By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — After weeks of protests, trips to Albany, letter-writing campaigns and pleas, Manhattan's Senior Centers are officially saved.
While word began to trickle out Monday that the state budget negotiations had restored funding, the final assurance came in the early hours Thursday, when the Assembly passed the budget for the coming fiscal year.
"We are very pleased that just last night the Senate and Assembly passed their respective budget bills restoring Title XX discretionary dollars, avoiding the need [to] close the 105 senior centers that were identified," a Department of Aging spokesman said.
At senior centers across the borough, the news was met with cheers.
"We were so relieved," said Jane Barry, executive director of the Stein Senior Center in Murray Hill, which was one of 26 Manhattan centers that had been slated to close if the cuts went through.
She said that after writing letters to elected officials and attending protests at City Hall, the 250 seniors who frequent the center every day were overjoyed.
"They cheered, they cheered. They were so happy," she said, noting that many seniors rely on the center for food to make ends meet as well as for its classes, performances and camaraderie.
"They don't have other social situations where they can all be together," she said.
Still, center staff said that even as seniors write thank-you notes to legislators, the relief may be short-lived.
Thanks to numerous other city and state cuts, centers will be harder to operate than ever, Nieves Tavares, assistant director of the Encore Senior Center in Midtown, said.
"They're going to leave you open, but how are you going to function?" she asked. "The fight is not over yet."
Advocates also said they are increasingly frustrated over what has become a yearly ritual of being threatened with closure and then having funding restored.
"It's ridiculous," especially at a time when more and more seniors will be relying on the services, Barry said.
She agreed that additional cuts to the city's Department of Aging, including funding for home care attendants and case managers for home-bound seniors, will continue to strain the services that seniors receive.
"We're still fighting the fight," she said.
Melissa Aase, director of community development at University Settlement on the Lower East Side, also said there is a small chance that the city will end up using the restored state funds for something else.
"It's really a yo-yo situation," she said.
