Good morning and thank you to NYC Aging for holding this hearing in Brooklyn. My name is Hannah May-Powers, and I am the Health and Safety Policy Analyst at the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. I am here today to speak about the information presented in the Four-Year Plan Summary and what our office is doing to address the nuanced needs of older adults.
In the 2025 Comprehensive Plan for Brooklyn, which was released earlier this year, Borough President Reynoso advocates for a borough in which all people, no matter their income, age, neighborhood, or background, can access high-quality and consistent support including healthcare and social services.
According to NYC Aging’s most recent Service Needs Assessment, financial and food insecurity are two pressing concerns for older adults. Food insecurity touches millions of New Yorkers every year, including 30% of Brooklynites. Several factors contribute to this, including lack of physical proximity to grocery stores, budget cuts to programs such as SNAP, and the rising cost of food. Unfortunately, due to current and upcoming federal cuts, more people are expected to experience these issues. Approximately 412,000 New York City residents are projected to have their SNAP coverage impacted, including approximately 168,000 Brooklynites.
Our office is working toward creating a resilient food system for the borough using multiple strategies, including supporting the creation of cold storage options for local pantries, creating a sustainable plan for municipal grocery stores, enrolling more eligible New Yorkers in food benefits, and expanding hydroponic labs at local schools. We welcome thought partnership from NYC Aging to ensure that these programs will effectively meet the nuanced needs of older adults throughout the borough.
Affordable housing is another issue highlighted in the Annual Plan as an area of high need for older adults. Our office has multiple initiatives that seek to promote affordable and dignified housing for all Brooklynites. For example, the Divine Dwellings program is a partnership with six faith-based institutions in Brooklyn that assists them in creating housing on their own land – in unused parking lots, an extra building, or wherever else there is space.Meanwhile, the East Brooklyn Housing Taskforce brings together local tenant advocates with City agencies to address housing conditions across multiple neighborhoods.
Borough President Reynoso is also an advocate for Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs. ADUs are small homes or apartments located on the same property as a single-family residence. The AARP has recognized ADUs as a viable strategy for older adult housing because they allow for people to age in place and to generate additional income. The close proximity of ADUs to other homes also helps to address the social isolation disproportionately experienced by older adults.
The 2025 Comprehensive Plan for Brooklyn also advocates for the construction and preservation of more older adult housing with on site-social services. Many older adults are on fixed incomes and may struggle to stay in their homes. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development projects a need for 400,000 additional home units for older adults by 2040. Because it is such a dire need, affordable housing for older adults should automatically have an expedited public review process to ensure that housing needs are being met.
Our office is also advocating for more funding for community-based lawyers and advocates to combat deed theft, where criminals target homeowners with refinancing scams, equity stripping, and foreclosure bail out loans. Approximately 45% of all complaints about deed theft that occurred between 2014 and 2019 happened in Brooklyn according to the Office of the Attorney General. Older adults, particularly those living in predominately Black and Brown neighborhoods, are disproportionately impacted. Creation of a Tangled Title Fund would support lawyers to handle these complex cases either free or at an affordable rate, and more education could prevent these criminal practices from spreading further.
Thank you to NYC Aging for producing this important report and for holding today’s hearing. We look forward to continuing to work on issues that matter to older adults in our borough.
