The Blaz's tardy reopening of senior centers is a hot mess

 

 

 THE CITY

 The city’s 249 senior centers will completely reopen in two weeks and outdoor activities will resume immediately, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.

The announcement — via Twitter — came the morning after a story by THE CITY detailing criticism over de Blasio’s’s failure to unshutter the facilities, which serve as lifelines for thousands of older New Yorkers.

The mayor’s turnaround caught some senior center operators off guard, according to Allison Nickerson, executive director of LiveOnNY, an umbrella group for senior service providers.

“I’m hearing from members that their phones are ringing off the hook wanting to show up for programs,” Nickerson said. “The provider said he has no idea what is happening.”

Later in the day, the Department for the Aging (DFTA) issued providers a reopening checklist and interim guidance. Employees and seniors must wear masks and spaces will have to be reconfigured to limit capacity to 25% of the certificate of occupancy, according to the new rules. Seniors should also keep six feet apart from one another. 

 “NYC’s seniors built our city, they’ve fought for our city, they’re vaccinated, protected and ready to move forward,” de Blasio tweeted after the announcement.

On Monday, Nickerson told THE CITY that DFTA’s lack of “operational detail” was “mayhem” and “making people crazy.”

The reopening plan comes as the mayor and DFTA Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez are trying to establish their vision for how senior centers, to be renamed older adult centers, operate in the future before the mayor leaves office Dec. 31, THE CITY reported Monday.

They also want to revamp so-called naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) so they can collaborate to provide more services for older people.

Senior center providers will now be forced to submit their applications to the so-called request for proposals four days before the centers open.

DFTA has no plans to extend the application deadline past June 10, according to department spokesperson Dina Montes.

De Blasio’s office for weeks maintained that officials were waiting for the city Department of Health to sign off on the reopening of centers to protect a vulnerable population.

But Health Department officials declined to detail what safety metrics they are waiting to hit before letting seniors return to in-person meals and socializing.

Advocates for seniors noted that most restrictions on city gyms, movie theaters, museums, restaurants and more had been lifted since mid-May.

Cortés-Vázquez said seniors — meaning anyone 60 or older — will not be obligated to get vaccinated before entering the centers.

Restricting access to senior centers to just vaccinated older adults is prohibited under the Older Americans Act, which requires providing equal access to any individual eligible to attend.

Department of the Aging is starving the aging

 

Politico

 Marnee May, 75, was told by the city she’d be getting shipments of weekly meals in late March. She lives in Lower Manhattan and was getting the “grab-and-go” meals from the senior center in her building.

Toward the end of last month, as the coronavirus tore through the city, the center was shuttered. 

Weeks have since gone by and her meals haven’t arrived.

“Why weren’t we set up for this? That’s what I don’t understand,” May said during a phone interview Thursday afternoon. “What happened to the food? And where is that food? Where is it?”
 
The coronavirus pandemic that has seized New York City has created an almost impossible situation for its older residents. With that population particularly vulnerable to the disease and much of the city on lockdown, their families and friends have been officially warned against visiting. That leaves precious few options for elderly New Yorkers to get meals.
 
New York City’s massive effort to deliver food directly to the homes of the elderly, spearheaded by the Department for the Aging, has left many behind, according to interviews with seniors, advocates and government officials. Throughout the city, many of its most vulnerable residents are trapped at home, wondering when their next meal will come.
 
“I could say funeral homes weren’t prepared for this, but Jesus, the city should have been prepared to give people meals,” May told POLITICO.