Mayor Bloomberg chose to appoint a veteran public servant as the new commissioner of the agency that oversees the welfare of the city's 1.3 million residents over the age of 60. Lilliam Barrios-Paoli has done everything from holding leadership positions at United Way, Literacy Volunteers of NYC, New York City Partnership and Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the Bronx, to serving as commissioner of the city's Department of Employment, Human Resources Administration, and Department of Housing Preservation and Development – the latter two appointments even overlapping for a time during the Giuliani administration. Immediately prior to joining DFTA, Barrios-Paoli was president and CEO of Safe Space NYC, a nonprofit providing a variety of services to at-risk children and families.
After taking office in February, Barrios-Paoli wasted no time making her mark, postponing the process for overhauling the city’s senior centers by one year and reversing preliminary cuts to programs for case management and home-delivered meals. In June, the department was bolstered by the restoration of $32 million by City Council; DFTA's budget for fiscal 2010 stands at $289 million, down $7 million from last year.
Just last week, Barrios-Paoli joined in the Bloomberg administration's announcement of 59 new initiatives aimed at accommodating growth in the city's senior population, predicted to increase by nearly half a million by 2030. Described in this report, "Age Friendly NYC: Enhancing Our City's Livability For Older New Yorkers," the programs are designed to promote "active aging" along four policy areas: community and civic participation, housing, public spaces and transportation, and health and social services.
Barrios-Paoli, who turns 63 this week, sat down with City Limits recently to take stock of what it means to be a senior citizen in New York City today, how the city helps residents cope with the challenges of aging, and where the agency wants to do more. Here are highlights from that conversation.
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City Limits: The areas of meals-on-wheels services and consolidation of senior centers and case management services all have been major issues for DFTA lately. What is the status of those service changes?
Lilliam Barrios-Paoli: The day that I started working, it was the first day of the implementation of home-delivered meals in Queens, so it was a challenge. I think what we found out is that even though the concept was very good, we had to tweak it so that things would work. We then delayed the implementation in Manhattan for about three weeks, and that went better. Then we did Brooklyn a month later and that went even better. Now we're trying to figure out the issues that emerge around some people not being happy with the kinds of meals they’re getting, and some people complaining that they’re getting meals too late or too early. Those are the kinds of things we’re working on with the implementation, but I think all in all, it’s okay.
