TESTIMONY
James Fenton's Testifies in Support of the Legislation
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3 min
James Fenton, a senior staff attorney with Volunteers of Legal Service, shares his testimony on the proposed legislation to support older adults get rent exemptions in New York City.
He discusses his organization's history, their work with older adults, and the necessity of the legislation to improve the lives of older adults, especially in terms of housing and legal assistance.
Speaker 2
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We will first hear from James Fenton.
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Turn your microphone on.
Speaker 3
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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And more so.
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My name is James Fenton.
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I'm a senior staff attorney with volunteers of legal service.
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We're here today in further support of the proposed legislation.
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Vaults was established in 1984 and are purposes to leverage private attorneys to provide free legal services to low income New Yorkers to help fill the justice gap.
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For over 3 decades, Vols has assisted New York City older adults with high quality free legal services through our dedicated staff and our network of pro bono attorneys.
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In just the past year, we worked on over 2000 cases for older adults living in New York City.
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We provide legal assistance on a wide range of civil legal issues, including end of life and incapacity planning, landlord tenant matters, access to benefits, consumer matters, and other civil legal needs.
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We work closely with dozens of community based organizations working with older adults.
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Many of the city's older adult centers and naturally occurring retirement communities Additionally, our benefits law project helps older adults with their senior citizen rent to increase exemption applications, and we conduct legal workshops to educate the public about these life saving benefits.
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Most older adults live on fixed incomes and the ability to freeze their shelter costs often mean the difference between being able to age in place in the community with dignity or being at risk of experiencing homelessness.
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Over the past few months, we've conducted several screen legal clinics, including at Mitchell LAMA Buildings.
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At some of these events, we've worked alongside the city's Department of Finance and HPD.
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Through all of this work, we've spoken with many older adults about the scree application and recertification process.
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As such, we are well positioned to weigh in on the proposed legislation as it pertains to this vulnerable population.
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We found that many older adults are confused by the scree application process, and recertification.
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They have questions on eligibility, requisite documentation, their pending applications, and of course application denials.
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These individuals don't know whether their application or documentation was incomplete or whether there is a way to cure a deficient application.
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Moreover, many low income older adults living in Mitchellama housing are unaware that they are eligible for degree and do not know where or how to apply for the benefits.
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Our clients often do not have access to the technology, which would allow them or allow help help them to understand and engage with the screen application process, and are therefore reliant on assistance from others, providing eligible residents with pre filled applications could ensure that more older adults will be able to access screen benefits and will, at a minimum, make more older adults aware that they are eligible.
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Vaults recognizes New York City's efforts to better assist older adults with their screen applications, but there is much more that can be done to increase access to screen benefits.
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And make the application process easier.
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The provisions contained in the proposed legislation would have a positive impact on ensuring that more older adults are aware of the program and will help the ease of filling out the application.
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We also believe that any administrative burden created by the bill would likely be off set by the time prepopulating the forms would save later on in the application process.
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We'd be happy to work with council members off and the administration to screen people and help them with their applications.
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Our city's older adults lifetime experiences and achievements are woven into the fabric of our city.
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And we should strive to provide them with all the support they need to remain in their communities, stay socially connected, and remain active and healthy as they age.
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Thank you for allowing us to submit this testimony and for supporting the needs of New York City's older adults.
Speaker 1
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Thank you so much, James, and we appreciate all the work that Vaults does.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
Speaker 2
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Thank you very much.
