By Bill Parry
Several elected officials joined 150 senior citizens April 17 in Jackson Heights to demand city funding for three residence programs for older adults, two of them in Queens.
The mayor’s 2015 preliminary budget cut $1 million in funding for three Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities, co-op programs that provide resources and services in housing developments that are home to a large number of seniors.
At the gathering at the Northridge/Brulene/Southridge NORC in Jackson Heights, City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) presented a petition with 1,200 signatures he hopes will persuade Mayor Bill de Blasio to reconsider.
“NORCs provide a wonderful service for our seniors that must be protected,” Dromm said. “Defunding these three NORCs would put thousands of seniors between a rock and a hard place. Funding must be restored, and let’s face it, the $1 million is just a drop in the bucket in the mayor’s $73 billion budget.”
Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica) spoke on behalf of the Rochdale NORC in Jamaica.
“NORCs provide numerous services including health care management, assistance in legal affairs, recreational activities, various health screenings and educational seminars,” Will said. “Funding for this program is crucial to ensure our seniors continue to have access to these services.”
The third location is in East Harlem.
Residents at NORCs pay small fees, but public funding is necessary to cover the bulk of the program’s healthcare and social services. At the Northridge/Brulene/Southridge NORC those services are available through the sponsoring agency, a non-profit called SelfHelp Community Services. Dromm said the program in Jackson Heights costs $230,000.
SelfHelp Chief Innovation Officer Leo Asen said, “Seniors here have been receiving vital services that enable them to live safely, healthfully and independently in their own homes.”
“Defunding SelfHelp at this site will alienate and disenfranchise the seniors reliant on the group’s services,” state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) said. “Simply put, this community and these seniors, the vast majority of whom live alone, literally cannot afford to lose the critical services available through the NORC program.”
The services are especially helpful for seniors when serious illness or an accident befalls them, advocates said. An on-site nurse and social worker were able to provide help for 84-year-old Rita Seftel, a resident of the Jackson Heights NORC, after she underwent knee surgery, suffered a stroke and had a fall.
Her 74-year-old husband Arthur Seftel said, “After a stroke my wife suffered, she was in total confusion for months. The NORC stepped in by organizing in-home therapy and individualized care. Without these services, it would’ve been a disastrous situation.”
Without the services and other resources provided by the NORC, seniors would be forced out of their apartments and into nursing homes or other assisted living facilities, according to state Assemblyman Michael DenDekker (D-East Elmhurst).
“It is important that we maintain funding so they are not forced to cut these services that are so important for the physical and mental well-being of so many people,” DenDekker said. “Leaving our seniors out in the cold is simply not an option.”
Dromm called the funding of NORCs crucial to the well being of the senior citizens. “This is not a cutback, it’s a complete elimination of the programs in the three communities,” he said.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718.260.4538.
