Comptroller Stringer Calls On The City’s Department For The Aging To Improve Services For Emerging Immigrant Senior Citizen Communities

(New York, NY) – New York City’s Department for the Aging (DFTA) is not doing enough to provide services to immigrant senior citizens who have Limited English Proficiency (LEP), according to a letter sent by New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer to DFTA Commissioner Donna M. Corrado. Comptroller Stringer called on the department to use up-to-date Census data and community input to determine where to deploy staff and programming.

“The City has a duty to provide all New Yorkers with services and support in a language they can understand, but the Department for the Aging’s current approach to engaging immigrant communities is ‘if you don’t build it, they won’t come,'” commented Comptroller Stringer. “That’s not a winning formula for ensuring that our City keeps pace with emerging senior communities. DFTA must ensure that all New Yorkers have access to the culturally-appropriate services they need and deserve.”

Last year, Comptroller Stringer called on DFTA to immediately create a plan to address the needs of emerging immigrant seniors, including:

• Complying with Executive Order 120, which mandates that City agencies that provide direct public services create a language access implementation plan; and
• Ensuring that staff and programming at senior centers are culturally sensitive and meet the dietary, cultural and religious needs of all seniors, including those in emerging immigrant communities.

In response, DFTA stated that it employs senior center staff fluent in languages spoken by more than 30 percent of participants. However, that standard creates a classic “chicken and egg” problem, where LEP seniors do not take advantage of services because they are not offered in their language and, as a result, DFTA does not proactively provide linguistic support.

As a result, Comptroller Stringer called on DFTA to use Census data and community input to proactively determine which senior centers require translation and interpretation services.

“The promise of our City’s laws mandating language access will remain unfulfilled without a strong commitment by Agencies to expand opportunity for all,” Comptroller Stringer said.

“Many seniors across our city are left without a senior center that can accommodate them in their native language. We are asking for DFTA to take all necessary steps immediately in order to accommodate the increasing number of senior citizens who are suffering due to the lack of a language option,” said Maf Uddin, President of Alliance of South Asian American Labor (ASAAL).

“Immigrant seniors are in desperate need for an increase in social and health services. Immigrant seniors are some of the most isolated and overlooked members of our communities because of language and cultural barriers. We have to act urgently to help such a vulnerable section of our community,” said Dr. Vasundhara Kalasapudi, Executive Director of India Home

To view the letter to DFTA, please click here.

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