Final Details for Advocacy Day, Housing Budget Hearing Recap, Minimum Wage, and Paid Family Leave
Housing Budget Hearing
LeadingAge New York provided written testimony at Monday’s Housing Budget Hearing. The testimony is available here.
The Commissioner for the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), James Rubin, was first to testify. Rubin highlighted the accomplishments of DHCR over the past few years, which included financing 10,000 affordable housing units in 2015 and 9,000 units in 2014. He then went on to talk about the Governor’s proposed $20 billion, five-year housing and homelessness plan. Of the $20 billion, $10 billion would be allocated to the House-NY program, in order to build over 100,000 housing units over the next five years for low-income households. The remaining $10 billion would be used to combat the homelessness crisis, by investing $2.6 billion in 20,000 supportive housing units, with 6,000 to be constructed in the next five years.
Legislators voiced concern about reduced funding for senior housing. Rubin recognized that senior housing is a priority, and even though funding has decreased for programs created for the elderly, he indicated that there are other programs that DHCR will fund for senior housing. Rubin assured the legislators that affordable housing for seniors would not be left out.
LeadingAge New York advocated in written testimony for investments in affordable senior housing with support services to provide low-income seniors with access to safe places to live and basic supports in the community, allowing them to age-in-place and delaying or preventing the need for high-cost services funded by Medicaid. We asked the legislators to build on the successful HUD service coordinator model by allocating $10 million for a State Resident Advisor Program, in order to fund resident advisors in independent senior housing. We also requested $50 million in annual capital investments over the next five years to accelerate development of affordable rental units for seniors and $4.5 million to create and fund a rental assistance component for seniors living on social security or small pensions. LeadingAge NY was pleased that other organizations at the hearing joined our request for additional funds for senior housing. LeadingAge NY’s full testimony can be viewed here.
Minimum Wage Update
LeadingAge NY, along with the Home Care Association, Healthcare Association of New York State, and New York State Health Facilities Association, sent a letter to the Governor, expressing concerns about his proposal to increase the State’s minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next several years, without providing additional funding to cover the associated costs.
The letter emphasized that an increase in minimum wage must be fully funded by the State for providers. The estimated cost of the minimum wage proposal for hospitals, nursing homes, and home care providers would be at least $2.9 billion annually. This estimate does not take into account the added costs for other affected Medicaid providers, such as Assisted Living Programs, or non-Medicaid providers, such as adult care facilities, which also need to be addressed. These new costs are unsustainable without new funding.
This is why we need everyone to advocate and express to legislators the real world impact of raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. We need more grassroots advocacy on this issue now. We strongly urge everyone to get on our website and advocate on this issue. Our minimum wage campaign needs more support. Tweet, FaceBook and email your lawmakers by texting MINIMUM WAGE to 52886.
Paid Family Leave
On Tuesday, the Assembly passed the Paid Family Leave bill, which would provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave to workers, funded through an expansion of the temporary disability insurance fund. This action, in advance of State budget negotiations, demonstrates the Assembly’s support for the Governor’s proposal on paid family leave. The bill was approved by a large margin.
The Governor highlighted his commitment to enact paid family leave legislation in his State of the State address. Advocates have raised concerns about the Governor’s proposal, and he has signaled that he may propose some changes to his original plan in 30-day amendments to his proposed budget. Currently, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act allows some workers 12 weeks of unpaid time off.
Advocacy Day Tuesday!
For those who missed yesterday’s conference call or have missed any information posted for Advocacy Day, here is a look at our Advocacy Day on Tuesday, February 9th:
- Registration starts at 8 am. Breakfast will be served.
- The location is Meeting Room 6, 3 Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY. (A map of the Empire State Plaza is available here)
- Lunch will be served from 12:00-1:00 pm.
- We have reserved the room until 5:00 pm.
- Members have been asked to schedule their own meetings with the legislators who represent the communities they serve.
- LeadingAge NY has scheduled meetings with certain legislative leaders and their staff.
- Parking information and all related materials is located here on our website.
- Talking points for internal use by LeadingAge NY members are available here.
- Handouts and materials will be available at the registration table.