Jing Luo, 78, has been visiting the BRC Senior Center in Chinatown for 13 years. Originally she went to remain active while she was caring for her ailing husband. Now, despite having arthritis in her feet, she still braves the 30-minute walk from her home -- regardless of the weather.
Luo credits the center with helping improve her quality of life. "After I came here, I felt happier, not as depressed. My nutrition has improved, and I feel happier," she said.
Luo describes the center as "her second home," but soon she and thousands of others may have to find another senior center to go because of the state’s financial problem.
Earlier this month, the city released a list of 105 senior centers across the city, including the BRC Senior Center, it says it will have to close because of cuts in state funding. If implemented, the cuts will affect between 8,000 and 10,000 city residents.
The legislature appears to be trying to keep the centers open. The state Senate and Assembly have agreed to fully restore the so-called "Title XX" state funds the city uses to run the senior centers in their budget bills. They could be voted on as early as this week, according to Bobbie Sackman, director of public policy at the Council of Senior Centers and Services. The money would then be part of the budget negotiations between the legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the New York Statewide Senior Action Council has written. One possible sticking point: The Assembly reportedly calls for financing programs by extending a tax surcharge on the richest New Yorkers -- a tax Cuomo has repeatedly opposed.
The city, elderly New Yorkers and advocates for senior have been pressing for the funding for weeks.
The loss of state funding "would profoundly affect senior centers across New York City," said Christopher Miller, director of public affairs for the Department for the Aging. "We are working hard to have this action reversed, but unless the state dollars are restored, DFTA will be forced to close up to 105 of its 256 senior centers."
Without the Title XX funding, the budget for all centers in a given City Council district would be cut by 30 percent. In deciding which centers to put on the chopping block, Miller said the department looked at each community district with multiple senior centers and has proposed shutting the centers whose closure would have the least impact on seniors. BRC is on that list of centers.
A day before the list of closing senior centers came out, new projections estimated the state would have an additional $155 million to spend in the next fiscal year. Several public officials have urged Cuomo to direct some of that money to the senior centers.
"It's my hope that both the city and the state budget reflects increased revenue projections,” said Councilmember Stephen Levinof Brooklyn, who is among those trying to get a portion of an $155 million to go to senior centers
Councilmember Jessica Lappin, who heads the Council’s Aging Committee agrees.
"That's money that could be used to help make up this difference. All I'm focused on is getting the money restored and not having to close any center anywhere," Lappin said. While her district will only lose one of its three senior centers that one -- the Lenox Hill Senior Center -- is the only senior center in the city that is open seven days a week.
In the long-term, Lappin and advocates say, funds spent on senior centers save the city money.
Ninety percent of those who visit senior centers around the city live below the poverty line, according to Lappin. "There is no question that if people are not able to access services to keep them in their own homes, it will cost the city more," she said.
For the people who use these centers, "it's a matter of life and death," Lappin said. "A society is judged by how we treat our seniors, and these are people who need our help the most."
Sackman, agrees. Cutting the centers, she said, is "not good budget policy." Without the centers, Sackman said, "you have enough people that go into the hospital and use more home aid. Since your priority is saving healthcare and Medicaid dollars, this is a 360-degree wrong direction to go in."
According to Sackman, the average annual senior center budget is $350,000 a year, while it costs an average of $123,000 a year for someone to stay in a nursing home.
"The important thing to realize is that senior centers are not social clubs. They are places that enable people to stay healthy in body and mind in their old age so they can remain independent, so they won't be a burden to others,” said Muzzy Rosenblatt, executive director of the Bowery Residents' Committee, which runs Luo's center.
That center sees over 120 people a day, mostly residents of Chinatown, and offers an array of programs including gardening, nutrition, English instruction and case management assistance. According to Rosenblatt, 95 percent of seniors who attend the Delancey Street BRC center live below poverty line, and a significant amount are on a fixed income.
"There's no cost benefit analysis that makes sense for closing these programs. The impact on their health and wellness will be immediate and the cost will be extraordinary," said Rosenblatt. "It's not just the seniors that are going to be affected by this. There are hundreds of jobs in these centers. When we talk about half of the senior centers closing in the city, that's hundreds that are out of work."
Ray Guo, 68, a retired activity aid who has attended the center for four years, worries about the employees. "Everyone is very sad, the workers help us a lot. If they close the center it will be a catastrophe," he said.
Seniors in other neighborhoods express similar devotion to their centers. At the Stein Senior Center in midtown Manhattan, executive director Jane Barry said "A lot of people consider this a second home. One member calls it the Stein Center for Humanity."
The Stein Center serves lunch for up to 120 people. Barry said some of the residents only eat half of the food at the center and take the rest home with them. The center also offers language and computer classes, and programs for people with early stage Alzheimer's disease.
"I think its a travesty that they're planning to close 100 senior centers during the recession. The people who come here are tax payers who are having their services being taken away," said Toni Matich, a retired HIV/AIDS administrator for the city health who now goes to the Stein Center.
In the past, the city administration has called for cuts to centers and other senior programs, only to see the City Council restore some of those reductions. That, though, may be harder to do this year, with the city facing its own budget deficit as well as sharp cuts in state funding. In Albany Cuomo has vowed to balance the budget without increasing taxes, sparking cuts to a number of popular programs, including education and senior services.
Many clients, though, say they will try to avert the cuts. Agathe Wulkan, a Stein Center attendee and retired administrative secretary, has begun lobbying her elected officials to reconsider the cuts. "I already wrote two letters, and I'm going to make several calls," said Wulkan. "It sounds horrible. I would be devastated if they close the center."
Peter Lambert, 74, isn’t too concerned about himself if the BRC center closes, but says that to some of his fellow seniors it would be "devastating.”" The government, he said, should "stop finding ways to take away care of people who help make this city what it is.”
Ralph Rizzuto, 64, a retired IBM employee rejected the notion that some program must be cut. "All social programs are important -- seniors, education, etc.," he said. "Instead of making all of these cuts, we should be moving money from the rich and taxing them,"
Cutting the centers, Sackman, said, "will say to seniors that you are not worth the investment to stay active in your community."
Luo put it this way as she envisions a life without her senior center, "Our lives will be short. We'll need more doctors, more medication, our health will be worse because we have no place to go."
This article originally implied that, if the state budget cuts are not reversed, the BRC center would lose some of its funding. In fact, according to the Department for the Aging, if the cuts in Title XX funding remain, the BRC center would be closed. The story has been corrected
Administration for Children's Services Commissioner John Mattingly pledges to keep children safe, even after his agency lost approximately $250 million in funding and must deal with a 30 percent increase in allegations of child abuse and neglect.
The City Council fears Mattingly may not be able to keep that promise.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's latest budget proposal, released in November, plans to cut ACS by another $24.5 million in fiscal year 2011 and $36.9 million in fiscal year 2012, which begins in July. This budget slashing and accompanying staff cuts -- which could hit more than 550 employees -- represent a change in direction for the agency, which saw its budget grow after the 2006 death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown.
Council Speaker Christine Quinn has made restoring the ACS funds a top priority.
"We will simply not stand by and allow cuts to go through that could put children's lives at risk," she said.
As recently as July, the council restored funding to stave off layoffs at the agency.
Since 2008, when the agency's overall staff and budget hit a high water mark at 7,081 and $2.85 billion, respectively, the organization has faced steep budgetary slashes. The proposals for this coming fiscal year show nearly 1,000 fewer employees and a $2.6 billion budget. These decreases come in the face of an increase in reported cases of abuse and/or neglect each year -- up nearly 15,000 in fiscal year 2010 from fiscal year 2005 -- and growth in the number of children receiving contracted preventive services -- up roughly 1,000 in the same span. While the amount of children receiving overall care has risen, the number of youth in foster care has dropped every year since 2007.
"I think [ACS has] done a lot of work to improve their ability to do quality investigations and keep the children safe," said Stephanie Gendell, associate executive director of policy and public affairs for the Citizens' Committee for Children of New York, a child advocacy group. "The question is more about whether or not the cuts are going too deep and whether they hinder their ability to do the plans that they have."
ACS plans to meet the most recent budget cuts by raising revenue, saving money and restructuring its services. While council members have expressed concern over some of these strategies, it is the reorganization of the supervision structure and elimination of support staff that has attracted the most attention, with some council members arguing that these moves put ACS in danger of sliding back to 2006.
Under the current set up, ACS managers each oversee three units with two unit supervisors -- a level one and a level two -- and five caseworkers who handle eight to 10 cases each. After the cuts, every manager would oversee four units, and the level-one supervisors in the units would be eliminated.
This, Mattingly told the council, would keep the current caseload of eight to 10 cases per worker and would not touch front-line staff.
"We have found that efficiencies can be made among support staff that will help us to avoid impacting staff working directly with children and families," Mattingly said at the hearing, discussing the staff cuts, which in total will eliminate 118 administrative and support staff.
Council members expressed skepticism.
"They're saying that [caseworkers] aren't going to be cut, but their support staff is going to get cut," said Councilmember Lewis Fidler, referring to the layoffs of administrative and clerical staffers. "That means they're going to have to do the support work themselves and that means that even if you're not increasing their caseload, you're going to be increasing their work load to the point that eventually someone is going to slip through the cracks and there's going to be another Nixzmary Brown."
In 2006, ACS came under public scrutiny when details emerged regarding the murder of Nixzmary Brown by her stepfather. Despite reports of consistent abuse throughout her childhood and two formal complaints registered with ACS, the city never took action to remove Nixzmary from her home.
The death and ensuing trials, which put both Brown's stepfather and mother behind bars for manslaughter, were widely reported in the media. The girl's death sparked the approval of Nixzmary's Law, which enables authorities to charge a parent under suspicion of murdering his or her child with first-degree murder. It also led to changes within ACS. The agency hired more caseworkers, reduced caseloads, and increased supervision and training.
"ACS has made a lot of positive changes in terms of the training for their staff and the managers for their staff," Gendell said, echoing the sentiments of other experts.
Mattingly has denied that the current budget cuts would erase those gains. At the City Council hearing, he reported that the current per worker caseload stood between eight and 10, well below the goal of 12, and promised it would remain at that level.
Mattingly also pointed to "enhanced accountability in our child protective offices, increased supervision and support for staff in these offices," as positive changes since 2006.
ACS maintains the cuts will not affect that. "The structural changes put in place in 2006 have not been changed, including worker access to the 50 to 60 retired detectives hired as investigative consultants," Elysia Murphy, deputy communications director, wrote in an email.
But some argue that ACS is allowing workloads to increase while training, support and supervision decreases. Some council members and advocates question why the city targets ACS for cuts that are larger than other "first-responder" services, such as the police and fire departments. The Citizens Committee for Children maintains that ACS is the city's "first responder" for New York City's children.
"As an agency, they have been very reactive to public embarrassments and tragedies," Fidler said. "Then when memory fades and the [budget cuts] come, they try to make their target by retreating from some of the progress they've made. That's very unfortunate."
ACS is facing more proposed layoffs from January to March than any city department save cultural affairs. Seventy of those jobs are unionized.
Both the union representing workers at the agency, Social Service Employees Union Local 371, and the City Council have been pointed in their criticism of those cuts. The union charges ACS with favoring the elimination of front-line unionized employees instead of reducing its contracts with private service providers. City Council members take ACS to task for not seeking alternate means to save money, such as renegotiating contracts with those providers.
"Since 2007, every time the administration has asked the commissioner to make cuts, ACS goes directly to their front-line workers," said Faye Moore, the president of SSEU Local 371. "Other agencies have managed to make these cuts and meet the mayor's targets without laying off unionized staff. ACS has a different view of the world, and they find it more prudent for their vision to lay off workers than to do anything else."
Thirty-seven of the positions on the chopping block -- unionized child welfare specialists -- were funded for 12 months last spring by the City Council.
"How are you cutting positions of people that we are putting the money up for?" asked City Council Finance Committee Chairman Domenic Recchia at this month's budget hearing. Mattingly responded that the 37 workers were not front-line workers in child protective services.
"I don't see why you can't train these already hired individuals so they could be moved up to protective services and there would not be anyone laid off," Recchia responded.
With an ACS hiring freeze in effect, though, six trainers -- unionized as well -- will also be eliminated. Moore emphasized that this staff would be needed to provide necessary ongoing training even if there are fewer new employees.
Moore also claims the per worker caseload is greater than the number ACS claims because caseworkers also have responsibilities with the Family Services Unit, which monitors a family's progress. A caseworker may have an additional five families in a Family Services Unit, Moore said.
In her email, the ACS spokesperson Murphy said the agency closely monitors workloads, including work for the Family Services Unit, and "is committed to ensuring that workloads for all child protective staff remain sufficiently low to ensure the safety of children."
ACS has said it must make the staff cuts because revenue increases and cost savings already put in place "were not enough to meet our budget targets for the November plan."
Fidler, for one, thinks other options exist. He believes a renegotiation of ACS's contracts with landlords at its daycare facilities could cover much of the budget cut. According to Fidler, ACS has rebuffed this idea by arguing that it would involve an inordinate amount of legal work. ACS did not offer any comment on the proposal.
Then there are all of its private contracts. Mattingly has publicly stated that he believes private nonprofits are better suited to provide certain child-care functions than a government agency. Moore sharply disagrees.
"There are certain things that the private sector cannot deliver," she said, adding that she has not seen evidence to support Mattingly's claim. On the other hand, she said, public employees "can access another agency to help a family."
Fidler thinks rather than cutting back on contracts, ACS would like to have more of them. "I don't think they want to be in this business," Fidler said. "I think frankly the political wheel of the [City] Council is the only thing that has stopped then from making progress in that regard."
In its emailed response, ACS said it has always contracted with non-profit agencies and that "there has been no change in that regard." Such efforts, it said, are designed not to save money but improve services. "We have eliminated unnecessary delays in decision making by delegating the day-to-day responsibilities to services providers working directly with children and families," Murphy wrote.
Soon ACS will meet with the union to discuss the layoffs and structure change, although no definite plans have been set. Meanwhile, the City Council will dig for any way to shift money around as it did in June, when the Council spared 82 of 109 anticipated layoffs for ACS.
"My colleagues and [Quinn] have always been very strong on this issue," Fidler said. "I think that if we get a pound of flesh out of this [budget] negotiation, I'm reasonably confident that at least a couple ounces of it will be going toward these ACS cuts."
Making the process more difficult, however, is the inability of the City Council to add money to the budget. This, along with the city's fiscal straits, will make the reductions difficult to fight.
"We proposed over $100 million in alternative budget cuts that would affect the lives of New Yorkers certainly not as drastically as the ACS cuts do," Fidler said. Quinn set the official amount at $130 million in alternative cuts. "[We hope] we can convince Mike Bloomberg that these priorities need to be straightened out."
About 300 times a year in the five boroughs, a senior with Alzheimer's Disease goes missing, says Jed Levine, executive vice president of the Alzheimer's Association in New York City.
Yesterday, the City Council tried to make it easier to find them.
The council unanimously approved (Intro 270-A) legislation to establish a citywide alert system for those seniors with Alzheimer's or other dementia-related diseases who leave a caregiver and then can't find their way home. Modeled after the city's Amber Alert, the "Silver Alert," according to Council Speaker Christine Quinn, will require the city relay identifying information to the media, social service providers, hospitals and other organizations after it receives a report of a missing person.
Information could be spread via email, telephone, text, television or radio.
"We want to put 16 million eyes and ears to work," said Councilmember Jessica Lappin, the bill's primary sponsor.
There are 250,000 New Yorkers diagnosed with Alzheimer's, according to the City Council. Research shows, Quinn said, that 60 percent of all Alzheimer's patients wander off alone at some point. If they are missing more than 24 hours, she added, more than half will emerge seriously injured or dead.
The council did not designate an agency to administer the new program, and left it up to the Bloomberg administration to decide.
Following up on Quinn's state of the city address this year, the council approved a bill to require the city's Law Department review every rule proposed by a department or agency to determine whether it treats small businesses unfairly.
Currently, all departments or agencies have to do to create a new rule is put it through a public review process, including publishing it in the City Record.
The legislation (Intro 91-A), which was approved unanimously, comes out of a regulatory review panel established by the mayor and the council to study city rules that might hurt small businesses.
"From now on, government will have to take extra steps to make sure rules are not too burdensome or too costly for small business," said Quinn.
The legislation will require the department or agency proposing the rule to do outreach to the affected industry. The Mayor's Office of Operations will also have to make sure the city's proposed rules are written in plain language and aren't redundant with other city policy.