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Q&A
DFTA's strategy for NORC funding and supporting underserved neighborhoods
3:46:55
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159 sec
Council Member Farah N. Louis inquires about DFTA's strategy to meet the needs of a growing aging population without proportional NORC enhancement support, particularly in underserved neighborhoods like Central Brooklyn. Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez explains DFTA's approach to addressing population shifts and resource allocation.
- DFTA looks at population shifts to determine where services are needed most
- The agency aims to align older adult centers with current population distribution
- Balancing existing centers with new needs is challenging due to limited resources
Farah N. Louis
3:46:55
I wanted to know what's DFTA's current strategy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing aging population without proportional NORC enhancement support and how is DFTA ensuring that underserved neighborhoods particularly in Central Brooklyn and similar districts are not deprioritized in their absence of new funding streams for NORCs in FY twenty six?
3:47:17
So that's the NORC questions because you mentioned unit of appropriations before but there are certain districts that still haven't received this allocation And I've worked with the older adult club located in Glenwood Houses in my district.
3:47:31
Glenwood Houses NYCHA in my district where capital improvements have been delayed due to NYCHA related operational issues.
3:47:40
These delays often led to project stagnation and reduced quality of life for our older adults, particularly HVAC.
3:47:48
They probably may go another year with no cooling system, so I wanted to know what steps is DFTA taking to ensure that half completed or stalled projects are not abandoned due to funding expiration?
3:47:59
And the last question is on minor home repair pilot program.
3:48:03
What is DFTA's contingency plan should federal appropriations be reduced or eliminated in future fiscal years especially given the increase from 158,000
3:48:36
Okay.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
3:47:30
Houses Which houses?
3:48:13
to 602,000 between FY24 and FY26?
3:48:18
Thanks.
3:48:18
So in terms of your first question about underserved communities, right, one of the things that we look at constantly and it will be very aggressive about it during the RFP process is we look at where the population shifts occur.
3:48:36
So where older adults are moving to or moving from are very different where sometimes traditional older adult centers have been.
3:48:46
We've seen that in Manhattan a lot.
3:48:48
There's more of a shift for people moving uptown rather than downtown.
3:48:52
And yet we have an incredible amount of older adult centers in the Lower East Side, right?
3:48:59
So we're doing that by borough.
3:49:01
There's challenges with that because everybody loves their older adult center and nobody wants it to move.
3:49:06
But maybe that's not where the population is.
3:49:08
And so those are the kind of discussions we do.
3:49:11
And we will never do it in the absence of people, all the stakeholders involved, right?
3:49:16
But it really has to be where demand and services and needs are, right?
3:49:19
So we're looking at that all the time.
3:49:22
Tough, tough, tough process.
3:49:24
Nobody wants their center to leave and everybody wants a new center.
3:49:28
We have a finite amount of resources.
3:49:30
And we have to respond to where older adults are.