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

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Many in Brooklyn Were Threatened With Closure

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

By Raanan Geberer

Publication & Publisher: Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN — Teachers and others may be dreading budget cuts, but seniors and staff members at more than 100 senior centers, about a third of them in Brooklyn, have gotten a reprieve.

Earlier this month, senior center directors and others poured into the Ceremonial Courtroom at Borough Hall for a rally to oppose the cutbacks. The centers are vulnerable because the program under which they receive money, Title XX, is not “mandated” for funding like many other social programs. Loss of these funds would have forced them to close.

Tuesday morning, senior advocates found out that within the complicated provisions of the new state budget was one restoring the Title XX funds, according to Bobbie Sackman, director of public policy of the Council of Senior Centers and Services of New York.

Among the many Brooklyn centers that were slated to lose funding were the St. Charles Jubilee Senior Center in Brooklyn Heights, the Bay Ridge Center for Older Adults, the Red Hook Senior Center, the Shalom Senior Center in Crown Heights, JASA (Jewish Association for Services to the Aging) centers in Williamsburg and Luna Park, the Fort Greene Senior Action Center and the Midwood satellite office of the Senior Citizens League of Flatbush (which Borough President Marty Markowitz headed in his 20s).

“We’re very happy,” Sackman told this newspaper, “but we want to make sure that the Title XX funding isn’t taken away again next year.”

At the aforementioned Borough Hall meeting earlier this month, speaker after speaker told how the centers are more than a place where seniors can receive free meals — they’re often the only place where seniors, especially those who are isolated and/or disabled, can socialize.

Speaking about the St. Charles Jubilee Center (where he is a member), Leslie Lewis, criminal justice coordinator for the Borough President’s Office, said at the time: “They have many functions beyond the meals — massages, an art club, a writing club, line dancing. Without it, many people would have nothing to do. For some of them, all their friends have died. Many are over 90.”

Throughout the month, officials of both parties, from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, to state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Republican, pressured Gov. Andrew Cuomo to modify his budget proposals.