Senior Policy Plan

Vision:

Michael Blake believes that how a city treats its seniors defines its soul. New York City’s nearly 1.8 million older adults deserve to live in dignity, safety, and community, not in isolation or fear. As the son of Jamaican immigrants and a leader shaped by service, Blake knows firsthand that our elders are the foundation of our families, neighborhoods, and history. This plan ensures that the city our seniors built will be a city that protects them. It’s time to invest in aging with dignity, expand care, and guarantee that every senior regardless of borough, background, or income has access to the housing, healthcare, food, and support they deserve. This plan centers equity, wellness, and participation, not charity, but justice. It charts a course toward an age-friendly New York rooted in community, independence, and respect.

 

GROUNDING THE CRISIS IN DATA

By 2040, the senior population of NYC is projected to reach 1 in 5 residents, yet services and funding have not kept pace. More than 40% of NYC seniors live near or below the poverty line, while thousands wait for home care, affordable housing, and safe transportation. The cost of living continues to rise, but key lifelines like SCRIE, Meals on Wheels, and NORC programs remain underfunded. This includes increased funding and expanded programming for Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs), which provide vital on-site support services that help seniors age in place safely and with dignity. The oldest New Yorkers, often women of color, are the most likely to live alone, experience eviction risk, or suffer from untreated chronic conditions. This crisis of aging is also a crisis of policy neglect. Our plan recognizes that aging is not a burden but a life stage to be supported with care, investment, and dignity.

Key Policy Actions:

• Treat aging with urgency, investment, and dignity.
• Expand senior housing, food access, and healthcare support.
• Modernize city services and build a culturally competent aging workforce.
• Protect older New Yorkers from scams, eviction, neglect, and isolation.
• Ensure seniors are full participants in shaping city policy.

 

1) Housing Justice and Aging in Place

Blake’s plan affirms that safe, affordable housing is a human right and the foundation for senior health. Seniors must never be displaced, mistreated, or priced out of the neighborhoods they’ve called home for decades.

 

Key Policy Actions:

• Expand SCRIE income eligibility from $50,000 to $75,000 to ensure more working-class seniors can benefit from rent freeze protections. Launch “Stay in Place NYC” to provide legal counsel, eviction protection, and rent support for at-risk older adults.
• Convert underutilized city-owned properties into senior housing, prioritizing communities with long NYCHA waitlists. Work with nonprofit developers to create affordable aging-friendly units with built-in services.
• Seniors must not be pushed out of rent-stabilized homes due to neglect or loopholes. Blake’s administration will also strengthen the Right to Counsel for seniors and penalize landlords who harass or illegally evict elder tenants.

2) Build a Community-Based Aging and Wellness Workforce

Aging New Yorkers deserve support from people who know and respect them. That means culturally competent caregivers, home health aides, caseworkers, and program staff who reflect NYC’s diversity and are trained to provide not just services, but dignity.

 

Key Policy Actions:

• Launch a “Care Corps NYC” program to train and hire 1,500 new elder care professionals over three years. Participants will receive job placement, certification support, and guaranteed city employment.
• Raise wages for city-contracted home care aides to $28/hour with full benefits to attract and retain workers. Provide loan forgiveness, housing stipends, and leadership pathways for professionals of color in senior services.
• The city must treat elder care as essential work, not gig work. This investment will ensure every senior has access to timely, high-quality support, and that caregivers are no longer overworked and underpaid.

 

3) End Hunger, Expand Nutrition, and Promote Health Equity

No senior should be hungry in New York City. But nearly 1 in 5 are food insecure. Addressing hunger is not just a nutritional issue, it’s about justice, wellness, and independence.

 

Key Policy Actions:

• Guarantee hot daily meals for all eligible older adults by expanding Meals on Wheels and launching a “Food Is Care” partnership with local restaurants, bodegas, and nonprofits.
• Double city funding for mobile food pantries and culturally relevant meal programs. Create borough-wide “Senior Food Councils” to guide distribution and address dietary needs.
• Food should not be conditional on red tape. The city will establish a Senior Food Access Hotline and work with NYC Aging to eliminate delays in service enrollment.

 

4) Protect Healthcare Access and Expand Medicaid/Medicare Navigation

Many older adults lose healthcare coverage due to confusing redetermination processes, paperwork burdens, and language barriers. Seniors need clear, accessible, and responsive support, not bureaucratic chaos.

Key Policy Actions:

• Create Medicare and Medicaid Help Desks in every borough, staffed by trained benefit navigators from local communities. Mobile teams will support seniors with in-home visits for applications and renewals.
• Improve ADA accessibility across public transportation and public buildings. Many older adults face mobility challenges that limit their independence and safety. The city will conduct an audit of MTA stations, senior centers, and municipal buildings and invest in elevators, ramps, tactile signage, and ADA-compliant infrastructure to ensure every space is truly accessible to all.
• Launch automatic enrollment and recertification support systems for seniors turning 65 or with disabilities. The city will also partner with community clinics to ensure real-time access to care.
• Healthcare is a right, not a paperwork problem. No older adult should lose benefits because the system is too complex to navigate.

 

5) Make NYC Tech-Accessible and Digitally Connected for Seniors

Digital access is now essential for everything from appointments to transportation to family connection. But thousands of seniors remain disconnected, left out of telehealth, online benefits, and digital life.

Key Policy Actions:

• Provide 100,000 free tablets with Wi-Fi to low-income seniors and expand citywide digital literacy training through libraries and older adult centers.
• Hire 500 “Digital Navigators” to support older adults with tech setup, telehealth, safety, and usage. These staff will offer services in multiple languages and conduct home visits.
• The city must close the tech divide, or it risks deepening senior isolation. Digital tools should empower, not exclude, older New Yorkers.

 

6) Safety, Scams, and Senior Justice

Elder abuse, financial scams, and unsafe environments harm thousands of seniors each year. Blake’s plan ensures prevention, protection, and justice.

Key Policy Actions:

• Establish a new Office of Elder Justice and Fraud Recovery to investigate abuse, recover stolen funds, and provide trauma-informed support to victims.
• Expand NYPD’s Elder Abuse Unit and train all precincts on elder safety protocols, including scam prevention, mental health response, and housing support.
• From robocalls to rental scams, we must take senior-targeted crime seriously. We will empower seniors and punish exploiters.

 

7) Accountability and Senior Leadership

Policy for seniors must include seniors. We will build systems that are transparent, responsive, and led by older New Yorkers.

Key Policy Actions:

• Establish a Seniors Oversight Council and five borough-based advisory boards comprised of seniors and caregivers. These bodies will guide city policy and funding priorities.
• Publish an annual Seniors Equity Scorecard to track services, outcomes, and gaps by race, income, language, and geography.
• Our elders have earned a seat at every table. In a Blake administration, they’ll help build the table too.
• We must also guarantee that senior centers offer ongoing activities both inside and outside their walls, whether through trips, cultural events, wellness classes, or intergenerational programming, ensuring older adults remain connected to the wider city, not confined by isolation.

 

How We Move Forward

Michael Blake will appoint a Deputy Mayor for Senior Services, Equity, and Aging to lead this work across all agencies, from housing to health, from transit to tech. We will no longer silo senior care or treat it as an afterthought. It will be a central function of a just, inclusive New York City. With targeted investment, structural reform, and deep community partnership, we will guarantee that aging in NYC means aging with dignity, safety, and power.

SOURCES:

NYC Department for the Aging: https://www.nyc.gov/site/dfta/index.page

NYC Independent Budget Office Reports: https://ibo.nyc.ny.us

PHI National Workforce Data: https://phinational.org

NYC Rent Guidelines Board: https://rentguidelinesboard.cityofnewyork.us

Kaiser Family Foundation Medicare Data: https://www.kff.org

Hunger Free America NYC Hunger Report: https://www.hungerfreeamerica.org

NYC Food Policy Center: https://www.nycfoodpolicy.org

AARP NY Fraud and Safety Reports: https://states.aarp.org/new-york

Pew Research Center on Older Adults and Tech: https://www.pewresearch.org

Center for an Urban Future: https://nycfuture.org