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

DAILY NEWS Article

Closings trouble seniors

9 boro centers could face ax

Wednesday, May 19th 2010

By Daniel Beekman

Publication & Publisher: DAILY NEWS

Blaming expected cuts from Albany, where lawmakers are deadlocked and way behind schedule on the state budget, Bloomberg has ordered the city Department for the Aging to shutter its 50 least-used centers on June 30.

News that her Bronx center was slated to close enraged Barbara Brown. "Why does our government target seniors?" asked Brown, 67. "God is going to punish them for this!"

Two of three senior centers in Co-op City are on the chopping block and Zerega will lose its only center unless lawmakers amend the budget Gov. Paterson has proposed, city officials warn.

The Department for the Aging, which funds 58 Bronx centers, said the citywide closures will affect 300 Bronx seniors and save $4.2 million.

Endangered in the Bronx are the Concourse Plaza, Patterson Houses, Dreiser, Einstein, Tilden Towers, Glebe, JASA Parkchester, RAIN Bailey Avenue and Tolentine Zeiser centers.

The Glebe center serves a housing development for low-income seniors, many too frail to travel. Several eat only one meal a day - at the center, said Johnnie Thompson, 73.

The DFA will offer affected seniors transportation to the remaining centers, but has yet to hammer out details. It probably will not pick up seniors at home.

"We embarked on this painful process because the state's budget left us no other option," said Department for the Aging Commissioner Lilliam Barrios-Paoli.

Nearly a third of the DFA's senior center budget comes from federal funds passed on by the state. The city expects to lose $6 million to $12 million in those Title XX funds next year.

The DFA said it picked centers serving fewer than 30 meals daily and those operating part-time, plus centers with chronic money or management problems.

But the Co-op City centers are desperately needed, said Aileen Gitelson, CEO of the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged.

"Together, these centers serve more than 130 meals a day," she said.

The Glebe center feeds only 25 to 30 daily, but offers priceless computer classes and trips to the New York Botanical Garden, said Thompson, a senior who uses the Glebe.

"Large or small, senior centers serve people whose needs cannot be sacrificed," fumed Councilman James Vacca (D-East Bronx). "We need a safety net for the elderly."

The 70 mostly poor and Hispanic seniors who use Tolentine Zeiser are especially at risk, added Sister Margaret McDermott, the center's executive director.

"Where are they going to go?" she wondered. "Where are they going to eat?"