Community News
Fighting NYCHA
Outrage over city’s plan to close senior center
at Astoria Houses NYCHA complex
Photo by Bill Parry
The city plans to close the Astoria Houses Senior Center as a budget
cut just as it almost ready to reopen following a $500,000 renovation.
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I MAY 2019 21
BY BILL PARRY
Astoria’s elected of-ficials
were aston-ished
to learn that
the city plans on
closing the only senior center
at the Astoria Houses in early
July just as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
budget goes into effect.
Residents were expecting to
celebrate the grand reopening
of their renovated facility after
Councilman Costa Constan-tinides
allocated $500,000 in
funding for the project to turn
a “glorified broom closet” into a
proper senior center.
“I was beside myself after I
got the phone call,” Constan-tinides
said. “Instead of cel-ebrating
the long-anticipated
reopening, our elderly NYCHA
residents get the worst pos-sible
news. This is where they
get their only hot meal of the
day and now they’re being told
they have to travel to Queens-bridge
and that will only make
the struggles they face every
day that much harder. That’s
unacceptable.”
He said the city could close
as many as 12 NYCHA senior centers
across the five boroughs for a savings
of around $3 million.
A City Hall spokesman confirmed
the closing saying it is a cost-cutting
move while providing seniors with ac-cess
to better centers nearby. The city
will provide buses to transport seniors
to the Queensbridge Houses center
nearly a mile away. The spokesman
said the facility at the Astoria Houses
was underutilized.
“Of course it was underutilized; it was
tiny. That’s why we were renovating it,”
Constantinides fumed. “The problem
is they’ve never dedicated the proper
resources to this facility.”
A member of Constantinides’ team
likened the scenario to something out
of a bizarre Kafka novel.
“The Astoria Houses Senior Center
provides a vital lifeline for local seniors
who are too often cut off from services
available to other western Queens resi-dents,”
state Senator Michael Gianaris
added. “I will fight against this closure to
make sure our seniors get the respect
and attention they deserve.”
The Astoria Houses Senior Center
serves hundreds with its lunch program
and other activities such as art and crafts
and cultural programs.
“Seniors are the backbone of our
communities and I am truly outraged
to hear that the Astoria Houses Senior
Center will be closing,” Assemblywoman
Aravella Simotas said. “With this closure,
New York City is sending a disgraceful
message that seniors are not a
priority. I strongly urge the mayor
to re-evaluate and reverse this
misguided decision given the
detrimental impact it will have
on countless seniors on north-west
Queens.”
Claudia Coger, the 84-year-old
president of the Astoria Houses
Tenant Association, said her de-velopment
is “full or senior citi-zens”
who were desperate for the
larger renovated senior center, and
bussing them to Queensbridge
Houses will simply not work.
“There is a mindset in elderly
people where they will not be
transported. They want to be in
their home,” Coger said. “Here
they are coming up on their dy-ing
days and the lunch program
is their one hot meal of the day
because they’re on fixed incomes.
They’re not going to get the nutri-tion
they need. We are not going
to sit here and go quietly. We’re
going to have our say.”
Coger was incensed to learn
the City Hall spokesman called
the senior center underutilized.
“We have meals there. We
sew. We take dance classes, and
we have pictures, proof that it’s
an active center,” she said. “There’s a lot
more to this than meets the eye. They
could have avoided a lot of trouble if they
only talked to us. We’re going to fight,
and we are going to win, I assure you.”
The current facility costs around
$220,000 to operate annually, according
to Constantinides’ office.
“I’ll be fighting to get that funding
restored,” he said. This can’t be part of
the budget dance each year and these
residents deserve better.”
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