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Q&A
Council Member Hudson questions Department for the Aging on budget and programs
4:02:12
·
10 min
Council Member Crystal Hudson engages in a detailed Q&A session with Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez and other officials from the Department for the Aging regarding their budget, federal funding sources, and various programs. The discussion covers topics such as:
- Federal funding sources and their allocation to different programs
- Implementation of new programs, including a minor home repair grant
- Funding for Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs)
- Capital requests and prioritization for older adult centers
Additional details:
- The department is dealing with uncertainty around some federal funding, particularly for new programs
- There's an increase in capital requests for FY2025 compared to FY2024
- The department prioritizes capital needs based on health and safety concerns, followed by alignment with kitchen plans
Crystal Hudson
4:02:12
Thank you so much.
4:02:14
The executive plan includes an addition of 157,515 in fiscal twenty twenty five, '6 hundred and '1 thousand '8 hundred '50 '9 dollars in fiscal twenty six and twenty seven, and 450,288 in fiscal twenty twenty eight from federal funding sources.
4:02:34
What is the federal funding source?
4:02:57
Okay.
4:02:57
And what program will this funding be utilized for or programs?
4:03:15
Sorry, case management, elder abuse, and?
4:03:46
And how is NYC Aging planning to, implement this program or these programs?
4:04:03
up with three or four scenarios.
4:04:05
Multiple scenarios.
4:04:15
Yep.
4:04:15
And $450
4:04:28
So this is from HUD?
4:04:43
And sorry, it's specifically for what?
4:04:52
Got So
4:04:58
Understood.
4:05:06
Your scenario planning for this as okay.
4:05:10
Think I had that one and another one, so we're good.
4:05:15
Your scenario planning for that as well, or would the program just cease to exist or what?
4:05:52
No, understand.
4:05:54
I'm just thinking, you know, a lot of these decisions come down without any real notification.
4:06:09
This fiscal year or this
4:06:36
Okay, but when do plan to hire the person?
4:06:54
Yeah.
4:06:54
Right.
4:06:55
Okay.
4:06:56
The executive plan includes an additional $203,947 in federal funding for fiscal twenty twenty five only and related to Medicare.
4:07:06
How will this funding be used, and how does it relate to Medicare?
4:07:39
And was this funding only added for one year?
4:08:01
Okay, great.
4:08:02
Thank you.
4:08:07
The council's fiscal twenty twenty six preliminary budget response called on the administration to add $5,700,000 in baseline funding to NYC Aging's budget for NORCs, increasing the total budget to $14,400,000 to expand the program's reach and improve services throughout the network.
4:08:24
Did NYC Aging advocate for this additional funding during conversations with OMB regarding the executive plan?
4:08:30
And if so, how much was requested?
4:08:45
Okay.
4:08:50
So you don't have a specific number that you requested?
4:08:52
No.
4:08:53
Can you confirm the current budget for NORCs in fiscal twenty twenty five and in the out years?
4:08:59
Sure.
4:09:21
Thank you.
4:09:23
And is NYC Aging advocating for additional NORC funding?
4:09:45
Okay.
4:09:47
Going back to capital requests, much of NYC Aging's provider network's infrastructure is in need of renovation.
4:09:55
Many older adult centers and naturally occurring retirement communities are colocated and have large capital needs.
4:10:01
How many capital requests has NYC Aging received so far in fiscal twenty twenty five?
4:10:09
How many requests have you received?
4:10:18
15 projects, dollars 19,000,000.
4:10:25
You can have two if you'd like.
4:10:36
Nine.
4:10:37
Okay.
4:10:38
What I have it right here.
4:10:41
What types of requests have you received?
4:10:44
And can you just give me the comparison to 24?
4:10:48
So 9 and 25.
4:10:51
Zero and 20 four.
4:10:53
What types of requests are these?
4:11:07
Okay.
4:11:26
Okay.
4:11:27
And how many capital requests have been fulfilled so far this fiscal year of the nine?
4:11:34
Denied?
4:11:35
Sorry, of the nine?
4:11:36
Oh, of the nine.
4:11:37
How many capital requests have been fulfilled so far this fiscal year?
4:11:43
All nine are in progress?
4:11:45
So none have been Right, they're different they've been fulfilled yet.
4:11:58
How do you prioritize capital need requests from the providers?
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
4:02:38
The federal funding source for us would always be the Older Americans Act, c one, c two, b one, and b three.
4:02:47
Right?
4:02:49
I think I forgot one of the b's, but somewhere it's b one and b two.
4:03:01
Primarily home delivered meals and congregate meals.
4:03:04
Those are the c one and c two.
4:03:09
The b's are case management, elder abuse, and crime.
4:03:14
And then there is
4:03:18
The crime services, right.
4:03:20
And then there is the I'll tell you in a minute.
4:03:26
I'll ask you in a minute.
4:03:28
Whatever, I forgot.
4:03:29
Then we also have the employment programs under other federal funding, right, through AmeriCorps and foster grandparent also is funded by AmeriCorps or under the same house that that funds that.
4:03:53
We continue to look at these scenarios.
4:03:55
Once we get a clearer picture of where they're going, we'll be able to address that.
4:04:00
But we're looking at this on a regular basis, and we've come
4:05:36
I know, but what if we don't get the money?
4:05:50
These are 100% funded by federal government.
4:06:44
Okay.
4:06:45
And it could be anywhere.
4:06:46
Because it's a par and process, it could be anywhere between two weeks and three months before, you know, because we the two for one ratio.
4:07:34
What grant is that?
4:07:35
The MiFFA grant.
4:07:36
Oh MiFFA.
4:08:34
It's part of our larger negotiation.
4:08:36
I can't give you the full dollar amount right now.
4:08:38
I mean, I will share with you later on all of the unmet needs request.
4:09:06
For NORCs it's $16600000.0.04 25 and $17,000,004.26.
4:09:28
As we do with all of our all of the other services, you know, as we see the need growing.
4:09:34
And as I said to the councilwoman, shortly every community will be a NORC and will be eligible for a NORC in New York City.
4:09:42
It's part of our ongoing conversation with OMB.
4:10:06
With the 19 that we're working on, how many have we
4:10:13
But how many received?
4:10:15
I know that 19 are being worked 15.
4:10:40
Go ahead.
4:10:58
Kitchen equipment, some flooring.
4:11:04
Most of it is around kitchen renovations.
4:11:08
We've had one or two major ones like an elevator and we had HVAC, which are very costly.
4:11:20
But primarily it's around kitchen management.
4:12:04
It's health and safety first.
4:12:07
Health and safety and then it's alignment with the kitchen plan.
4:12:10
All right?
4:12:11
And those are prioritized already.
4:12:17
But then as with everything else, we get a flood and that becomes the priority.
Jose Mercado
4:04:06
Okay.
4:04:06
Excuse me, Commissioner Hussman.
4:04:09
You're talking about the $157,000 in 'twenty five, correct?
4:04:11
Yes.
4:04:12
Dollars 600,000 in 'twenty six.
4:04:14
So I just want to make it correct.
4:04:16
in 'twenty So actually a grant.
4:04:19
It's a it's a minor home repair grant that we just got.
4:04:22
So we basically we're instituting part of it in 'twenty five, the rest of it in 'twenty six.
4:04:29
Yes.
4:04:29
And again, so we're still waiting for the actual award to be given to us.
4:04:34
We're negotiating it.
4:04:36
Again, given what's happening in the federal government, it's pretty hard to pinpoint when we basically will get this award.
4:04:45
Minor home repairs.
4:04:46
Minor home to what the councilwoman was discussing about, the one that we're piloting right now.
4:04:50
This is another one on top of that.
4:04:53
there's the RFP for that one, but then we just got a grant separately for that.
4:04:56
So there are two different two similar programs running at the same time.
4:04:59
This is 100% federal funds.
4:05:03
Okay.
4:05:19
Correct.
4:05:20
So right now, for example, it's a million 5 program, million dollar 5.
4:05:24
So we initially had conversations prior to all these different things happening.
4:05:28
So we planned This is actually right now it's planning to hire the individual who would actually go out and do the assessments of the homes before they can actually be then
4:05:38
Right, so part of that, again, we haven't hired this individual That's a question.
4:05:42
So we're still waiting for this.
4:05:44
So we're planning for the person to be hired or not.
4:05:48
So we're still waiting.
4:05:49
In terms of funding, sorry.
4:06:01
So So currently based on what we have internally, we can cover this for this year in terms of, for example, if the individual comes
4:06:10
'25, yeah.
4:06:11
Okay.
4:06:11
Two months that come in.
4:06:12
Then July, again, everything is we take this going forward and see exactly what's So again, to the commissioner I mentioned earlier, we're looking at different scenarios.
4:06:20
So this is the one that we feel for '25 because of the way we're at.
4:06:24
We can manage this if the person comes on board.
4:06:26
Starting July, where the actual program kicks off, which is really going out there and looking at assessment.
4:06:32
So that is basically we're all playing this month to month to see what happens.
4:06:38
So the person basically is right now there is a par and process for this individual.
4:07:22
So this is, again, this is a grant.
4:07:26
So this is the MITPA grant that came in for '25.
4:07:30
And so this is just adding additional money to cover the existing costs of the program.
4:07:43
For this year, yeah.
4:07:44
So part of this is the addition of funding for '25.
4:07:48
So there is part of the grant is also baseline.
4:07:51
So as we get more money, we will then add it for '26.
4:10:11
So it's part of that May 2.
4:10:21
Right.
4:10:23
Give me one minute and I'll it's in the letter that we sent.
4:10:35
Nine.
4:10:50
Zero and 24.
4:11:41
So they're still in progress.
4:11:48
Yeah, so some of them are in different stages.
4:11:50
So we have some that will be done by June 30 and some will roll over to next year.
4:11:57
I can give you a status of them.
Javier Lojan
4:11:44
Yeah.
Diana I. Ayala
4:11:55
Okay.