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

DAILY NEWS Article

Saturday, May 01, 2010

By Kathleen Lucadamo and Leo Standora

Publication & Publisher: DAILY NEWS

The state budget crisis is forcing the city to slam the doors on as many as 75 of its 300 senior citizen centers, officials said Friday night.

Hardest hit by the belt-tightening will be Manhattan, which will lose a dozen centers in the first round of closings, most of them in Harlem and the lower East Side.

Officials said 50 centers will be notified by May 15 that they'll be shut by July 1. Another 25 centers also could get notices if Albany doesn't hammer out a budget soon and funnel some cash to the city.

The closings will affect some 1,600 seniors, officials said.

City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin, who chairs the Aging Committee, vowed to keep pressuring Albany leaders to restore need funds and avert a "drastic change."

"These senior centers are part of the fabric of our neighborhoods. For the people that use them, it's more than a hot meal," said Lappin (D-Manhattan).

Sources said 32 centers that serve fewer than 30 meals a day are on the chopping block. The citywide average is 90.

Thirteen of those 32 are open only part-time. Seven other part-time centers that serve more than 30 meals will also be closed, along with another 11 that have substandard facilities or poor management.

To ease some of the pain, the city will provide shuttle service to transport people affected by closures to other senior centers.