Senior Centers May Face Revamp

Directors of senior centers will grill the New York City Department for the Aging on the Department’s proposal to update services at centers citywide later today on New York University’s campus, presenting their own proposals to compete for city funding as well.

Yet as DFTA discusses the funding process amid recent budget cuts to city agencies, many who are tied to senior centers—including residents of Upper Manhattan—worry that this could signal the end of their neighborhood operations.

DFTA, which began evaluating its quality of services in December 2006, aims to merge over 300 centers that lie under its jurisdiction to adjust to what it sees as the changing needs of New York’s senior citizen demographic. Earlier this year, DFTA sent out requests encouraging senior centers to vie for city funding by explaining how they would use the money towards holistic services to the elderly. Today’s meeting may help determine the criteria for selecting which centers can afford to remain open in the face of this restructuring.

This is not the first time constituents have questioned the plan, which also focuses on case management and home-delivered meals programs. A heated debate manifested in mid-November when City Council speaker Christine Quinn publicly urged Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the DFTA to postpone consolidation.

“The current state of our budget does not make it possible to create these new super centers without closing down neighborhood senior centers, thus reducing critical services to city seniors,” Quinn said as she was joined by other council members on the steps of City Hall.

“With more and more New Yorkers struggling to put food on their tables, our seniors cannot afford to lose their local neighborhood centers and the meals they provide,” she added.

Low turnout, as well as a dearth of “healthy aging centers,” have prompted the DFTA to think critically about the nature of its senior centers in the future, according to Mira Browne, deputy director of public affairs.

“The Department aims to create a consumer-centered network of healthy aging centers where seniors can enjoy an array of activities that promote physical, social, and mental wellness,” Browne wrote in an e-mail, indicating that only two percent of city residents aged 60 and over currently visit DFTA-financed centers.

Like some of their downtown and outer-borough counterparts, many Morningside Heights and West Harlem seniors, site directors, and families question their ability to weather proposed changes to the centers.

“The problem with us [is] that we are not well-functioned to cope with multifaceted modernization,” said Stephen Adeyinka, executive director of the Association of Black Social Workers Senior Citizens Center between Broadway and Amsterdam on West 107th Street. “How can a non-profit afford quality and quantity of services with all these costs coming in?”

The DFTA hopes to build a more holistic social and mental experience for seniors. Some possibilities for refurbished centers include computer classes, exercise sessions, and opportunities to partake in cultural and volunteer programs, Browne said.

But as the city prioritizes large, modernized hubs over smaller local centers, those who once travelled only a few blocks for senior programs could be forced to take bus rides to other neighborhoods.

“I think it’s a hard call if you’re going to shut down centers. Are seniors really interested in traveling to the place where they get breakfast and lunch?” said Carla Brown, executive director of the organization sponsoring the Jackie Robinson Senior Center on Amsterdam Ave. between LaSalle Place and West 125th Street.

But with the city’s senior population expected to surpass the number of school-aged children by 2030, the department is confident the campaign will resolve issues of rapid growth.

“Modernization will make services more responsive, flexible, and attentive to the needs of seniors,” Browne wrote in an email.

Some view the scope of the plan as unnecessary, countering that the centers are already managed around these goals.

“When I took over the program [10 years ago], that was my intention—a holistic approach to the senior center’s establishment,” Adeyinka said.
If anything, the bidding conference could clarify ambiguities that critics continue to point out.

“Questions about the request for proposal are going unanswered,” said council member Robert Jackson (D-Central Harlem and Washington Heights) adding that, “as a result of this centralization, many people will not be served.”

scott.levi@columbiaspectator.com