Department for the Aging-RFP Pulled!

Council Member James and Team Tish were happy to hear that the proposed Department for the Aging Request for Proposal (DFTA-RFP) was recently pulled. We have written on the blog about the RFP in the past (see here: http://teamtish.blogspot.com/2008/11/healthcare-and-you-part-ii-seniors-and.html) Here’s an excerpt that basically sums up what the RFP was:

“the Department for the Aging (DFTA) services RFP, [which] is an RFP that would centralize senior centers. The proposal calls for a 3% budget cut between FY08-09, a decrease in the number of senior center case managers (from 32 to 23); and the possible closings of some of the 323 senior centers in the City. Council Member James has joined many of her colleagues in calling for a delay of the RFP, and feels that modernization does not necessarily equal centralization, and that local centers are best equipped- when properly funded- to provide services for seniors. Furthermore, once these resources are absorbed, they may be lost to seniors in the future.”

Tish joined many of her colleagues in the New York City Council in opposing the DFTA-RFP on these grounds, and participated in Speaker Quinn’s “Protect Our Senior Centers” Initiative (where seniors and senior centers wrote their Council Member and the Mayor noting their objection to the RFP), receiving over 100 letters from seniors stating that the RFP would not serve their needs. We consider the pulling of the DFTA-RFP to be a victory for Council Member James, the City Council, and seniors throughout New York City.