More than 100 senior centers across New York City could close, unless funding for them is restored to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed state budget.

In the governor’s proposed state budget, Title XX funding for city senior centers is being eliminated – more than $25 million.

The same thing was threatened last year, with much of the money restored late in the game. Advocates for seniors worry that they won’t be saved this time around.

Seniors are pleading with politicians to keep senior center doors open, because leaving them without the centers the gather leaves them at home and isolated.

NYC Councilman David Greenfield had the following to say to YWN:

“As the chair of the Senior Center Subcommittee of the New York City Council I am appalled at the indifference the Governor’s budget displays toward New York City’s seniors. The simple fact is that the Governor’s budget is responsible for the closure of 105 senior centers in New York City. That is why I will travel to Albany on Monday with the Commissioner of the Department for the Aging to personally lobby for the restoration of funding for our senior centers. Like many of my colleagues, I accepted the task of informing my senior centers in-person this morning. One 90 year old man pleaded with me ‘Please don’t let them close my senior center, if they do i will have nothing to live for.’ That was a stark reminder that we aren’t just dealing with dollars and cents, we are dealing with people’s lives.”

(YWN Desk – NYC)