 million, that's also the COLA for providers. It's also being baselined. So as providers, basically every 3 years providers have an opportunity to submit for their indirect cost rate. Those, those indirect cost rates are captured in that, and that's part of the increase over time.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:03:11)

Does the cost of living adjustment apply to all contract providers in NYC agency network?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:03:22)

Yes, as all contracts effective of 2024.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:03:42)

Okay. I think that's it.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:03:46)

Yes, um, Council Member Maley, just in between, um, I know we gave the $5 million.

Committee Counsel (02:03:53)

How is that going? It's going very, very well. We have a lot of— like I said, some of them are less than $100,000, so you have a lot of purchases of— sorry, repairs. And we have purchases as well. So things are going very well. We have two major projects, two major big projects that we're keeping a close eye on. These are huge, major big projects. Yeah, there's two of them. One's $650,000, other ones I think it's not off the top of my head, but they're— we're keeping an eye on them because those are very big extensive renovations. But overall We're actually meeting with City Council Finance hopefully by April to give them a status report on exactly all the spending and what's going to be met by June 30th. But yeah, again, we really appreciate the $5 million. Hint, hint, we would like to have another one for '27. Hint, hint. So I think that's going very well. Like I said, it was a great partnership with us, and I think that will be really helpful. Again, as I mentioned earlier, this money goes directly to the providers to basically do a lot of major renovations.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:04:46)

That's what I wanted to know, just how it was going.

Committee Counsel (02:04:50)

And if we do it again, will it benefit you? So I will actually also put another pitch in there. I know the commissioner is going to kill me when I get back to the office. Um, so we would like to— love to get some vans for transportation, right guys? So transportation point A, point B, because again, seniors— again, even though we want our seniors to walk more, but sometimes the length to get to point A, point B is a little bit more than we expect. But again, sorry, Commissioner.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:05:12)

No, I absolutely agree. You lived— that is perfect. And here, could we put something in there? Because right now, to transport my seniors, I got to pay out of my pocket sometimes just to get the vans. They need to travel. So please, let's work on that. And then we need an outlook of how many of the vans for DFTA is in action or and out of action, and what would it take to get the maintenance up and running to make sure that every senior center have a van to take their seniors places?

Committee Counsel (02:05:45)

So we— so I just want to give you a little information so you know that there are about 300+ vans, all our older— I mean, older adult centers. So 300 vans. So again, it's a very big ask. So replacing all of them, some of them more than 10 years old, but how much would that cost, you think? We will get back to you on that.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:06:04)

I can give you numbers. Thank you. Because I just noticed New York City, I don't know what department, but they got brand new Mustangs. So I'm start asking if they could get Mustangs, we could get some new vans. So I'm ready.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:06:22)

We got a partner right here. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. I actually went to one of the senior center COPO They got a new van through our borough president. Yeah, for the— from the capital program. I see some nonprofit from my neighborhood also come here. They probably ask me, where's our van?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:06:46)

And then we also have Councilmember Abdul has more questions. So one more question, I promise. This way, I think this will be my last one. Uh, the state budget this year— you mentioned, uh, somebody mentioned, uh, people stealing, uh, SNAP benefits. So the state budget this year proposes money to transition to chip card technology to help stop SNAP skimming, which is affecting thousands of older adults. The legislature is also proposing a victims' compensation fund for those who have had their benefits stolen through skimming. Because now there's no— now there's no recourse, uh, when people have their benefits stolen. Would DFTA support a state compensation fund or any other solutions to address SNAP skimming? Well, we always support equity, uh, and justice, so definitely, uh, we would like to see the same information you have, but, uh, we would like to support any initiative that's going to be sure to protect our older adults from this type of activity.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:07:58)

Thank you. I think get a new chip for the card is easier for, like, for seniors. Oh, thank you. Thank you, everyone. And then now we move to public testimony.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:08:10)

Chair, could I ask one question about that? Okay. Um, is there anything going into to help the seniors? Because once they, uh, their SNAP benefits has been taken for the whole month, they have no food now. Do we have anything in place going forward? Because they can't get reimbursed, that's legislation to get the reimbursement up, but some seniors go without food for that whole month.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:08:40)

So I introduced a bill here. I, I want to tell Answer your question. I introduced a bill to seniors. If they get their food stamps scanned, they can call 311 and the DFTA and the HRA require DFTA, HRA to send them information where the nearby food pantry.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:09:03)

Or— but they won't get their money back at all.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:09:07)

Yeah, well, I can't say that.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:09:08)

I know the money they don't get back. That's federal law. I'm going to talk to the congressperson.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:09:16)

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, let's move to the public testimony. Thank you. Okay, now we open to open the hearing for the public testimony. Well, I want to remind Members of public, that this is government proceeding and the decorum shall be observed at all time. As such, members of public shall remain silent at all time. The witness table is reserved for people who wish to testify. No video recording, photography is allowed from the witness table. Further, member of the public may not present audio or video recording as testimony. But may submit a transcript of such recording to the sergeant-at-arms for including in the hearing record. If you wish to speak at today's hearing, please fill out the appearance card with sergeant-at-arms and wait to be recognized. When recognized, you will have 2 minutes to speak on today's topic. If you have written testimony or additional written testimony you wish to submit for the record, please provide a copy of that testimony to the sergeant-at-arms. You may also email written testimony to testimony@council.nyc.gov within 72 hours of this hearing. Audio and video recordings will not be accepted. The first group, we have Catherine Thurston. Do I need to say this? Okay.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:11:49)

Beth Finkel. Marcus Jackson.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:12:32)

Linda Hoffman. Anita Kwok. Thank you. You can start. Good afternoon, I'm Catherine Thurston. I'm the CEO of Service Program for Older People, or SPOP. Thank you, Committee Chair Zhuang, for— and committee members, for this opportunity to address the New York City Committee Council on Aging. SPOP plays a unique role in supporting the health, emotional well-being, and independence of older New Yorkers. We are the only agency in the city that is exclusively dedicated to community-based mental health for older adults, and we provide outpatient treatment to 1,000 adults each year. We've been doing this work for over 45 years, and we offer services via telehealth, at our offices on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and at satellite locations in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan. We are only as strong as our network of community partners, and we work with NYC Aging and dozens of hospitals, older adult centers, and aging service providers to reach out to isolated adults who would otherwise have no access to mental health care. Nearly 1 in 4 older adults in New York City experiences a mental health challenge, and about 6% live with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia or severe depression, which can affect their ability to function and live independently. For an older adult with serious mental illness plus chronic medical illness, mobility impairment, and the cumulative effects of decades without appropriate care, life is very difficult. While NYC Aging has worked to meet the needs of older adults in New York City with mental health needs through the DGMH initiative, one program is not enough to meet the complex needs of those who are most vulnerable. We hear from colleagues across the sectors that the current structures do not work for older adults with serious mental illness. Most mental health programs for people with SMI are designed for younger adults and are not equipped to support clients who are also managing cognitive changes, fragile health, social isolation, and the practical realities of later life. Aging services, meanwhile, are often not equipped to provide robust psychiatric care. We therefore urge the committee to advocate for robust funding for programs and services that support older adults, including community-based, age-affirming mental health care for older partners with serious mental illness. Thank you for your work on behalf of older adults and for the opportunity to testify today.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:15:10)

Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Linda Hoffman. I am president of New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, and on behalf of our board of directors, I would deeply appreciate your ensuring the continuation of our home sharing and respite care program, which is citywide, by providing support for the funding that we've requested from the speaker's citywide budget, from allocations from your individual as well as your borough delegations' budgets. Our home sharing program, which many of you know about and have been supporting forever, and we deeply appreciate is implemented by social workers who use their professional skills to successfully match older adults we call hosts with extra space in their apartments and houses to share with responsible, compatible guests in need of affordable housing. One of the matchmates must be over the age of 60. While last year was a banner year— in 45 years we had never match more, match more than 100 people. We did that last year, as, as Councilmember Brewer mentioned, and this year already we've matched 74 hosts and guests, and we've got a couple of matches still pending. So we think we're even going to exceed that number for this year, which at a total cost of $553 per person, a one-time cost, as opposed to spending, what, $500,000 to build an apartment in New York City. The findings from a study that we've done for the last fiscal year was, as Council Member Brewery mentioned, we received $205,000 total from the city council funding, and we saved the city over $1.7 million in Medicaid and other expenses for ensuring these individuals had affordable housing, were not in homeless shelters, and not institutionalized in nursing homes. Along with providing significant savings in Medicaid, other expenses, our respite care component also is providing services for the frail elderly at 19— home care services for people above the Medicaid level, those who are spending down for ISEP and Medicaid home care at $19.65 an hour when these agencies are charging double that and making a profit. So the funding we receive for this service under the same umbrella as home sharing is really helping us to just find the appropriate home care workers to ensure that they are matched appropriately with those who need in-home care, whether they're struggling to live on their own or they're managing with the help of caregivers who may need some time off. Our program is totally dependent upon government funding each and every year to continue to fill its ever-increasing number of citywide service requests. And to ensure that the program remains fiscally viable throughout our fiscal year, we would deeply appreciate your support in providing the funding we've requested from the speaker's budget, the, the borough delegation budgets, and your individual budgets.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:18:46)

And thank you very much for your past and hopefully ongoing support. Thank you. I think it's an amazing program, but I just want to remind everyone, everyone's time is 2 minutes. Thank you.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:19:01)

I did not want to interrupt you. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairperson and the committee. My name is Marcus Jackson. I'm joining you today in my capacity as Director of Advocacy and Government Relations with Encore Community Services. Encore is one of New York City's largest aging service agencies. We deliver more than 800,000 home-delivered meals each year to older adults who are homebound, many of them isolated and managing serious infirmity. For many of the people we serve, the meal we bring them is the only one they eat all day, and often the volunteer who delivers it is the only person they see, which is why we— I want to use my time today to speak about intro 02 280. This measure would require home-delivered meals every day of the calendar year, including weekends and holidays. That's the right policy, but there's something the committee should know. Weekend meals already exist for some of our clients, funded through arrangements that reimburse providers below what it actually costs. Encore loses money every weekend we deliver meals. We do it anyway because these are our neighbors and that's what you do, but that's not a sustainable model., and it shouldn't fall to community organizations to quietly cover the gap in public policy. 1 in 5 older New Yorkers struggle with food insecurity. The people we serve aren't missing meals because they forgot to shop. They cannot leave their homes, and many cannot cook safely. We strongly support this bill's passage with one condition: the mandate must come with reimbursement rates that actually reflect what it costs to do the work. A mandate without real funding shifts the problem.. It doesn't solve it. City-funded home delivery meals stop on weekends. Hunger doesn't. Isolation doesn't as well. Encore has been showing up for older New Yorkers for half a century, so we really want to pass this bill, fund it fully, and work together to make sure that all older New Yorkers receive 2 meals a day and at least a knock on the door every day. Thank you for your time. Thank you. You're on time. Hi, I'm Beth Finkel. I'm the State Director for AARP New York. All the groups with me here are actual providers. I think what's unique about me bringing our perspective of AARP is that we are a membership organization, and in the 5 boroughs we have almost 3/4 of a million members just in New York City. And how the services of these providers and others affect their lives is incredibly important, not just to the people who are receiving the service, but to their family members who are caregivers. And the typical caregiver is a woman in her 50s who is working either part-time or full-time. And so we know what the stresses mean for caregivers also. Without caregivers in New York, the whole long-term care system would fall apart because that is the backbone of taking care of older people. If those people have to move into Medicaid or institutional services, we know that Medicaid will be the payer, so then we will all pay. So what I want to address here today, and it came up earlier, is that the budget right now for DFTA is under 0.5% and yet the population of the 65+ in New York is at 20%. I want to bring up the factor of disparities here and also of ageism because it's inherent. If populations are not receiving what they need, then there is some background of disregard which we interpret as ageism and disrespect. This is about affordability. We also know that older adults, the increase in people in poverty has gone up in the last 10 years almost 50%. 50% more older adults are in poverty. So that's the other component. I'm not reading from my testimony because you have it. The last factor I want to talk about is the federal dollars. We know as the federal dollars are going to diminish, and they already are affecting people, last resort are all of these providers. This is where people will land if they don't the social services, the information, the referrals, the food. You talked about SNAP before. This is where they're going to come, and this system is not equipped to be able to handle it, and we have to get ahead of it. So thank you very much for your time today. I appreciate it. Thank you, Chair Juang, for convening this budget hearing, and for Councilmembers Brewer and Alderbol for staying for public testimony. My name is Anita Kwok. I am a policy analyst at United Neighborhood Houses. We're also a membership organization of settlement houses across New York. For my verbal testimony, I'm going to focus on congregate meals and NORCs. So when it comes to food budget at older adult centers, I truly cannot stress how dire the situation is. It's the top issue that we are hearing from providers who year after year are asked to do more with less. The congregate meals budget hasn't increased since the last procurement in 2021, and in a focus group of our aging providers, we found that while While food inflation has increased 22%, wholesale food costs for providers has increased as much as 76%. But despite these fiscal challenges, older adult centers continue to do everything they can to remain lifelines and provide nutritious, culturally appropriate meals for older adults. But with SNAP and new ABOD rules, demand for congregate meals will only grow, which is why we're calling for a $60 million investment in the congregate meals budget for fiscal year '27. UNH is also launching a NORC in Every Neighborhood community campaign where we urge a $10 million investment to build NORCs in the 31 neighborhoods that do not have one, such as Sheepshed Bay and Borough Park. NORCs are a cost-effective model that strengthens the well-being of older adults and delays more costly intervention, such as nursing homes. Prior to joining a NORC, 49% of surveyed older adults said that they felt socially isolated, but after joining, that that percentage fell to 17%. In every neighborhood of our city, from Bushwick to Flushing, there are thousands of older adult residents who would benefit from a contracted NORC program in their neighborhood, and $10 million is needed to make that happen. Our other budget priorities are to budget the NORC nursing in the council initiative of $1 million, invest $30 million in home-delivered meals, and expand the council's emergency infrastructure fund to $10 million. If our city wants to— wants our older adults to age in dignity in their communities, we have to make investments to make that possible.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:25:48)

Perfect timing. Thank you. I, I have some questions. I love the home sharing program.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:26:00)

Um, which borough has the most home sharing program?

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:26:05)

It's neck and neck between Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:26:09)

What type of population easier to get for this program? The type of population varies. Varies. It's mostly older adults. We have to match people who are, at least one of whom is over the age of 60. By the way, we have I think about 19% of our population are immigrants. Some who are living on just Social Security, they call, they have $800 a month or less. There are people who, from teachers to retired teachers, home care workers, city employees, retired city employees, people who have been on the verge of eviction and we've prevented eviction and foreclosure. It's very mixed ages, but mixed ethnicities, mixed religions. We have found that The trick to having compatible, successful matches is when there's a common interest and common values. It has nothing to do with anyone's background or family or anything. When we do a pre-match meeting after we've done very comprehensive vetting to ensure that these are appropriate individuals for matching and home sharing, We require a license agreement which indicates all of the agreed-upon amounts of money that the guests will pay to the host, which very often are less than $1,000 a month for a full bedroom, a bath. In some instances, they share baths. Each situation is different, both in homes and in apartments, and in some instances, In some instances, by the way, we have hosts and sometimes guests who have pets, and we've matched hosts and guests with pets as well.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:28:22)

This program sounds— can save a lot of money for New York City.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:28:29)

It also sounds like a marriage. What's the percentage divorce? Fortunately, there are very few divorces, many more are statistically than exist in marriages. But if in fact we do have to undo a match, we're right there. We have, you know, trained MSW, New York State licensed social workers who are very, very careful. And in some instances, there are some personality situations with that that can't work, but usually we try to— we work them through and we, we manage because We have this pre-match agreement where people indicate what parts of the home they're allowed to use, where in the refrigerator they put their foods, whether they're going to eat together, not eat together, where they have alcohol in the home, guests in the home. It's been very successful over the years. Matter of fact, we have a new video. Star of the video happens to be Beth Finkel, who has been very supportive of this program, which has been going on for 45 years successfully. We've never had a really unsuccessful situation because we've been so, so careful. We could, we could do a lot more matches than even the 100 we did last year, but at the same time, we want to be careful that they are safe.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:29:55)

That— thank you. I I really enjoying here this program. I love to come to see also. Thank you. And also, that's the program able to save money and maybe we can move the money to the other program.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:30:07)

Well, we have it under one umbrella, so we cost allocate. So, some of the social workers actually split their time between both programs. So, nobody's sitting there twiddling their thumbs. The calls are coming in. They're desperate for affordable home care. They're desperate for affordable housing. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Member Milley? That program sounds awesome. So do you think— how do you promote it? Good question. We've actually— if you've been on the subways, we've been on the subways lately. It's very expensive, but I didn't understand it. Cruel on the subway. So I'm glad now they're posted connection from beginning from the middle of February, and we're going to do it through March. We do constant social media on our website. We've sent 56,000 postcards to older adults who are renters and homeowners citywide. We constantly have to promote it because once you make a match, you lose the host unless the host— We have some instances where the host has 2 extra bedrooms, not 1. Once they realize that it's a very helpful and positive beneficial experience, they often want to rent out the second bedroom. I'm going to put that on one of our lists when we're doing our Speed Friendshipping. Just getting to know each other, not dating. Friendshipping. So I'm asking them, do you need a partner to live with? We will send you material to distribute. We've sent it over the years and we have posters, palm cards, and brochures, uh, for you. I'm the advertisement now.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:32:15)

So thank you. Thank you so much, Chair.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:32:18)

Cheers. Thank you.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:32:23)

Let's have next group. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we have second group. Abby. Abby Reuben Pope. Joe Rizzi, Joseph Rizzi, Catherine Suro, Lydia Otis Wise, Ines De La Lonanas.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:33:23)

You can begin. Just remind you, 2 minutes. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Inés de la Nuez. And I am the director for Grand Street Settlement Grand Coalition of Older Adults. Thank you, Chair Swan, and members of the New York City Council Committee on Aging, for the opportunity to provide testimony regarding the FY '27 preliminary budget. Grand Street Settlement is a 110-year-old multiservices settlement house. We serve over 18,000 New Yorkers through vital services Early Childhood, Youth, and Older Adult Program. Grand Street is committed to health and well-being of the older adults we serve on the Lower East Side. The Grand Coalition of Older Adult Centers, funded by New York City Aging, is located at 80 Pick Street and is a second home to many older adults. We provide communal nutritious meals and host an array of intergenerational health and wellness in educational and cultural services. We offer robust programs for cultural celebration, advocacy initiatives, and engagement. At this hearing, we urge the New York City Council and the Mandami administration to strengthen and preserve programs serving older adults by making a sustained investment in New York City aging population. Including establishing baseline funding for the city older adult programs. The proposed $100 million in budget cuts will have severe consequences for older adults who rely on organizations like Grand Street Settlement for critical services. Below, we are advocating for an investment of $10 million to expand the number of naturally occurring retirement communities in Newark in every neighborhood. Baseline longstanding NOR nursing support that is part of the city council, NOR initiative of approximately $1 million, increase congregate meal budget at older adult centers by $60 million to combat inflation, invest $30 million to expand home delivery meals to 7 days a week, and maintain the council $10 million emergency capital infrastructure fund for older adult centers.

Committee Counsel (02:35:46)

Thank you.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:35:47)

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished Chairperson of the New York City Department of Aging, Council Member Susan Zwang, and members of the City Council. My name is Joseph Frizzi. I'm the Director of External Affairs for the Federation of Italian American Organizations of Brooklyn, and I bring warm greetings from the— our Chairman of the Board, Mr.

Committee Counsel (02:36:08)

Jack Spatola, and the entire board, staff, and thousands of members of our diverse community who use the Federation services.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:36:19)

Thanks to NORC's initiative, the Naturally Occurring Retired Community, FIAO has been able to provide quality service only 2 days a week to the older adult population.

Committee Counsel (02:36:31)

Our participants are provided with a complete program that includes use of the state-of-the-art wellness center, swimming, chair yoga, art and craft, bingo, Zumba, mental health, and meals, among other things.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:36:49)

It serves only 100 older adults each day, 100 on Thursday and the other one on Friday, with many on the waiting list. We have the numbers and the capability to provide this program for 5 days if funding would be made available. In addition, our older adult community during the course of the year has the opportunity to participate in many multicultural events, which include Lunar New Year, which would just happen and you've been able to be witness to Italian heritage and culture, Hispanic culture, Eid al-Fitr, which we're preparing right now. Black Heritage, as well as senior proms and many others. I made a little notation there that some of you have already witnessed these things, so you know what I'm talking about and you've been participants.

Committee Counsel (02:37:45)

These services provide the older adults, most of whom are alone, widowed, and in need of support, with the opportunity to come to a welcoming place to feel like members of an extended family with a purpose in life and an opportunity to be productive members of the community.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:38:03)

FIAO respectfully requests to be put on the NOORC initiative while waiting for the Department of Aging to promulgate the new RFPs allowing other CBOs like ours to apply for funding. On behalf of our older adult community that FIAO serves, we thank you for all the leadership and support you have provided provided to us thus far, and for the financial future and support that you will be providing to serve those on the waiting list for the 5 days requested. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Zhuang and the members of the committee. My name is Abby Rubin Pope, and I'm a policy and advocacy associate at UJA Federation of New York. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the fiscal year '27 preliminary budget. UJA supports nearly 100 nonprofit partners across New York City, allocating roughly $200 million annually to serve older adults and vulnerable New Yorkers. Today, we urge the council to protect and strengthen the aging services system at a moment of growing need. First, maintain the cost of living adjustment for nonprofit human service workers. These workers care for older adults, deliver meals, provide case management, and respond in times of crisis. Service, yet they remain underpaid. Without sustained COLA support, we will continue to see high turnover and workforce instability that weakens the safety net for older New Yorkers. Second, invest in older adult centers and critical infrastructure. Across the city, centers are operating in deteriorating facilities with broken HVAC systems, kitchens, elevators, and unsafe conditions. We urge the council to fully fund the $60 million increase for congregate meals, maintain the $5 million emergency infrastructure fund, reform capital eligibility rules for centers in city-owned buildings including NYCHA, and improve interagency coordination to resolve building issues. Third, fully fund nutrition services. Congregate and home-delivered meals are preventative healthcare. Years of flat funding combined with rising food costs have put providers at risk. Fourth, strengthen the naturally occurring retirement communities, or NORCs. Rising nursing costs are straining these proven aging-in-place models, and increased support is essential. We support an additional investment of $1 million for nursing services, and we also support UNH's NORC in Every Neighborhood campaign to expand NORCs to the 31 neighborhoods in New York City currently without one. Uh, finally, we respectfully urge the council to maintain the $4.2 million for the Holocaust Survivors Initiative. Survivors are now in their 80s and 90s facing complex medical and trauma-related needs. Many providers maintain waitlists. There is limited time left to ensure survivors live the their remaining years with dignity. New York's older adult population is growing, and the city must match that growth with sustained investment. Thank you for your leadership and partnership. Good afternoon, Chairs Wang and members of the committee. My name is Catherine Agramonte. I'm an intake coordinator and case manager speaking today on behalf of Wellness Together University Settlement in support of increased funding for home-delivered meals for older adults. The Home-Delivered Meals Program provides daily nutritious meals to homebound seniors who are unable to shop, shop for, or prepare food on their own.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:41:18)

Beyond meals, this program also offers case management and critical wellness checks for individuals who are at high risk of social isolation.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:41:29)

At Wellness Together University Settlement, our program serves over 1,000 vulnerable homebound New Yorkers in the Lower East Side and Chinatown community, which is Community Board District 3.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:41:41)

For many of these older adults, these meals are not just a supplement, they are their primary source of daily nutrition. The home-delivered meals program not only meets participants' most basic nutritional needs clients, but it also provides our most socially isolated participants with daily social interaction.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:42:01)

The meal delivery staff is capable of bringing critical information about our clients, which helps our older adult programs provide the support they need to live safely and independently. However, what we continue to see is that many recipients of home-delivered meals are still experiencing food insecurity. As a result, our case managers and social workers frequently connect participants to additional resources such as food pantries, City Meals mobile grocery programs, and breakfast box distributions just to help them get through the week.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:42:37)

This highlights the depth of need among a population that is often invisible and overlooked.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:42:43)

Currently, the city only funds home-delivered meals 5 days days per week.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:42:49)

And we know that for homebound older adults, the need for reliable access to food exists every day. That is why the city must invest $30 million to operationalize Councilmember Linda Lee's Intro 280 and ensure that meals are funded 7 days a week.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:43:06)

The investment would provide a consistent lifeline for thousands of New Yorkers who depend on these meals for their health dignity, and independence. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair and members of the Council. My name is Lydia Ortiz-Weiss, and I'm here to share the importance of programs that provide case management services and ISEP. A few years ago, I had replacement surgery for both knees. My recovery was difficult. For nearly 2 years, I was homebound and mostly confined to my bed. Simple to say, daily tasks like getting dressed, preparing meals, and even moving around the home became overwhelming. I felt isolated, vulnerable, and unsure if I could ever be able to gain some of my mobility back. ISEP became my lifeline. This support allowed me to meet my daily needs and remain— and remind me Remained safe in my home. I gather some of the— and gained some of my ability, I'm sorry. Without it, I don't know what I would say in my home. Even more vital was the importance of my case management. The case manager became my advocate. Guiding me to resources I desperately need. Air conditioning during the heat. Yep. Legal aid, legal help to protect my home when threatened with foreclosure. Assistive devices to ensure my safety in and out of my home. Therapy to to cope with grief after losing multiple loved ones during the global pandemic. Companionship services that remind me I was not alone. These services didn't just meet my needs, they gave me hope, stability, and reassurance, reassurance, that someone care. Programs like ICES came and, and case management are not just services, they are lifelines. The, the help people endured with the hard, the hardest time with dignity, safety, and support. As our community grows, the need for these programs will only increase. I'm deeply grateful for the care that continued to service me, and I urge the city to continue investing in these programs so that my other— my experience can change lives, support, and made all the difference in the world. That's one. Because of the support I receive, I am here able to sit, uh, and give you my public testimony.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:46:56)

Thank you for allowing me to share my story. Thank you. You did a good job.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:47:07)

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, guys. Thank you. Good job.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:47:28)

No, I don't know about that. Seniors are really looking good. Thank you. And now let's invite to the third group.

Committee Counsel (02:47:49)

We have John Shing, Sonia Valentin, Christine Say, Viviana Patanio, Carmen Buco. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Hwang and members of the Committee on Aging. My name is John Shin. I'm a program director at Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, or KCS, the largest and oldest Korean American nonprofit organization in the region, serving New York communities since 1973. KCS operates 3 OAC in Corona, Flushing, and Manhattan, along with 2 community pop-up cafes in Flushing and Oostside. Together, this program have nearly 700 older adults in daily attendance, providing meals, social program, and supportive services to help seniors stay healthy and connected. KCS also operates a major home delivery meal program, delivering more than 800 meals every day, over 220,000 meals meals annually to homebound seniors across New York City. This includes Korean and Chinese meals prepared by our team, as well as kosher, halal, and regular meals delivered through subcontractors. But these are programs are far more than programs. Last year, during one of the Friday deliveries, one of our drivers arrived at client's apartment and noticed something was off. The senior had fallen and was lying on the floor behind the locked door. She was barely crying. It was so soft that it could hardly be heard. Our driver immediately called our office, and I called 911. Emergency responders had to break open the door to reach her and take her to the hospital. She lived alone. If my driver had not arrived that day, she likely would have remained on that exact floor for the next 72 hours. Later, her case management supervisor from self-help called and told me, "John, you and your staff literally saved her life." This is why HDM meals are not just nutrition services. They are part of the safety net that protects vulnerable older adults. This is why I urge the city to invest $30 million to strengthen home-delivered meals and expand the services.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:50:31)

Thank you. Thank you. I want to clarify, in the previous panel also, it's $27 million.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:50:44)

It's easier than $30 million. Thank you. Okay. Hello, my name is Sonia Valentin, and I am an advocate for seniors in Bensonhurst and Bath Beach, Brooklyn, as well as being a senior myself. I attend FIOS Community Center with families and many older adults are served. I use the gym, take arts and crafts classes, participate in mental health group sessions, and have meals there, and have meals there, but only on Thursdays or Fridays. On behalf of the 200 older adults, I thank the City Council, the Speaker Honorable Julie Menin, and our very own Honorable Susan Zwang and Honorable Alexa Aviles for the NOIC funding allocated for our older adults. However, we as well as other older adults on a waitlist would like to have these services every day of the week. These programs and services truly enhance the overall quality of life for me and our very diversified senior population of Latinos, Italians, Asians, Arabs, Russians, and Jewish residents. We respectfully request your support for the NOC initiative to expand the services to 5 days weekly, as we also await the opportunity for the Department of Aging to reopen RFPs for additional CBOs like the Federation of Italian American Organizations, FIO, Brooklyn, to have a senior center for the ever-growing number of Southern Brooklyn older adults. Many of our seniors are widowed, single, and lonely. Attending these programs helps them mentally physically, and emotionally. At F.I.R.E. Community Center, they make friends, are not lonely, feel better about themselves, and have a reason to get up in the morning. Thank you. Muchas gracias. Mille grazie. Hello, my name is Christine Say. I'm a senior and member of Federation Italian American Organization's Culture and Community Center. I take advantage of all that it offers. Our program is only 2 days a week, and it is not enough. 5 days a week is needed for our physical and mental health. I'm happy to have my new friends here. Suddenly. One elderly friend shared that I'm the only person she has spoken to all week. I'm Chinese, and due to the diversity of people attending the center, I now appreciate other cultures, traditions, and foods. I have tasted delicacies of of their countries such as lasagna, paneer, and quesadilla. Fjell's dance teachers taught us the cha-cha instructor, la taotera, and horror. Please continue supporting our centers so older adults have a place to call home 5 days a week. Thank you. Good to see you. Good afternoon, Susan, Chair, and committee members. I'm so happy to be here today and be able to add to what my friends here have also talked about, and I too am here to advocate and continued support for FIO. I am not only a member, I'm also a senior, and I'm an avid attendee of the Fun Fit program that they have for our seniors. For me, it's my second home. I think Mr. Rizzi, Sonia, and Christine have said much about it, all the programs that are available. The social services, also legal services I have taken advantage of. I am a member, so I'm— I can go there 7 days a week. But there are many seniors in the community that are not able to, and they look forward to being able to go to the senior designated days. So the 2 days a week does not really accommodate the, the base in the community, which is also very diverse. And allowing the seniors to connect with one another has a positive, a positive outcome, not only for the seniors but for our community that we do these things together in one place. So for me, as I said, FIOS is my second home. I've also have met so many, so many friends, members and, and older adults that are there, and I look forward— I have have a place to go to. Keep the mind active.

Committee Counsel (02:55:58)

Thank you so much for your commitment and your consideration to this. Hi, my name is Kalman Boko, and I'm the development manager at India Home. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. India Home is a leading nonprofit organization dedicated dedicated to serving the unique needs of older adults from South Asian and other immigrant communities across New York City. Since our founding in 2007, we have provided culturally appropriate services including congregate meals, case management, mental health programs, and recreational activities to thousands of older adults. Our work ensures that immigrant seniors who are often underserved and isolated have access to the critical resources they need to age with dignity in their communities. Aging services in New York are unprepared to support seniors in the coming.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:56:46)

Community-based aging organizations such as India Home are crucial to supporting older adults.

Committee Counsel (02:56:50)

As part of Live On New York, we support the Age Strong $2.3 billion multi-year campaign, including $500 million for older adult centers, $10 million to support natural occurring retirement community in every neighborhood, $90 million for nutritional support, and deeper collaboration between NYC Aging and HPD. Older adult New Yorkers rely on critical aging services, including OICs, because of their convenience and proximity to their neighborhoods. Many of our clients at India Home rely on our centers for their only hot meal of the day, essential case management services, and critical social interaction to combat isolation. The impact of not investing in New York's aging services will fall disproportionately on immigrant seniors who already face systemic barriers to accessing mainstream aging services due to language, cultural, and financial constraints. The Age Strong approach will ensure that older adults have access to safe and affordable housing and robust community-based services that are essential to healthy, dignified aging. Aging. We urge you to commit to a robust increase in funding for older adult services so that New York seniors can age in place with dignity.

Chair Susan Zhuang (02:57:50)

Thank you for your time and for this valuable opportunity to testify. Thank you all. Um, I don't need to ask questions because I'm familiar with every single one of you, and I appreciate the work ACS has been doing for the community. You know, they— you can also serve Brooklyn too. Uh, and also I come from immigrant background. I came here when I was 20 years old without English. I appreciate the work you guys doing for immigrant seniors. I think it's needed.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (02:58:27)

And then my colleague Councilmember Millie has some questions. I truly only have one. Um, I didn't put off another meeting so long, I gotta go, but I want to thank all of you and Even if we get the $30 million, we still have to do the advocacy because you could ask for 5 days a week, and if people do not come 5 days a week, funding would be lost. So what I'm thinking, because I always try to do outside the box, soon as I have the meeting with the commissioner, I'm going to see if we could get those vans that if y'all go 2 days a week, at your center and you go 2 days, come to Brooklyn, because we have domino games, we have interact with each other, and I— and Chair, you just said, Mr. Rizzi, why you don't come to Brooklyn? So I'm looking forward to coming to Brooklyn also, and that's my motto. I'm— no, he's in Brooklyn, but he's service only too. Oh, sorry. But you haven't said Brooklyn as of yet, so I would love for y'all to come. And that's the only way how we could keep our seniors active, vibrant, always looking fly, because y'all look beautiful. I see y'all dress up. Thank you. And that's what we have to keep doing. I would love— may she ask a question? Yes. We asked for 5 days a week. 5 days a week is not for the same people. We ask for 5 days a week, it's not for the same people. It's a lot of people on the waiting list. Oh, so then we should get the waiting list and get them to come out to different centers to make sure that we all— just because there's a waiting list, we still should have them go to any other senior center. But I feel we need this safety of the transportation, and then we get leaders to make sure everybody get back on the bus. I— we're going to be talking about this a lot. I thank you all for coming here today.

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:00:36)

Thank you, Chair. We're going to do this. Thank you. And before we invite next session, I want to thank Livon New York and AARP Homecrest, UCA, and a lot of other nonprofits, OACs, helped to organize this rally. We need advocates for the seniors. And the third group, third, fourth group, we have Dr. Cynthia Mara, Mara, right? Rihan Hu. Saboor Rashid. Tax. Aaron Tax. Janet Estima. You can begin. Can you mute your microphone?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:02:03)

And then we can start from the other side. It's red. Can you— okay. Good afternoon, Chair Zhuang and members of the Committee on Aging. My name is Saborah Rashid, and I've lived on the Lower East Side for over 2 decades. I came to the Center for Well-Being and Happiness hoping to interact connect, and share my talent and skills with others. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. The center has given me the chance to give back as well as receive. Through the arts and movement programs, I found a place where I could strengthen my physical well-being, prevent social isolation, connect with other mature adults in a a safe space surrounded by people who truly acknowledge, honor, and respect one another. I've had the privilege of teaching a writing class there, sitting with neighbors, helping them to find their words and tell their stories. Through movement classes like yoga and tai chi, I've also been able to maintain my own mobility and positivity through these uncertain times. Community brings people face to face, sharing what we know, sharing joy, affirming our worth as adults able to learn new skills, elders with wisdom to share intergenerationally. For older adults on the Lower East Side, this place is a lifeline for longtime residents who've watched our neighborhood change around us. The Center for Well-Being and Happiness is one of the few spaces that still belongs to us, where we are welcomed, valued, and nurtured. The City Council support makes all of this possible. We are requesting $30,000, preferably more, to keep these programs free and accessible for older adults who need them most. Please invest in the Center for Well-Being and Happiness so we can keep creating, connecting, and thriving.

Committee Counsel (03:04:34)

Thank you very much. All right. Good afternoon, Chair, members of the New York City Council. My name is Aaron Tax, and I work for SAGE, the nation's largest and oldest organization organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ older people. Since our founding in 1978, SAGE has worked tirelessly to advocate for policies and programs that empower LGBTQ+ elders, ensuring they can age with dignity, security, and support. We've remained at the forefront of combating social isolation, housing insecurity, and healthcare disparities among LGBT older people. LGBT older people are often invisible disconnected from services and severely isolated without traditional familial supports. They are far more likely to live alone and less likely to rely on adult children or other family members for informal caregiving. Because of these thin support networks, LGBTQ+ older people need to rely on more community service providers for care as they age. Yet they're often distrustful of mainstream providers because of a history of discrimination and mistreatment The services, community, and support systems provided by SAGE are designed to address these gaps and serve as a lifeline for LGBTQ+ elders in New York City. With an anti-LGBTQ+ administration in Washington, many LGBT older people face heightened fear and uncertainty about their rights, healthcare, and overall well-being. For thousands, SAGE is a lifeline to critical services, advocacy, and a supportive community, ensuring they do not face these challenges alone. Alone. In light of the climate and the needs, SAGE requests the restoration of our New York City Council funding at FY26 levels, along with additional support to sustain and enhance our vital services.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:06:18)

Thank you. Good afternoon, my name is Jeanette Estima and I'm the Director of Policy and Advocacy at City Meals on Wheels. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. City Meals addresses food insecurity for homebound older New Yorkers in 3 ways: by funding weekend meals for the city's home-delivered meals program, serving as an emergency food responder, and providing additional food to those who need more than the 1 meal they receive a day. In fiscal year '25, we provided 2.3 million meals to 22,000 older adults across all 5 boroughs and all of our programs. As you know, there is deep hunger among older adults who participate in congregate and home-delivered meals. While these programs are critical anti-hunger interventions, they do not go far enough for people who cannot get to a grocery store or a food pantry for the 2 other meals that they need. That's why we developed 2 innovative, cost-efficient programs for the most food insecure meal recipients. Our breakfast box provides enough food for a second daily meal, and our mobile groceries program provides enough food for 14 additional meals. These programs serve 2,600 homebound older New Yorkers, and we're grateful to the council for their support, which has allowed us to increase the amount and types of food that we offer through these programs and to reach more people. We respectfully request a renewal of the funding we received from the council for these various programs through, uh, various initiatives, and we also ask the council to pass Intro 280 with adequate funding and to include cost increases for home-delivered meals and congregate meals at $90 million total. And we also ask that there be an increase in the community food connection to a baseline of $100 million. Thank you.

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:08:12)

Good afternoon, Chair Juang and members of committee.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:08:15)

My name is Rihan Wu. I'm a center director of Homecrest Community Service Older Adult Center, and part of my residents come from, um, Cheers, uh, um, District.

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:08:27)

I'm honored to speak today because this works extremely personal to me.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:08:31)

Every day I meet older adults come to my center not only for service but also comfort, friendship, and support.

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:08:40)

They trust us and they feel belong here.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:08:42)

To them, our center is the one place where they can feel seen feel heard, and less alone. For nearly 30 years, HomeQuest has served older adults in South Brooklyn, especially AAPI older adults. Many of them are low-income with limited English. Older adults are, are in our community are facing isolation, rising costs, and barriers to basic services. Some need accessing benefits, some are lonely and need a safe welcoming place, where they can talk to others and feel part of community. Others need regular meals and programs that support their well-being. This is what our center provides. We offer daily meals, workshops, and case management to benefit— to access benefits, connect to health care, and affordable housing.

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:09:35)

We also build community through activities like tai chi, dancing, art, and crafts. Community chat room, and technology class to make sure our adults, older adults, stay active and connected and supported.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:09:48)

From July 2024 to June 2025, we supported more than 100,000 older adults. When funding is not enough, it's not actually a budget issue. Behind every budget number is someone who needs support, who needs dignity, who needs community. That's why, as a member of Live On NY, we support a $2.3 billion investment in older New Yorkers— $500 million for expanded nutrition services, $1 billion for expanded affordable housing, and $800 million for community services. Homeless is also a proud member of 18% and Growing campaign led by CACF, and we urge the council Support is key priority, including $7.5 million for the AAPI Committee Support Initiative, $10 million for Communities of Color Nonprofit Stabilization Fund, and $4.5 million for Access Health Initiative. Thank you so much for your commitment and leadership for the older New Yorker. Thank you. Hello, my name is Dr. Cynthia Maurer. I'm the Executive Director of Visiting Neighbors. We've had 54 years of serving seniors in New York City. We are so thankful for the City Council. You guys are our heroes because you advocate for a population that without you, uh, what would we do? And our seniors need us just as much as we need you. We provide health management, health advocacy, health and wellness programs, physical, mental, and emotional, friendly visiting, shop and escort, therapeutic walking, which by the way was a program that came out of the pandemic. We were working throughout the pandemic because our seniors would have otherwise been completely cut off. Our volunteers and our staff went into the offices the entire time and did some crazy things in order to survive and help our people, including go to 99-cent stores and buying plastic shower curtains. And we had an amazing crew of volunteers who made masks for us because our seniors otherwise would be all of— all alone. And our population is from 60 to centenarian plus. Our eldest is 107. We have 33 clients that are over 100. This is a population that is aging, guys. We are getting older. Over 10 years ago, we had— 10, 12 years ago, our average age of senior coming in was 58. It's now 89. However, we're seeing in this last year a younger group of seniors coming in who either have illness like cancer or they had, you know, they fell and they need temporarily— temporary help. And then later we turn them into volunteers and then when they're ready, they become seniors. We actually have second and third generation clients that have been with us, and we had a senior who said, you know, you took such good care of my mom and now I need help, and that's why we're, you know, we want to continue to be here, and we wouldn't be if you guys did not support us. The population we serve is diverse, and 98% of our clients can either pay for help nor private services nor eligible for Medicaid And when a client is with us, they're usually with us for the rest of this life. They are not like in and out as in a school program. They are with us and we see them age through that process. And as their years go by, things happen and more happens and we need to be there to support them. Last year, we provided direct services to over 875 seniors and guidance to 1,700 individuals, including caregivers who are frustrated and just needed to have some guidance or vent. And we are going to continue to help seniors deal with a myriad of program issues that they face through our programs. And our volunteers are absolutely amazing. We really do believe they represent the absolute best of New York City. When people often say, well, New Yorkers in a hurry, we are, we're always in a hurry, but kind and we care. And I can tell you right now, we have people from age 14 to 93 who volunteer, who really do care about their, their neighbor. So we're asking, please continue to support programs like us and us so that we can continue to be here, not only for our existing clients but for the clients years to come. I gave you a packet also just to show you, not only do we do life-saving things like being able to help people get to and from doctor's appointments, being there to listen to if they have a diagnosis that they're scared about and encouraging them to get second opinions. We do sweet things too, like having schoolchildren make up Valentine's cards. And you say, what's, what's the big deal? Well, the seniors, when that's all they get, find this card and it makes their day. It's really sweet. So there's a sample there. Of cards just to say the thank-yous that the seniors are getting, and they're just delightful. And some of them create pen pals with the students. And also, we have a talent show coming up, so you guys are welcome to come out and see seniors strut their stuff for New York City audience. All of our services are free because our clients don't have it. They don't have even the dollar. They really don't.

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:15:19)

And we're, we're going to and do whatever we can, and thank you for your support. Thank you. Thank you so much. I don't have questions. I'm familiar with most of you guys. So thank you. Thank you. Next group, the first one was Tasia Smith. Hugh Rose Evans. Elizabeth Lee. Kevin Kamproski. Thank you. You can begin.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:16:13)

Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Eustacia Smith. I'm from West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing, serving 2,500 low-income older adults in our housing and 1,500 in our 3 older adult centers. Thank you to Chair Zwing and the entire committee for the opportunity to testify. As the council noted, older adults make approximately 20% of the population, yet when New York City allocates less than half of 1% of the budget towards them, we are neglecting the people who made our city what it is today. If we want older New Yorkers to survive and thrive, we must increase the budget for older adult services. We need to dramatically scale up the available housing for older adults. Older adults are the fastest growing age group of people becoming homeless, and there were 520,000 people on waitlists for housing at last count. We opened a new residence in the Bronx in 2025, and out of The 25 apartments that were available through Housing Connect, we had well over 45,000 applicants, the majority of whom were extremely low income. In our 3 older adult centers where we provide meals to participants, we are beyond stretched due to the rising cost of food. There's not been an increase in funding since 2019, but the cost of fresh produce, dairy, and meat in the past 6 years has risen substantially. We cannot continue to provide the same quality of meals with the same budget. It. We're forced to either reduce quality or take money from other places where it's also needed. Compounding this situation is the fact that we're seeing a dramatic increase in the number of seniors coming to our centers for meals given the rising food insecurity. We are also seeing them come in hungrier because they have not eaten since the last time they were there. This is why we encourage the city to support all of the Age Strong demands, including creating 1,000 Sarah units per year including $20 million in preservation of HUD-202 housing in the budget, adding $60 million for congregate meals rate increase, and the $27 million for home-delivered meals weekend program. Older adults must be included in the equation when we talk about making New York City an affordable place to live. Thank you. Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Hugh Rose Evans, and I'm speaking on behalf of the American LGBTQ Museum and in support of its FY27 City Council discretionary funding request. The museum provides educational and public programming exploring the achievements and lived experiences of LGBT people in all 5 boroughs of New York City. Here at the museum, we see LGBTQ elders as the very heart of our community. They act as the true protectors of queer history, and we are ultimately responsible to them for protecting and stewarding their stories for future generations. We recognize that as a brand new organization, we need to make increased investments in our aging communities to gain their trust and build affinity for our museum. This year, the American LGBTQ Museum is requesting $250,000 in New York City Council discretionary funding. We recognize this request is more than the museum has sought before, but it represents the scale of our expanding scope of services, especially to aging individuals. In March 2025, we launched the Queer Legacies Project, project in partnership with SAGE USA and the Feminist Institute, hosting a series of 4 archiving and oral history workshops at SAGE's Edie Windsor Center in Chelsea. Provided at no cost, these workshops teach LGBTQ elders how to archive their personal photos, articles, recordings, and achievements for public memory. The program was an incredible success, welcoming over 125 registrants, and this month we're proud to say that successfully continuing the project, having launched our first session of Queer Legacies Project at SAGE Center Harlem yesterday. In FY27, we will bring the project to SAGE Center Bronx in November 2026 and to communities in Brooklyn and Queens in 2027. This project is just one of more than 50 public programs we produce annually, and these services are essential to building trust and familiarity with our museum., but we need your help to maintain the momentum of the museum's growth. We are humbly asking committee members to advocate for the museum to your fellow colleagues, helping us to increase our LGBTQ community services funding to $250,000 in FY27. Together we can build a museum that honors the memories of all LGBTQ elders. Thank you for your time. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Elizabeth Lee, Senior Director at Vision Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a nonprofit that has served New Yorkers with vision loss for nearly 100 years. Last year alone, Vision supported over 8,000 New Yorkers with more than 2,000 adults age 16 and older. Our mission is to help visually impaired and blind individuals live independently and remain active in their communities. Vision loss is a disability multiplier. Older adults with vision loss face significantly higher risk of socialization, depression, cognitive decline, falls, hospitalization, loss loss of independence. Many older adult centers and community programs are not designed to accommodate the needs of participants who are blind and visually impaired. In New York City alone, an estimated 84,000 older adults over the age of 65 are living with blindness, and with many more experiencing significant vision loss. Along with New York City Aging, we have been able to provide, um, services for older adults who are blind and visually impaired with our older adult center in Chelsea and our caregiver support program, but we serve all through the 5 boroughs because of our unique specialty. Visions provides accessible health and wellness programming, assistive technology, support groups, meals, and community-based and in-home services. However, significant gaps remain when you combine age, vision loss, and limited income. Isolation health risks increase dramatically. With early identification, access to vision rehab services, many older adults can maintain independence and safely age in place. So as the city and council considers the FY27 budget, we respectfully urge investment in the following priorities. First, dedicated funding for vision rehab services within aging programs, including accessible training that allows older adults to safely navigate their homes and communities. Second, improve accessible transportation options. Third, integration of vision screening and vision rehab referrals within older adult centers, NORCs, and case management systems so that we can identify vision loss early and it could be addressed. Fourth, continue investment adaptive technology access and teaching older adults adapt with technology. And lastly, intergenerational programming as well. So thank you again for allowing me to testify. Uh, hello everybody, my name is Kevin Koprowski, Director of Public Policy at Live On New Um, I'm gonna skip some of the intro because I feel like a lot of that was covered really well by every organization that's been here, and I'll go into some of the needs. So the first need is actually, um, part of our $2.3 billion Age Strong New York City campaign. We're not asking for all that this year, it's a 5-year campaign, we're just trying to get to it. Uh, we've estimated anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion to get all of the centers in the city up to a state of good repair. Last year, the $5 million investment was the first major investment infrastructure in over a decade.

Committee Counsel (03:23:18)

It has changed the way people are looking at their centers, so we're so grateful for that.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:23:23)

In programs less than— I mean, in repairs less than $100,000, we currently have $16 million worth of ready-to-go projects. So if you want to give us $16 million, I don't think we'd say no to that. So that would— if, you know, $5 million is great, $10 million is great, but whatever you guys are going to give us, it's going to change everything.

Committee Counsel (03:23:38)

But we do think that with a need so high, with $5 million, it would take 100 years to get there. So we really want to try to push the mayor as well to try to put money into that to get the system going.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:23:49)

Next, um, $90 million for nutritional support, broken down into $60 million for congregate meals at OAC. And we added it to $30 million because there was actually an increase in how much each meal costs, from $15 to $16. So we're still looking into that number, but the number that we have now would be $30 million to fully fund Councilmember Lee's 7-day-a-week bill. Um, as much money as we can get for that, it would be great.

Committee Counsel (03:24:10)

We're also pushing with UNH for $10 million for a NORC in every neighborhood. We've seen that there are neighborhoods that don't have senior centers. NORCs are quicker to get up and running.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:24:17)

We still need the centers, but it's a way to make sure people are getting services. And $10 million is not a big lift for the city government.

Committee Counsel (03:24:23)

We think it's very reasonable and very possible to get that funding.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:24:27)

And the last one is much deeper collaboration between NYC Aging and HPD. We need to be getting more people on SCREE. 47% of people is not a good enough number. We've spoken to DOF.

Committee Counsel (03:24:36)

We've spoken to HPD. There's a lot of really creative ways where we don't have to spend an extra dollar and we can double that number. There's an MOU between the state and the city that prevents the city from using certain data to get people to apply in a targeted way.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:24:48)

There's lots of things that are just matters of policy that we can fix. But honestly, when it comes to housing, we're asking for a full billion dollars to get Sarah developed.

Committee Counsel (03:24:57)

There's $200 million of that is to improve SCREE, and another $200 million is to fix HUD-202 buildings.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:25:01)

So So we'd love to continue that conversation. We're also so grateful, Councilmember Juang, that you're such a great advocate for this, and we're really excited to work with you on this moving forward.

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:25:13)

Thank you guys for organizing the rally, and thank you guys for waiting and let the senior go first. Thank you. And then we have next group, Muhammad And John Holt.

Committee Counsel (03:25:42)

So only John, John Holt. Thank you. Hi, good afternoon, Chair. I'm John Holt. I'm the director of the Senior Law Project at Volunteers of Legal Service. For over 40 years, VOLS has partnered with community-based organizations and the private bar to provide free legal services to New Yorkers who otherwise cannot afford or access representation. Our 5 core projects serve small business owners, individuals accessing benefits, immigrant young people, incarcerated mothers, and older adults in every borough. The Vals Senior Law Project provides low-income older adults free legal services to plan for death and incapacity through the execution of life planning documents, including last wills and testaments, powers of attorney, living wills, and healthcare taxes. For our clients, these documents are vital tools to help ensure that their wishes and preferences are honored, and without them, many would find themselves unable to safely remain in their communities, forcing them into costly institutionalization or overly restrictive protective arrangements like Article 81 guardianship. Every day we see barriers that lead potential clients to miss the window of opportunity where advanced planning can be a viable preventative tool.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:26:41)

To combat this, the Senior Law Project partners with older adult centers and other community-based organizations institutions all over the city to provide older adults and the professionals who work with them education on the importance of advanced planning and clear direction on how to timely reach our program.

Committee Counsel (03:26:53)

In the present moment, many New Yorkers are afraid to present for services due to the policies of the federal government, and we need to continue to seek ways of building trust and community among the fastest-growing demographic of older adults in our city—immigrants. We also see that even when older adults do access systems, there's not always clear identification of their interconnected needs and responses are often siloed to address the presenting symptoms and not the root causes of the problem. The Senior Law Project respectfully calls on the Council to continue to support and prioritize programs that reach aging New Yorkers in their homes and communities to provide holistic services that are responsive to their diverse financial, medical, social, legal, cultural, and linguistic needs, and to ensure that the legal service organizations like VOLs have the resources they need to continue to provide assistance that promotes autonomous decision-making and closes the justice gap for older adults.

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:27:42)

Thank you. Thank you so much for waiting. Thank you.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:27:45)

How many cases you guys provide every year?

Committee Counsel (03:27:48)

Like, how many cases? So we measure our cases by individual documents in the Senior Law Project.

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:27:55)

Last fiscal year, we executed over 1,000 legal documents for older adults, and there were several hundred individual unique clients that we served. Thank you.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:28:07)

Now we move to Zoom.

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:28:27)

How many people in this one? Two? Just one? Two people? We now move to the virtual testimony. Please wait for your name to be called to testify, and please select unmute when you're prompted.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:28:53)

First, Marmarado Rias. Starting time. Hello, members of the Committee on Aging. My name is Mamerta Reyes. I am very active member and volunteer at the Older Adult Center at Sunnyside Community Service. I go to the center for the atmosphere. I meet my friends. The staff are friendly, and if I need anything or have a problem, they are there to help me. It is my second home. What would I do in my apartment all alone. They helped me a lot to get SNAP, SCRI, and my medical insurance. I even get help to get pantry food. I am grateful for having my Sunnyside Community Center. I live in Jackson Heights. I live in Jackson Heights but travel because that's how much I need it. Thank you for the opportunity to share my concerns of the need of older adults in New York City. I first want to ask for support of older adult centers for all their services, but especially for more money for food and all expenses related for meals. 7 years and counting and they don't get an increase. How expensive is the food now? We need money to keep the center running with good The center prepares fresh food every day, letting me enjoy my day with exercise, games, dancing, and singing, and knowing new knowledge about anything, and keeping me busy by accepting me as a volunteer. I feel great when I help. I also love when we can go to the shows trips, supermarkets, and just for walks sometimes. This is why you need to give more money to all older adult centers so that others like me can live by—

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:31:12)

Thank you, your time has expired. I am not allowed Um, you unmuted it. She's been muted. I'm so sorry, we didn't know. It's unmuted now. Please help us. They didn't hear you. They didn't hear you. You need only the last part. She did not hear. How did it get muted? Okay, do you want to— can she start over again? I'm so sorry. You only need to start the last, last few sentences.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:31:47)

The other, the rest is fine. Okay. I also love when we go to shows, trips, supermarket, and just for walks sometimes. It is being together and not alone that matters most. This is why you need to give more money to all older and adult centers so that others like me can live a healthy and dignified life. It even helps my family because they have peace of mind that I'm not alone in my apartment and that I can enjoy my day and get help at any time. Where can I— where else can I get this?

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:32:26)

You must help us keep our center open, and we need more money, please.

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:32:38)

Thank you. Thank you. Next one, we have Emily Wright. Thank you, Chair Susan Chuang, and members of the New York City Council Committee on Aging for giving us this opportunity to submit testimony. I'm, I'm Emily Rios, the managing director of community services at Asian Americans for Equality, also known as AAFFE. AAFFE is a 52-year-old organization which advances racial, social, and economic justice for all, regardless of background. We're guided by our experiences as Asian Americans and our commitment to civil rights. Asian seniors are New York City's fastest growing yet poorest highest elderly population, with 42% living in or near poverty, facing intense language barriers and social isolation. Reports from the Asian American Federation highlight that almost 67% of low-income Asian seniors are immigrants, with many struggling to access services. 25% of Asian seniors live in poverty, and high percentages have limited English proficiency, a combination that makes accessing services difficult and leads to greater isolation. Now, on average, every year, AFI serves about 14,000 community members. We operate out of 3 locations, and based on our daily interactions, Uh, we observed some key needs that I would like to share with you. Um, and we ask that this committee and the City Council support our elderly population based on our recommendations. New York is grappling with a severe shortage of affordable housing, and seniors who live on fixed incomes cannot compete in this competitive housing market. Many of our clients must turn to vouchers, or resort to living in unsafe and overcrowded housing. One question we consistently get is the availability of affordable senior housing in the neighborhood. In recent history, our city has—

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:34:58)

Thank you, your time has expired. Can I continue?

Commissioner Lisa Scott McKenzie (03:35:01)

Yes, please wrap up in 15 seconds. Thank you. Okay, um, so, so senior housing The other thing I want to bring up is how vulnerable the elderly community is with financial exploitation. We see that there are a lot of helping organizations that are charging our seniors for application support or fake legal assistance, and I wanted to bring that to your attention. Because that is such a vulnerable population to be exploited and scammed. And I think the final thing is the conditions of many older adults who are living in substandard apartments that are exposed to fire and health hazards, and the lack of information that seniors have on their tenant rights. Rights. Many of the seniors that we work with are often afraid to ask for repairs because they're worried their landlord is going to— well, either their landlord uses intimidating tactics or that their landlord is going to penalize them in some way. I know I'm conscious of time and I really appreciate this opportunity, but I really wanted to flag some of those things that are reoccurring cases that we're seeing in Office.

Chair Susan Zhuang (03:36:29)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who have testified. If there's anyone present in the Zoom or in the room that has not had the opportunity to testify, please raise your hand. Seeing no one else, I would like to note that the written testimony, which will be reviewed in full by committee staff may be submitted to the, to the record up to 72 hours after the closing of this hearing by email it to testimony@council.nyc.gov.