AARP New York Urges City Council to Increase Funding for Aging Services, Prevent DFTA Budget Cuts

Testifying before City Council Aging Committee, group calls for additional funding for Home Delivered Meals, NORCs, Case Management, Geriatric Mental Health and More

AARP New York today testified on the need for the City of New York to provide more funding for aging services and called for the Department for the Aging to be exempted from proposed budget cuts.

At the City Council Committee on Aging’s FY23 preliminary budget hearing, AARP New York called for the New York City Department for the Aging to be exempted from the proposed 3% Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) budget cut.

“While the Department for the Aging is not the only city agency facing a proposed budget cut, it is an agency that is already short on funds in comparison to the population it serves, receiving less than 0.5% of the overall city budget. This is despite residents age 50 and older accounting for nearly a third of New York City’s overall population,” said James O’Neal, Volunteer President of AARP New York.

AARP New York also testified on the need for the city to increase funding for the Home Delivered Meals program to combat hunger among older adults, add $28 million for DFTA’s home care program, and provide an additional $5 million for the department’s case management program.

The city also should establish, fund, and enforce an automatic annual cost-of living adjustment (COLA) for all human service workers, AARP New York testified, and invest $6.4 million for Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs) and $3.4 million for the Geriatric Mental Health Initiative.

“With the onset of the pandemic in March of 2020, older New Yorkers have faced barriers to accessing critical resources, including food, groceries, healthcare, and medications,” O’Neal said. “The Mayor and City Council need to meet the growing demand for aging-related services. We need our City to invest more into the health and wellbeing of our older adults to ensure that every older New Yorker has the ability to age with dignity in their own communities.”

The 50-plus population is set to increase by 40 percent in the next 20 years. But the Department for the Aging’s critical services for older adults have been historically underfunded by the City of New York. The pandemic has only exacerbated the situation, creating additional obstacles to accessing critical resources and a higher demand for services.

Media Contact: Jordan McNerney, jmcnerney [at] aarp [dot] org.