NORC Advisory Meeting Notes Teleconference call held on February 8, 2008
In attendance:
| Attendees | Representing |
|---|---|
| Marianne Fahs | Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging and Longevity |
| Mary Kanerva | Aging & Adult Service, Catholic Family Center |
| Fredda Vladeck | Aging in Place Initiative, United Hospital Fund |
| Anita Altman | Gov't and External Affairs, UJA Federation of NY, Inc. |
| Joseph Cybulski | Rensselaer Unified Family Services Dept. of Aging |
| Ronald Soloway | Gov't and External Relations, UJA- Federation of NY, Inc. |
| Ken Harris | NYAHSA Ctr for Senior Living and Community Services |
| John Krout, PhD | Gerontology Inst. and Prof. of Gerontology, Ithaca College |
| Joseph Pofit | Long Term Care Campuses and Senior Housing, Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany |
| Rick Iannello | Albany Guardian Society |
| Richard Leavitt | Resident of Fairport Baptist NNORC |
| Anschell Weiss, PhD | Consultant/ Resident of the JFS NENY Neighborhood NORC |
| Natalie Gordon | Member of AARP National Policy Council and AARP Board of Directors |
| Evelyn (Evie) Rich | NYC Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action, Member of NYC NORC Coalition | Michael J. Burgess | NYSOFA | Cyndy Marshall | NYSOFA |
| Gail Myers | NYSOFA |
| Larry Shapiro | NYSOFA |
| Tim Kovarik | NYSOFA |
| Eileen Griffin | NYSOFA |
| Donna DiCarlo | NYSOFA |
| Absent from the call: | |
| Stephanie Pinder | Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, Inc. |
| Edward Woda | Legislative Coordinator, Comm. on Aging, NYS Assembly |
| Eileen Mullarkey | Long Term Care, Dept. for the Aging, NYC |
| Jennifer Best | Legislative Analyst, Committee On Aging, NYS Assembly |
| Changes: | |
| Annie Hines | Resident at Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center NORC has withdrawn from the Council. |
1) Minutes from the January 11th were accepted and approved.
2) Mike Burgess provided information from NYSOFA's budget testimony.
Mike explained that Governor Spitzer released his SFY 2008-09 Executive Budget and it included several funding supports that recognize the importance of support needed to help elderly remain independent in their own homes and communities through a network of services for seniors and their caregivers. This year, the governor proposed a $4,000,000 increase to SNAP Program, a $2,500,000 dollars to Targeted EISEP Program, $1,000,000 Enriched Social Adult Day Services Program, a $950,000 Regional Caregiver Centers for Excellence Program and a $400,000 Community Empowerment Initiative.
Mike discussed Community Empowerment with the Council for their feedback since this initiative has some commonality with NORCs. This initiative provides $400,000 for 8 demonstartion programs, and $100,000 for technical assistance. Community Empowerment will provide technical assistance and community enhancement to enable communities and neighborhoods to develop their own supportive services to promote aging in place. (Supports the establishment and operation of the program, not the services). These models would be similar to Beacon Hill in Boston. Mike emphasized that these grants will be for all different regions in the State, and will encourage involvement with the AAA offices. Several callers expressed support of the initiative and belief that the flexibility of the program should be beneficial to rural programs and others that have lower density, but have a community who which to organize services to support their elderly.
3) Larry Shapiro provided a Subcommittee report regarding key points of the Subcommittee call on January 30th.
- Issues discussed included population threshold, "heads of household", and 'built with government assistance".
- Also, common ownership, and match influence any definition changes that would be made in the law.
- Larry reported that no consensus was made on the proposal of lowering the 50 % to 40% population threshold in NORC-SSP legislation, but that further discussion needs to be made at another subcommittee meeting. ( to be held 2/22 @11:00-12:30) Common ownership within the NORC-SSP and NNORC will also be discussed during this conference call.
4) Anita Altman discussed that last evening a bill was introduced which included many of the items that the Council has discussed for change, but that legislation has 45% (instead of 40%) for the population threshold. This is a link to the Assembly website to review the entire bill:
- The Council needs to move ahead in the next month or two so that proposed changes can be presented to the Legislature. Fredda commented that she feels this could be done in a month. She related that collaboratively working on the framework is critical. She mentioned that NORC-SSP is more appropriate for densely populated big cities, and NNORC model is better for medium sized, but rural needs a different model. Gail Myers clarified that any changes to the statue will not relate to the appropriation.
- Discussion told place that NORC requirements should differ so that a program cannot "double dip" and get funding as a NORC-SSP and a NNORC.
- The proposed change is to include a minimum population count of 250 seniors. Discussion included how changing this from 2,500 will increase the ability for housing entities with the right density of seniors to qualify. Evie Rich stated she resides in one of the smallest DFTA funded NORC-SSP, Lincoln House Outreach in NYC. Lincoln House Outreach had 252 but the senior population is diminishing. She wishes to have the minimum count be 225 because many housing developments have a declining number of seniors, and at that number there is an effective, vital NORC. Also noted that the idea of the "1/4 mile rule" (which NYC DFTA has) is good so that one housing development can collaborate with another one within a ¼ mile to form a NORC-SSP and have the density required.
5) NNORC proposed changes in legislation were briefly discussed.
- Should less than six stories be eliminated? Should it also include a minimum population count of seniors? Could a housing development be within a NNORC, if it also included other surrounding homes with seniors?
- Robert Leavitt raised the concern that the focus should not be on numbers of stories of buildings etc., but on being sure seniors are served.
- John Krout stated that NORC-SSP is geographically restricted and that continued discussion needs to take place about an adapted model that is useful for all parts of the State.
- Mary Kanerva related that she believes the focus of NORC programs is not meeting the density, but the focus needs to be achieving services, harnessing resources, and building the community.
- Organizing the community and getting business support is critical. Businesses, churches etc. need to be part of the NNORC community to have the resources needed.
6) Waiver of Match (chart was provided with agenda for conference call). Discussed that requests submitted to NYSOFA for waivers have became more numerous and that issues surrounding are often complicated.
- NORC match requirement is 100% with 25% from the housing entity. NYCHA and housing authorities using low income are exempt, but is has been NYSOFA's practice to need a waiver of source in these circumstances. NNORC legislation requires cash match of 15% is required in the second year of operation, 25% in the third year, 40% in the fourth year and 50% in the fifth year. Also, 25% of the total percentages need to be provided by the community serviced by the NNORC. The point was discussed since almost 45% of programs are asking for waiver, that perhaps the requirements are not appropriate. Anschel Weiss said in his experience with the Albany NNORC, the current guidelines are difficult to meet. It was agreed that further discussion on this subject will need to continue at another Council meeting.
Next meetings:
Subcommittee will have a conference call on Friday February 22nd @ 11:00-12:30. Anschel Weiss asked if he could be added to the subcommittee and all agreed. Other members are: Fredda Vladeck , Anita Altman, Joe Pofit, Ken Harris, Rick Iannello, John Krout, Mary Kanerva.
The next full NORC Advisory Council teleconference will be scheduled on March 7th at 2:00pm.