PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION CORPORATION

Bedford Senior Center Suffers Funding Loss

By HEATHER HADDON

A shift in an obscure funding line has left the Bedford Park Senior Center struggling to stay afloat.

The center lost approximately a third of its budget last July when a city contract for community programs was shifted away from senior services. Most of the $530,000 destined for programs serving the Community District 7 area went to youth initiatives. The Center’s long-standing homebound senior program was abruptly terminated as a result.

“It’s devastating,” said Patricia Burlace, the Center’s director, about the $110,000 contract her agency lost. “It might as well have been $110 million.”

The grant, which is administered by the city Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), had funded case management and companionship services for homebound seniors in the area for over two decades. The Center was forced to end that service in July and fire four employees. Their current staffing level of seven is a stretch, with Burlace often answering the phones and the door. More tough decisions could be imminent.

“We may have to cut more staff,” said James Maistre, the Center’s board chair.

These tough cuts were not handed down by a city agency, but by the few dozen local residents and advocates who showed up at forums on the funding in 2004. Community Services Block Grants, which go to economic and social assistance programs in low-income neighborhoods, are doled out based on locally determined priorities. Opinion is solicited through meetings convened by Neighborhood Advisory Boards, which are comprised of up to nine members who live in the community district benefiting from the funds. Local elected officials and DYCD appoint the members for a three-year term.

Board representation is low across the Bronx. District 7’s panel has six vacancies and six members who also sit on Community Board 7 (CB7).

Appointees say they did their best to advertise the meetings, but attendance was low and viewpoints were limited to the agencies that showed up. “We tried to do outreach,” said Rafeek Khan, a CB7 member who chaired the group at the time. Khan has since stepped down from the leadership post, but thinks the current board is still “functioning haphazardly.”

The top priorities identified at the meetings were teen violence prevention, youth education, teen employment, economic development and housing assistance. For the teen programs, the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center (MMCC) received three grants. The city Parks Department, along with the Tolentine-Zeiser and Kingsbridge Heights youth centers, each got one. The West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center and the Citizens Advice Bureau were awarded the housing contracts.

Senior services lost out. The grant has traditionally helped local agencies provide elderly counseling, nutritional assistance and transportation. The Little Shepherds Community Services and Effective Alternatives in Reconciliation Services also lost contracts for domestic violence prevention and youth initiatives.

The reversal has had a huge impact on the Center, which moved into a state-of-the-art — and more expensive — facility on East 204th Street in 2004. “We are finding we have a lot of costs we never used to have,” Maistre said.

The Center was housed in the parish hall of St. Philip Neri Church until 1997, when a devastating fire destroyed the church. It took years of fund-raising and dealing with a series of bureaucratic roadblocks before the Center moved into the beautiful $2 million facility. Roughly 70 seniors a day visit the welcoming, two-floor space for computer classes, lunch and a smorgasbord of recreational offerings. Maistre said their St. Patrick’s Day party was standing room only.

Burlace and the Center’s board are busily searching for grants and outside support. Sister Annunciata Bethell, the agency’s founder, has turned her 90th birthday party into a fund-raiser for the facility. Council Member Oliver Koppell appropriated $55,000 in additional funds for them back in September, but much of the money is only now getting delivered.

Eleanor Edelstein, a spokesperson for Koppell, said Department for the Aging and many city agencies were extremely slow in processing Council funds last year. “A lot of the [city] agencies have been holding up money,” said Edelstein, who indicated that Koppell will seek more funds for the agency during next year’s budget.

Center staff and supporters are trying to be optimistic but are still upset by the turn of events. “We can accept a cut, but don’t take off my whole left leg,” Maistre said.

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