- Title: USA: New York seniors are experiencing the U.S. recession acutely
- Date: 18th February 2009
- Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 11, 2009) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF CANAAN BAPTIST CHURCH BUILDING, WHICH HOUSES THE SENIOR SERVICE CENTER VARIOUS OF SENIORS HAVING LUNCH AT THE CANAAN SENIOR SERVICE CENTER DELORES GREEN (ON THE LEFT) AND ALICE JORDAN (ON THE RIGHT) AWAITING LUNCH DELORES GREEN GREEN BUTTERING A SLICE OF BREAD (SOUNDBITE) (English) DELORES GREEN, SENIOR CITIZEN, SAYING: "I just hope that they don't cut the budget and everything, because right now I can't afford to pay for medicines, my rent just went up, so everywhere I turn, it's hitting me in my pocketbook." GREEN AND JORDAN SWAPPING FOOD FOOD ON PLATE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALICE JORDAN, SENIOR CITIZEN, SAYING: "It affects us awfully bad, awfully bad. It's not good, it's not good, because they think that we can live off of nothing, while these guys here can live off of millions."
- Embargoed: 5th March 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Economic News
- Reuters ID: LVA4RYL0QA0ZNZVG5K14LEC5AMXT
- Story Text: The Canaan Senior Service Center in Harlem is just a subway ride away from Wall Street but the gulf between the victims of the financial crisis at oppositeof Manhattan is vast.
With city and state tax revenues tumbling, benefits and services to the elderly are being squeezed, and many seniors are angry, forming groups with names like "Senior Outrage Coalition."
Dolores Green, a 68-year-old retired home help, pays 719 dollars (USD) a month in rent out of a social security check of 740 dollars (USD), leaving her just 21 dollars (USD) for everything else. She relies on foodstamps and is worried that the co-payment on some of the drugs she needs for her diabetes has gone up from 3 dollars (USD) a prescription to 8 dollars (USD) .
She hopes that there will be no further cuts to her benefits.
"Right now I can't afford to pay for medicines, my rent just went up, so everywhere I turn, it's hitting me in my pocketbook," Green told Reuters at the Canaan senior center in a Baptist church where around 25 elderly New Yorkers were eating lunch of sandwiches, jello, milk and tomato juice.
Green's friend Alice Jordan, with whom she was having lunch, is 80, a retired teacher who survived cancer in 2005 and suffers from osteoporosis and high blood pressure.
Jordan says her food stamp allocation has been gradually eroded from 180 dollars (USD) to 54 dollars (USD) a month. When she reads about successful Wall Street bankers and financiers who have seen their once comfortable lifestyles hit, she says she wishes they would spare a thought for those who never had such wealth.
"It's not good, it's not good, because they think that we can live off of nothing, while these guys here can live off of millions," she said.
New York City's Department for the Aging, which runs more than 300 senior centers and provides services such as meals-on-wheels and subsidies for heating costs and affordable housing, has cut its 2009 budget by 4 million dollars (USD) to 285 million dollars (USD) and faces a proposed cut of 9.5 million in 2010.
The cuts are part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's bid to slash costs across the board to close a 4 billion dollars (USD) budget gap caused by the collapse of corporate tax revenues, especially from Wall Street which normally pumps a fortune into the city's coffers.
New York State, which normally gets 20 percent of its revenues from Wall Street taxes, is also proposing cuts in healthcare and services for the elderly as part of its drive to close a 13 billion dollars (USD) 2009 budget gap.
"Senior Outrage Coalition" was formed this month to mobilize protest among the city's 1.3 million citizens aged 65 and over. Co-founder Lani Sanjek says that seniors are considered easy targets when it comes to budget cuts, because their voices are not heard.
"At a time when our government has billions of dollars for people on Wall Street who essentially stole money, there are not enough dollars to take care of people who are very vulnerable, who are suffering at this time," said Sanjek.
Katharine Roberts is 82 and an advocator for universal health care in the United States. She and her husband were fairly comfortable financially and looking forward to retirement when he fell ill. The dialysis treatment decimated their savings and now as a widow, Roberts survives solely on a meager social security check.
"It's getting to the place where planning a meal is very difficult," she said. "There is one loaf of bread that I ate that was good for me, it went up by one dollar, for a loaf of bread. That's outrageous City figures show that in 2006, one-fifth of New Yorkers age 65 and older lived in poverty, twice the national average. Advocacy groups say by now it is more like one third, and New York is second only to Detroit among major U.S. cities in its rate of poverty among the elderly.
Minorities tend to be worse off, with 30 percent of Hispanic, 29 percent of Asian, and 20 percent of black seniors in poverty compared to 13 percent of white seniors in New York City. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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