TESTIMONY
Jeannine Cahill-Jackson, Director of Elder Law at the Legal Aid Society, on the Challenges and Recommendations for Supporting Older New Yorkers
1:39:03
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5 min
Jeannine Cahill-Jackson discusses the Legal Aid Society's efforts in defending older New Yorkers from eviction and suggests improvements for interagency support.
- She introduces the newly created Elder Law Unit, which combines two units from Brooklyn and the Bronx focusing on eviction defense for seniors.
- Cahill-Jackson supports the interagency cabinet's potential to bridge service gaps for older citizens and suggests including legal service providers in it.
- She highlights the importance of fully implementing the right to counsel and addressing gaps in benefit assessments and recertification for seniors.
- Problems such as the lack of relocation services for seniors facing eviction and the need for adjustments in the CDFPS expansion to better serve the senior population are discussed.
- Cahill-Jackson concludes with an offer for the Legal Aid Society to participate and provide insights on improving services for older New Yorkers.
Jeannine Cahill-Jackson
1:39:03
Good afternoon.
1:39:04
My name is Janine Cahill Jackson.
1:39:05
I'm the director of Elderla with the legal aid society, and thank you very much for the opportunity for us to comment on the subject of interagency coordination for older New Yorkers and for convening this hearing.
1:39:17
A little bit about the Elder Law Unit, we are recently were created within legal aid in the beginning of 2023.
1:39:26
We now build pulling together 2 units that have existed for in Brooklyn for 50 years now and in the Bronx for over a decade.
1:39:35
And we're currently a multidisciplinary team specializing in evict defense for seniors in the Bronx and Brooklyn hoping to spread city wide.
1:39:43
We seek to address all issues that allow the senior not only to prevent their eviction, but to alleviate the underlying causes that were leading to their eviction in the first place.
1:39:52
We first want to express our support for the interagency cabinet.
1:39:57
So often, we do see the folks that come to us fell through the cracks for a variety of reasons and aren't accessing services and benefits that they are could be entitled to.
1:40:07
And so to the extent that this cabinet can help identify those gaps and to to either find a need for new programming or to find some maybe coordination for increased access to that program programming.
1:40:21
This could be really vital.
1:40:23
To that extent, if the cabinet was extended to include legal services providers, or other community based organizations providing these direct services, we do believe we could provide unique insight into where gaps may exist and perhaps have some creative solutions, and the legal aid society would welcome the opportunity to participate.
1:40:44
A few ideas that we do have regarding ways that core nation could enhance the receipt of benefits and services for our seniors and a few gaps.
1:40:56
So if you wanted to raise our first, that the full implementation of the right to council could could really meet those needs as that's a large portion of what we do is help the seniors access these programs and maximize their benefits and income.
1:41:15
So increased ability to reach access to counsel.
1:41:21
I'm happy to talk about that more at length than I will be submitting written testimony about still the amount of seniors that aren't receiving representation.
1:41:31
A few other ideas just briefly, I heard my buzzer, are there's a need for a full eligibility assessment for benefits and programs for any particular senior.
1:41:43
We receive we get clients who, for example, have public assistance, but are unaware they were eligible for SSI years ago.
1:41:50
They might become screwy participants when they become our clients, but their rent actually would have been far more affordable if they had received the benefit 10 years when they aged into the program.
1:42:03
And then to that extent, a large gap is that once these seniors are enrolled in programs, there's no one there's no agents see we can connect them to should do the ongoing recertifications.
1:42:15
So we can set our clients up with city fence.
1:42:19
Ongoing public assistance, scree, etcetera, all which require yearly recertifications, and failure to do so will put them right at risk losing the benefits again that we just got them.
1:42:33
So it would be hugely beneficial if that gap could be filled either perhaps through a assistance in managing these procedures and deadlines for seniors or perhaps the elimination of the recertification requirement for the seniors.
1:42:48
And it just no gap which is always surprising exists, is that there is no agent see or service for to relocate seniors that must move due to an eviction case.
1:43:02
So they might have the ability to find they might have a rental voucher for city thefts.
1:43:07
They might have their own ability to pay ongoing rent, but there is no one that can help them in the process of searching for the apartment, procuring it, packing, and moving into the new unit.
1:43:19
But if yes, doesn't do this service, legal services providers don't provide this service.
1:43:25
And so that's another gap while we continue to work towards, and that's fantastic expanding rental vouchers for seniors and affordable housing options.
1:43:37
There's definitely a need to fill that gap of how to help them relocate.
1:43:41
Some of these folks have lived in their apartments between 10 50 years that we have on our current caseload in the elderly unit and have substantial disabilities within their households.
1:43:53
The last gap I want to highlight is the one that's created by the failure to fully implement the CDFPS expansion.
1:44:01
One that particularly pertains to the senior population is there's a lot gap between who might be in need of city theft's rental assistance but does not qualify for APS services.
1:44:13
One example of a current client we have, she has a granddaughter who comes to visit her to provide her company.
1:44:18
However, that made her ineligible for APS, but that great daughter cannot provide rental assistance.
1:44:25
And so now she's facing losing her apartment under the current city theft structure.
1:44:31
As it implemented.
1:44:33
We will be submitting our written testimony to further explain, and thank you very much.
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John Holt, Senior Staff Attorney at the Weinberg Center for Elder Justice, on Elder Justice and the Importance of a Coordinated Response to Abuse