Wyckoff Senior Center Under Threat

Governor Andrew Cuomo recently released his 2011-2012 budget proposal, revealing his plan to cut $25 million in Title XX funds to senior centers across New York State – a measure that will force 110 New York City senior centers to close, including 50 in Brooklyn and the in Boerum Hill.

Title XX provides 25 percent of all funding for New York City senior centers.  The Council of Senior Centers and Services (CSCS) estimates that between 8,000 and 10,000 seniors will lose their local centers because of the cuts. According to Bobbie Sackman, Director of Public Policy at CSCS, seniors will lose a wide array of center-provided services including nutritional meals, health and wellness activities and socialization.

Senior citizens, advocates and city and state officials gathered at Brooklyn Borough Hall on Friday to protest the cuts. Emotions ran high.

“Do not close senior centers, hell no!” Councilwoman Latitia James shouted to great applause as she entered the room.

Many advocates and constituents described their senior centers as close-knit communities. Philip Fracica, a senior citizen who often visits the St. Charles Jubilee Senior Center in Brooklyn Heights, was devastated to learn that his center was one of the 110 slated to close. After losing his companion of 25 years in 2008, Fracica said he felt “completely lost.” The St. Charles Jubilee Center has been “a Godsend."

"I’m all by myself,” he said. “I’ve made friends. I feel like I…got a gift. A rebirth. It means rebirth to me, really,” Fracica said in an interview after the meeting on Friday.

Seniors at the Wyckoff Senior Center echoed Fracica’s sentiments. Elana Batista explained that if seniors stay at home, “they’re dying.”

“A lot of people live alone,” she said. “This place allows us to come back to life.”

Aida Ortiz agreed.

“I just became a widow seven months ago,” she explained. “The center has helped me to realize there is something in life to do. This is home.”

Jose Ortiz Ortiz, Executive Director of , which directs the Wyckoff Center, spoke to the importance of centers for seniors in poverty. Ortiz noted that 87 percent of the seniors who depend on the Wyckoff Center live at or below the federal poverty line, approximately $10,000 per year.  

Seniors at Wyckoff also voiced these concerns. Herbert Moore, a wheelchair-bound senior in his mid-seventies, explained that visiting the center allowed him to stretch his small monthly income.

“I can’t afford a home attendant,” he said.

Juvenal Sandoval agreed.

“This is where I come to eat lunch and breakfast,” he explained. “I’m on a fixed income. I suffered a stroke.” Sandoval arrived at the Center in his wheelchair. “It’s hard to get around,” he added.

Many Wyckoff seniors stressed their inability to travel to other centers, particularly in extreme weather. Minerva Ramos noted that the Wyckoff Center served an important purpose throughout last summer’s heat wave. Marie McCloud explained that because many of the seniors live in the neighborhood, they could travel the short distance to the Wyckoff Center after the snowstorms that barreled through Brooklyn this winter. The Center provided meals at a time when few seniors could get to the store, she said.

Seniors at the Wyckoff Center also claimed that they deserved access to senior services because they contributed to society throughout their younger years. Lorenzo Tifre, a former merchant seaman said that he worked for over 40 years.

“It’s unfair to close centers to productive people who have been useful to society,” he explained.

Many members of the New York State Assembly and Senate promised to fight the cuts at Friday’s meeting and called on Governor Cuomo to extend the “millionaires tax” – an income tax surcharge on New Yorkers earning over $200,000 per year – to close New York’s $10 billion budget gap and reinstate Title XX funding. Governor Cuomo’s office did not return calls for comment.

Unfortunately for seniors, Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari recently told New York Public Radio that “The governor's budget, I believe at this point in time, will be pretty much approved as is.”

But advocates plan to continue protests against the Title XX cuts, now slated to take effect April 1. As Jose Ortiz Ortiz explained, for many of his constituents, “The senior center is part of who they are.”