E Harlem Senior Centers Threatened By Trump Budget Cuts: Study

EAST HARLEM, NY — A network of senior centers based in East Harlem that serves more than 5,000 seniors every year could be threatened by President Donald Trump's proposed 2020 budget, according to a new study.

Trump's budget proposes abolishing a federal grant program that funds nearly half of the Carter Burden Network's annual operations, according to a study conducted by the anti-poverty advocacy group FPWA. The study also shows that three other programs that contribute thousands in funding to the senior center network could be cut under the proposed budget.

Funding cuts could force the Carter Burden Network — which runs two centers in East Harlem, one on the Upper East Side and one on Roosevelt Island — to eliminate services such as transport for seniors between its centers and their homes.

"The deep cuts in the President’s proposed budget would make meeting the needs of an ever-growing population of older adults a near impossibility for the Carter Burden Network. The unfortunate result would mean the reduction of staff and our services, such as helping older adults age in their homes, providing congregate and home delivered meal programs, and intervening in elder mistreatment," William Dionne, executive director at Carter Burden Network, said in a statement.

The costliest cut would be to program called the Social Services Block Grant. The grant program was responsible for 49 percent of the Carter Burden Network's federal funding in the 2018 fiscal year, according to the FPWA study. The network received $455,000 from the grant program that year.

The Social Services Block Grant program is described as "a flexible funding source that allows States and Territories to tailor social service programming to their population’s needs," by the federal Administration for Children and Families, which is the department that administers the grant.

A senior fiscal policy analyst from the FWPA said that the proposed 2020 budget could cut the adopted 2019 budgets of the Department of Youth and Community Development, Administration for Children and Families, the Department for the Aging and the Department of Social Services by nearly $500 million, or 16 percent of their federal revenue.

The cuts follow "a decade of decline to these agencies’ federal funding as a result of nearly a decade of federal austerity," Derek Thomas, the FWPA's policy analyst, said in a statement.

The Carter Burden Center for the Aging was established by New York City Council Member Carter Burden in 1971. In 2017, the organization re-branded itself as the Carter Burden Network to show its growth from a single center to an agency with dozens of programs that serves 5,000 seniors in Manhattan each year.