[Music] for the record my name is Erin Murphy Atlarge City Councelor and I am the
chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Strong Women Families communities i may argue the most important committee for the city um today is March 28th 2025 and the time is 10:19 this hearing is being recorded
written comments may be sent to the committee email at ccccc.swfcboston.gov and will be made a part of the record and available to all counselors public testimony will be taken at the beginning and throughout the hearing individuals will be called
on in the order in which they signed up and will have two minutes to testify if you are interested in testifying in person I already made this announcement but I'll repeat it please add your name to the signup sheet which is still at the
entrance today's hearing is on an order for a hearing to address programming needs for older adults in the city of Austin this matter was sponsored by councilors Benjamin Weber John Fitzgerald and Brian Warell and was referred to the committee
on January 25th 2025 today I am joined by my colleagues in order of arrival Councelor Mahia Atlarge City Council Mahia Councelor Weber Councelor Braden and Councelor
Fitzgerald okay so this morning um also welcome i did have to get the formal introduction out of the way but good morning everyone if you don't know me I'm Erin Murphy i'm your city councelor i'm an atlarge city councelor so I get the privilege the
honor of representing all of the neighborhoods across the city there may be um some counselors here you're meeting for the first time um Council Weber is your West Roxbury counselor here i'd like to thank the Elks for opening up their doors for us for this hearing um thank also the sponsors who
as soon as we file this did ask if we could hold this hearing in the community because I do think it's important that we make it accessible and easy for you to come because we do want to hear your um your voices and how you feel about senior programming it is a need across
the city we'll be hearing from the administration and different departments about the work they're doing to expand on that but as counselors we obviously um hear a lot from our constituents about the need to expand on these
services so the flow just to make sure everyone knows how we'll be doing this I'll be starting with my colleagues making opening statements i'll start with the lead sponsors and then as other um colleagues join us I think a few more will be on their way we will introduce
them and let them have opening statements um usually we do go right to the administration but I will be starting with some public testimony like I said I do want to hear from you first we'll hear from the administration and then also ethos will have a presentation
because they are doing wonderful work here and I know that there was announce an announcement recently made about an expansion i have visited um and my team has come here on the two days I know that we've had programming here but thank you for anyone who is outside of
the West Roxbury Parkway community i know that we've reached out to um other seniors and communities neighborhoods across the city this is obviously an issue citywide and that's one of the reasons councelor Fitzgerald who is district 3 he represents Dorchester in
the souththen and also councelor who represents Dorchester signed on knowing that this need is a need for our seniors across the city so as we advocate here in West Roxbury we know we're lifting the voices of our seniors across the whole city making sure that we do right
by all of you so thank you for being here and I will pass it off to my colleague Councelor Weber the lead sponsor okay thank Thank you Chair um my name is Ben Weber i'm the Boston City Council for District 6 i represent West Roxbury
in Jamaica Plane um I apologize of dealing with a little uh I don't know throat cold thing I got from my daughter so I'm not socializing today uh but you know for me this is this is personal um you know my uh I'm Jewish my wife's
Catholic uh the reason why I mentioned that is my wife's uh you know father my father-in-law was a Jesuit and so he left the order you know uh late in you know in his mid-40s to start a family and he uh raised one in uh northern
Virginia in Arlington Virginia he worked as a carpenter uh and as he got into his late 70s he could no longer work uh and he was in Northern Virginia we were up here uh He started he had congestive
heart failure he call me in the middle of the night i having trouble breathing i have to call an ambulance he was having trouble taking care of himself um and we made the decision he was also renting his house he couldn't pay his rent anymore um and you know he uh he
couldn't afford to live there so we made the decision to move him up here to Boston and move him in with us uh in a small uh three-bedroom apartment uh in in Jamaica plane with my newborn son my wife and I and my father-in-law and uh
he was he the guy was a philosopher he would sit around reading all day he had 10,000 books in his house in Virginia but moving up here was so difficult for him uh emotionally and physically and it really just started sort of he felt
isolated um it just he was missing all the connections he had in Northern Virginia and cognitively he just started showing signs that he wasn't adjusting well you know we had him evaluated uh he he had dementia uh and he was dealing
with congestive heart failure then he had leukemia uh and it just went one thing to another and at a certain point we we he lived with us for about four years we took care of him we managed it uh but when we had a second
child we couldn't do this anymore we got him into uh memory care uh and he he lived for a few years in memory care honestly you know he we couldn't afford you know sort of the higherend kind of thing you'd get at like Roger House so
he he was in places uh at Cheryl House uh you know they took care of him he no longer wanted to get up from his bed and he you know was in decline but for me it's so important uh the lesson I learned is it's so important to be able to keep seniors in their homes in their
neighborhoods where they've lived their whole lives uh to prevent them from being just ripped out of their homes because they can't afford to live there they can't you know they're not working anymore and so when I you know as I got into this position on the city council
uh and and working with uh you know a strong commissioner Sheay I it's so you know it's so important to me to identify programs that are going to help people to stay here and and to live in their homes and that's also why you know I've I've found a partner in Ethos um which
runs this popup and um you know this popup I think is a is just an example of what we can do as a city for our seniors i've come here not enough i wish I was here more but when I've come here there's seniors who are just you know they're making those connections they
have activities uh and that's why you know we worked with the mayor's office and and and H commissioner uh H strong commissioner Sheay to have more programming and that's you know the mayor was here uh last week a week and a half ago to announce that we're going to
the city is going to expand programming and I know I know uh the chair of this this committee councelor Murphy has also been a strong advocate for seniors and so you know I'm really happy to have that uh extra day of programming that's going to be here also the question is
what's what's next what else are we going to do because our senior population is growing uh it's going to grow fast and we need to plan and have the resources in place uh you know as to allow people to to essentially age in place and just uh you know I'll end on
this um you know we have a report here you know I you can contact my office we'll send you a link uh that the the city produced from a consultant health management associates in October 2024 uh that outlined looked at the city what
services we're offering and what um what recommendations they had and uh you know the report said you know it's uh by 2030 we're going to have 137,000 seniors here in the city of Boston one out of five
residents will be a senior um and that we need to have dedicated programming and spaces for seniors the significance of dedicated programming and spaces for older adults cannot be overstated the report says especially in addressing
social isol isolation which poses substantial health risks social social isolation among older adults is linked to a range of negative outcomes including increased prevalence of chronic diseases cognitive decline and heightened risk of dementia by
prioritizing the development of programs that foster social engagement and community connections we can mitigate these risks and enhance the overall well-being of Boston's aging population and what the the report goes on to say is we can provide these programs through
spaces in two types of locations one are city constructed senior centers which we have a few the other which they recommend we have a mix is partner operated senior centers which is what we we're seeing here which the the mix will
allow us to sort of be more nimble in how we provide programming so it's how do we increase the space here increase the space across the city uh that's why I'm glad we could all be here today uh to talk about this important issue and um I look forward to the conversation
thank you Chair thank you we've been joined by Council Ourel thank you Council Ourel i'll go to Council Fitzgerald first the other sponsor absolutely thank you and good morning everybody how's everybody doing good good good to see you all uh listen uh the need for
for senior activity in a senior center not just in West Roxbury but in other neighborhoods as well that are very family oriented uh is a necessity and I'll tell you why um you know I'm I I've got my own kids i've got three they're
seven five and three and I love the fact that they can go and see Nana right and that Nana's local Nana's around Nana wants to stay i also tell you who else needs Nana i need Nana okay so I can go on date night with the misses and can you watch the kids and can you do this
and can you pick up from school to keep families in the city it is so important to keep the generations together right not just as to grow a healthy family but it also provides that stability long term you you can pass down the houses
you can pass on tradition you can take on these things and so it is important that as we age we make sure we are active we are able and we are a able to be there for our kids and our grandkids and I hope that is my goal uh out in
Dorchester uh we do not have a senior center in Dorchester and I would love one because there's it's a very familyoriented community over there as well uh and so that is really the point of this right what is it going to take and we know it's an uphill battle we know money's not on our side right now
and we know budget's going to be tough and we'll talk about all these things in that hearing but the point is we've got to start planning now so that that can happen for generational families to stay stick together be close keep an eye on one another like like councelor Weber was discussing uh these are important
things right so we all feed off each other and uh I just hope that this will be the start of getting that conversation really moving and thank you all for inviting me today appreciate Thank you oh um councelor uh thank you chair and thank you
everyone for being here um similar to what my colleagues have said right it's making sure that we're investing in every phase of life for Boston residents um I grew up in an intergenerational household uh it was my parents my uncle
grandma and grandfather upstairs so I know the benefits of having u the whole family around um at all phases of your life so um I want to make sure that when our young people are growing up here right that they are able to also enjoy
not only their college years but also enjoy their later later years in lives um and we only get to do that by making sure that we invest in our seniors um so I want to make sure that that happens uh here in the city of Boston and through these conversations and as chair of um
the committee on ways and means I'm going to do everything I can in order to make sure that the amendments and resources get to a strong get to the BCF centers to make sure that the programming and services and resources are there for our our A strong population thank you chair and looking
forward to the conversation thank you Council Councel Braden good morning everyone good to see everyone again i was here as the chair of this committee two years ago when we discussed the issue of needing a senior center here in West Roxbury and I'm glad
to see that as a consequence of that hearing we had over 200 people here uh very vocal very active uh advocacy on your part and uh so we've had this pilot program for the last uh last while with ethos in this building and uh I'm really
looking at the wonderful pro range of programs that you've had So uh I am the district counselor for district 9 Austin Brighton we do have a senior center that is housed in a former uh firehouse a Victorian firehouse uh it has its
limitations but it is a senior center um we don't have a kitchen for example but uh we have a new um director over there in recent years and she's just brought the place to life we have a wide range of programming many
of you may have been over there for St patrick's Day or uh to some some of our programs there's lots of good um good things happening so I think as as many of us here on this table we we grew up in intergenerational families uh we we know how important it is for family
elders to be connected to the community uh and to be able to remain in the community and be supported in the community and uh I really look forward to the conversation we want to hear from you today you're you're up first uh so we want to hear uh from the you folks in
in the in the neighborhood and from anyone from outside the neighborhood who's attending because you know as we say we have we're going to have a wave of elders increase i'm one of them by the way um and um as we as we age uh we
want to stay in our neighborhoods we want to stay in our communities we want to have a full and uh full life and to age uh with dignity so uh this is very very important work and and should be a huge priority for the city so thank you all for being here this morning and uh
thank you madam chair for chairing this very important hearing thank you councelor Mahia thank you good morning everyone i love to see this room full right because this is what it looks like when we show up for each other and I think that this is part of the strategy
is making sure that two years ago this place was packed and consistently you keep showing up and that is what we need in this moment in time to continue to demonstrate how important this moment is for us to recognize what you want us to do and how you want us to spend our
silly dollars on what you want um and so really happy to to have you here just really quick um my mother is 76 years old um and I am very fortunate because we were able to buy a house um my
brother and I share one side with our kids and my mom lives on the other um and so I'm very fortunate that we get to be in in in family with one another but what I have a difficult time with is
that my mother is uh still too poor to retire and refuses to retire so she's still working and it breaks my heart when I see and I go to adult um senior centers and I see everyone enjoying
their later life and my mom is not doing that and so my hope is is that through this advocacy um I can share with her how you all showed up today and advocating because she also likes to have a good fight and maybe she can join
you all at the very least in fighting for more senior programming and giving her something to feel connected to um and so as I said two years ago when I was last here in regards to this issue you know I'm here for the long game right this conversation really is about
where we put our values and where we put our dollars and I think um in having a few brief conversations with some of you all this morning we want to get to the nitty-gritty of timelines and deadlines and you know when we're going to see um
these commitments come to fruition and I'm really excited because I know that the administration is just as deeply committed as we are um and our job is to listen and to ensure that we're delivering and working collaboratively to get you all um what you've been fighting for so happy to be here and
looking forward to listening so that we can make things happen thank you thank you um thank you to all my colleagues i would before we move on to public testimony thank central staff we don't usually come out into the community so thank you we have Ethan and Candace and
Michelle and Megan and Shane's here also so thank you for setting up and coming out here because if this was a 10:00 hearing at city hall I bet most of you would not be there even if you were zooming in or watching so thank you for that i do just want to introduce the
administration who is there and then I'll call up the first few um public testimony thank you to Ch um Jose Masso he's the chief of human services you guys seem so far away over there sorry I can't see you um so I do know when we first sent out the invites we wanted to
hear from um the BHA Kenzie Bach because we did do a lot of opera funding and advocacy around making sure that there's senior services for those seniors who are living in BHA also um um BCF and I do know that Chief Mass you can speak to
all of that as the chief you oversee all of social human services so thank you for being here we have Emily Sheay who you all must know our wonderful commissioner of the Age Strong Commission thank you for being here um and Priscilla Foley is the director of neighborhood services from the Boston
Public Library because as you know the library also provides lots of services so we're looking forward for them to hear from you but also to hear from them and what they're going to share back to us so that being said I'll call up the
um the first person if when you come up to the microphone please state your name in your neighborhood so that we know um where you're from but the first one is Marjorie Gan okay come on up Marjorie thank
you and we will have um it's usually two two and a half minutes for public testimony i'll keep with time just to keep us going but please take your time thank you good morning members of the Boston City Council and city officials pleasure to be here thank you for
convening this listening session my name is Marjorie Gan and I'm the chief operating officer and interim CEO of Ethos ethos is the aging services access point for southwest Boston which includes the neighborhoods of Jamaica Plane Matipan High Park Roslandale and
West Roxbury our mission is to promote the independence dignity and well-being of the elderly and disabled and our goal is to foster caregiving social interaction and respect cultural
diversity to meet our mission we've long recognized that we need a presence in the community and that older adults in Southwest Boston want more programming in their neighborhoods the convergence of these needs led in 2006 so close to
20 years ago to the development of senior Palooa an ambitious effort in the month of May to bring educational and social activities to each of the five neighborhoods and our goal that in that period was that in one year we would be in one neighborhood move to the next to
the next to the next so we began with activities ranging with everything from health insurance information to scam prevention with the culminating event being the senior prom the senior prom is now an ethos tradition held every year
during older Americans month with 400 plus participants that's a lot of people we Thank you we also discovered we couldn't move the senior prom from neighborhood to neighborhood because not
only did we need a large space we needed one that was ADA accessible and that had the other amenities we need things like parking and some public transportation so it's actually held in Irish Social Club uh
it's in but at the prom we have older residents coming together dancing eating lunch we crown a prom king and queen and I can honestly say we all have a really good time and that the attendance for that certainly demonstrates the need and
support for neighborhood-based programming our experience with the multi-activity events such as senior Palooa really positioned us well when the opportunity to provide the pilot senior center was presented to us the
pilot senior center really brings together the results of that health management associates study that was alluded to and it demonstrates that when you've got the combination of
location timing and programming to meet people's needs people will come and we have been as high as 142 people in this space on a single day
that's also a lot of people so we proved the concept and we really are looking forward to the expansion of the pilot program to three days a week so in short we absolutely agree with the findings of the Health
Management Associate study that older adults in Boston want programming that's local that's communicated clearly with an emphasis on recreational and health and fitness we've long recognized that the program needs to be accessible that
it needs to be located where people can get there whether it's public transportation or parking and that it needs to be at times of day that will work for the people we're trying to reach so thank you for this opportunity
and thank you to the city city councilors it's an exciting time to be in Boston thank you thank you thank you Marie and I do know that we also had you as a panelist so I know you'll be here
and if you can stick around after the admin speaks if anyone has specific questions to ethos I know she can answer them so thank you for that i do want to recognize your state representative Billy McGregor is here thank you um if you could come up um if you would like
to I know you have an event coming up but if you would like to and I know the senator is on his way also so I do want to give you an opportunity to say hello to Sorry to put you on the spot but you're an elected official now you know how to do that now you're good i used to
No thank you thank you for coming because I know that um all of your elected officials here in Good morning everyone great to see you all um as you all know I am a big fan of having a senior center out here and um
as many of you also I I think we've done chair yoga before and um and other events so uh whatever I can do to support having a senior center here um I know myself and councelor Weber we're always looking we're also reaching out
to real estate agents and and just reaching out to main streets and just finding out you know if there are any places that are vacant that we could utilize um it's hard to find a bu a freestanding building with uh you know
with parking on the bus line and you know that we can afford but uh it is something that we want to do and um we are we are all working together we work better together than separate so um anyway uh and then I just wanted to
mention Monday if you're around and I have some flyers and I can leave them up at the front door um I am having a Red Sox watch party at the Cororb i'm I'm paying for the food i'm coming all right all right see um 3:00 at the Cororb
Wall-E the Green Monsters is going to be be there tessy and uh Chico Walker who I I you know I I grew up loving the Red Sox in the 80s i I don't remember Chico Walker but he was uh he played for four years for us so but any anyway just want
to let you guys know um love uh being your state representative and if you guys ever need to reach out I'm always here so uh thank you uh for bringing this out here um it you know thank you to the Elks for hosting but this is amazing to have uh city council hearing
out here so thank you all for coming out here and uh doing this hearing and uh look forward to hearing more awesome thank you um Susan Stober Stoen come on up thank you good morning all um I'm from West
Roxbury two family house down the street my father's been there 93 years my grandparents used to live downstairs now I get the upstairs um St teresa's St claire's UMass Boston graduate
i am Boston 20 years right behind me VA i did imag 20 years at the Bigham now I'm retired thank you Jesus i don't like getting up in the morning uh I want to give a shout out to Carol running a
wonderful program here uh again with my uh time I give back to my community i am a member of the Elks i was the first female trustee elected at this
place this area that we have here is getting very full we're almost maxed out when we come to the programs they're excellent um and Ethos rents those two rooms over there they don't rent this room kenny Williamson who runs the Elks is kind
enough to let us use this area um but if we want to continue here I think we need to pony up and rent all three you know open these up and rent all three of these um again I'm grateful for everything that's here the other thing we can use in this area which I don't
see and I'm kind of broken down from all my um imaging and lifting patients through the years uh we really need a pool in the area um because as we get older we know we do better in aquatics and things like that and um that'd be
nice to have and I appreciate all you guys coming awesome thank you and um hope everybody has a good day thank you thank you um Linda Perry is next and I do just want to recognize Thank you Senator Rush i think you just want to give a nice
wave to everyone he's here and Ann Cushion his wonderful um assistant has been here the whole time thank you for both being here and all you do hi I'm Linda Perry and I live in Rosendale and um I work part-time uh not
during the day on the week during the week but on the weekends I work during the day um I'm here for the people that uh that can't be here all right there are people in our neighborhood who
couldn't be here and um I wanted to tell you uh a little bit about them um some are homebound i have two friends that are homebound they can't be with us and uh they need services too
um one is 80 years old she lives with her children and uh she needs help that way my brother needs help uh he lives in my house and I live on the first floor my brother lives on the second floor and
my daughter lives on the third floor so it's all family and um they uh my brother uh wouldn't come but he wanted you to know that he uh all
he has is time and time is very finite and so he doesn't know how long none of us know how long we're going to live and he doesn't want to spend it in a line to throw away trash to throw away
um uh hazardous material or light bulbs or or batteries or whatever and he can't stand in a line and he can't drive and sit in the car too long because he has
back problems and so he wants that changed somehow and my friend who is not even 60 years old is homebound and um he can't leave his house but he finds ways to
distract himself from pain so I am here to represent all the people that can't be here thank you have a good day thank you we have been joined by Councelor Flynn if you'd like to make an opening statement
thank you Madam Chair and thank you for the important work you're doing here throughout the West Roxbury area supporting seniors but I think we had this meeting here because we respect the seniors in this community and we want to
ensure that whatever services we can provide oh um are given to the seniors you've you've worked hard your entire life you've contributed greatly to this city and it's about time that we support you and your families as well thank you
thank you um Linda Perry sorry Sandra McCormack couple yeah is Sandra still here and then we have whose email is Mama Mimi there you
go mama Mimi i like that and then after Mama Mimi will be Alexis if you both want to come up to the microphone to and Alexis Dailyaly is after her thank you good morning everybody thank you
counselors thank you uh committee members yes I am Mama Mimi um and before I read my thing I will tell you how I was dubbed i did family child care in West Roxy for 36 years the children could not say Maren and so they dubbed
me Mimi and then the Italian family came in thus mama Mimi and uh so that's how I was dubbed with that name so I want to thank you all for coming to support all of us because this has been a godsend
truly truly a godsend so uh my name is Maren Lagi Lions aka Mimi I've lived in West Roxbury from uh for 53 years Now um I was born in Cambridge i am a Canter
Bridgian and uh and so I just wanted to thank uh the and all of you for the opportunity to meet with us this morning because it's very difficult for us to get into Boston this was so perfect and I truly appreciate you moving the mountain to
us and um I've had the privilege I told you of being a family childcare educator for 36 years i'd like to say a few words um about ethos the center project to begin with I'd like to thank the staff
uh for they run this program like a welloiled machine we are forever grateful to you for providing us with exceptional classes breakfast and lunch the senior center started at the Elks in June of
2023 um I believe there were 60 members i found about I found out about the uh program in August in 2023 and I joined with a few friends in November of 2023 there were 348 members with
2,220 total visits the word spread quickly about this fabulous program and as of March of 2025 we have 671 members with a total of
13,048 visits i I truly believe that these numbers speak for themselves i might add that our members are from surrounding areas of Boston not only West Roxbury the senior center has
been a gift to so many of us on Tuesdays and Thursdays the programs run with numerous activities run from 9:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m if I wrote every activity down it would be a novel instead of you know a
one sheet paper and um I have a tendency to be very wordy as all of you know they run when they see me um I am grateful for your support in the past and ask that you continue to support uh to all of us here to keep us
healthy and as in Denzel Washington once said in mind body and spirit and I just want to say a few of the programs that they run here chair yoga taichi Broadway seated dance fitness with Shellyley
bingo sit and stitch short story groups community service groups nutrition seminars walking groups senior movement and fitness mindfulness it where I I'm there very often i got a new phone and
you know so Teresa she still has all her hair um and um then we had a UCLA memory training healthy ideas and healthy eating and small group supports informational seminars and uh we has
also had community service projects where we have um helped out and these are folks here that are retired on limited income with the Italian home for children ABCD winter clothing drive BFW donation drive Sacred Heart Church
adoptive the family program where there was a family in need and um we were able to raise some clothing and some gift cards uh for this family and this was all done from these folks that come here on Tuesdays and Thursdays and um I want
to thank you all from the bottom of my heart i want to thank you and thank all of you and um especially for ethos uh for the wonderful things that they have done uh we are here postcoid and um in the beginning the
first few times that I was here people were kind of quiet and sad and all of a sudden everybody started to blossom and um it just did my heart so well and I I am forever grateful for this opportunity
to speak to you and to thank all of you uh for your kindness and your help and your continuous support and and for the staff for their hard work here daily thank you thank you also for highlighting that
this is about the health of our seniors and the isolation so it thank you for that um Alexa is next and I do just want to recognize that Ben Tag the um neighborhood liaison is here out there in the crowd somewhere oh there you are
i didn't Thank you for being here um always showing up and I did just want to I think it was mentioned earlier but Representative Consavo who you know is a strong advocate is home with laryngitis because we know he likes to talk so he would be here if he could be but he's here in spirit and I know his wife from
ethos is here but thank you Representative Consalo so thank you um good morning i'm Alexa Dailyaly i thank the council for having the hearing here locally and thank to you in the city um I live in Roslandale i am a
member of JP at Home and we wanted you guys to know a little more about JP at Home we are a program of ethos were self-managed and self- financed um we help people with all of our activities
stay healthy in community stay independent combat loneliness and have fun um we're very active um we just celebrated our 10th anniversary you may have seen the article in the bulletin a week or so ago
um we are here we want to get our organization better known we want to get the word out because we do need to expand our membership so that we are able to continue financially continue
what we were doing um and ethos we are a program of ethos so ethos manages our program and does the administration which many of you probably know takes a lot um and we have many many
activities and groups that are started and run by members so um get the name JP at home in your heads you can check us out on the web and thank you very much thank you we are now going to go to the
administrative panel i'm not sure if you've already decided the order you want to start but you guys can start yeah sure thank you good morning everyone it's absolute pleasure to be here with you all uh good morning Chair Murphy Council Weber Council Mia Councelor Flynn Council Warel Councelor
Braden and Council Fitzgerald for the record my name is Jose Maso and I am the chief of human services for the city of Boston i am joined today by my colleagues Commissioner Emily Sheay of the Age Strong Commission and Priscilla Foley Director of Neighborhood Services for the Boston Public Library in my role
as chief of human services I have the pleasure of overseeing the Age Strong Commission Boston Centers for Youth and Families and the Boston Public Library all of which provide direct services programming and events for Boston's older adult population together as a cabinet we operate four dedicated senior
centers 35 community centers including six standalone pools and 26 libraries each month our teams provide hundreds of hours of programming events and services for older adults i'm very excited to be here today and to see so many of our older adults residents in attendance
it's wonderful to see some some familiar faces and to have this time to hear directly from residents about how we can be a city that better meets the needs of our residents as Commissioner Shay will share in a moment we know how important programming is for our older adults it offers a
vital opportunity to connect with others and a chance to be physically active to learn new skills and to build community and the need is something that cuts across all of our neighborhoods throughout the city last week in the state of the city address Mayor Woo made a commitment to expand programming for older adults in six neighborhoods in
Boston including adding a third day of programming right here at the Elks we're on track to increase the availability of older adult programming by 300% this year now I am part of the sandwich generation as many of my colleagues had mentioned I'm raising two young children
who are BPS students and also looking out for my older parents who live in High Park my mother thankfully turned 75 earlier this month and upon retiring I use that loosely because she's working more than she's ever worked before she now finds finds herself engaged in
programs throughout the city my mother and I speak daily and if she has any ideas or complaints she does not hesitate to let me know ladies and gentlemen I want to let you know you have the best advocate ever in my mother Deina so just know that and I was raised
to listen to those who were older than me whether they were family members or adults who were part of my village that's what I was taught and I carry that with me to this day which is why we were able to respond when we heard the pain points expressed by many of you about three years ago and this predates
my time even being chief of human services many of you were advocating for the needs way beyond then i was thankful for when we were able to speak and meet with you all i met with the you know some community residents uh before then about two years ago we had a hearing in this very same room that was packed and
I must say as happy as I was to see as many people come out that day the best time I actually had is when I came back and engaged in chair yoga with you all to very pack room as well i missed out on the Broadway dancing but I'll be back for that for sure now I admit there's still more work
that needs to be done and I'm grateful for the progress we have made i will hand it to Commissioner Sheay to share more detail but I first want to close by thanking the residents who are here today your advocacy and leadership is crucial to helping us make the best decisions we are grateful for your partnership and with that I'll turn it
over to Commissioner Shay thank you all [Applause] thank you Chief um hi everybody hi hi council chairman hi Emily all the counselors um I appreciate uh your
engagement in this really critical issue uh so for the record my name is Emily Sheay and I'm I serve as the agrong commissioner for the city of Boston um I'm delighted to be here today especially two days after we were my team was just out here um in West
Roberry where we helped older adults understand and apply for various cost-saving benefits and I know I already heard a request to come back out that we didn't have enough slots that day so we will be back out here again um working with you all uh we know that
financial stability is so important yet many older adults in Boston face significant challenges as the cost of living continues to rise so does the need for comprehensive support at the same time our older adult population is growing rapidly from 88,000 residents
over the age of 60 in 2010 to just about 130,000 today so that's a 48% increase in only 15 years this demographic shift underscores the urgency of expanding resources and services to ensure older
adults can age with dignity security and opportunity but economic security is just one piece of the puzzle staying active and socially engaged as you've already heard today is an equally important piece of healthy aging not only is that what the data says but that
is what we hear loud and clear from all of you and older residents across Boston neighborhoods that is why at the city our goal is to ensure that every older adult in Boston has access to welcoming inclusive spaces that promote physical
health social connection artistic expression lifelong learning and overall wellness empowering them to thrive at Agrong we use a multi-pronged approach to address this issue through our senior centers our citywide programming and our
grant making we operate two senior centers in Brighton and in East Boston that are thriving active spaces um I know many of you uh counselors have had the opportunity to come by them but if you haven't uh we invite you out and we invite any of you uh to come over as
well for our city programming we meet people where they're at citing programs in available community spaces libraries and BCIF sites throughout the Boston neighborhoods in FY25 we're on track to provide over
3,000 hours of programming a 300% increase from last year we're working to grow regular multi-day per week programming at sites across the city and we're also introducing new and exciting partnerships such as community rowing
which offers older adults the opportunity to learn a new skill and experience rowing on the Charles River other innovative programs include free improv classes at Improv Asylum and senior game days at Tavern of Tales and over,200 older adults have had the
opportunity to participate in mindfulness classes led by our wellness manager Bob Lindot including some of the folks here in this room we've had we have wonderful partners in this work like Goddard House who worked with us to bring who works with us to
bring highquality arts experiences to older adults across Boston most recently they made a $180,000 investment strengthening creative aging programs by training teaching artists and expanding collaborations with the A MFA Dorchester
Art Project and Boston Dance Alliance and we're continuing with our large popular gatherings like our Black History Month event St patrick's Day celebrations and our spring fling finally I want to talk about our grant making funding partner organizations to provide programming is
another way that we work to meet the diverse needs and interests of Boston's 130,000 older residents we use 380,000 of our federal older Americans Act money to fund 19 organizations providing senior center
type programming and evidence-based healthy aging classes across Boston our partners include places like the Greater Boston Chinese Golden Age Center VA Aid Ethos and South Boston Neighborhood House and we're in the middle of scoring
our next round of expanding engagement grants where we fund organizations and groups who are working to build community and social connection with older people we have 92 grant applications totaling $1.8 million in requests which we will be narrowing down
because we have $500,000 to give out these grants are part of our operating budget we currently have 37 partners in this initiative including supporting the senior program here at the Elks the Nigerian-American Civic Association's Chop and Connect program which combines
music meals and storytelling and the Castle Square Tenant Association's efforts to activate programming in their development in the South End not only are our external partners important but we are also fortunate to have many dedicated city partners
committed to expanding programming for older adults we couldn't do this work without BCF who not only run senior centers in Grove Hall and Charles Town but also the drop-in program at the Mildred and other programming throughout their many community centers you'll hear
next from our library partners about the incredible work that they're doing and we're grateful for our police and parks partners who help create opportunities and improve access for older people in Boston as you've heard we've been very busy and we have many additional goals
our next steps include expanding and enhancing programming and partnerships in neighborhoods with identified gaps increasing access to culturally relevant multilingual programming introducing a transportation access plan to ensure that older people can easily reach
programming sites launching an interactive virtual and print programming calendar to improve accessibility and leveraging partners to grow funding and resources to make it all happen we have made tremendous strides
but we recognize there is still significantly more work to do we appreciate the council's continued support and look forward to collaborating with city and community partners to ensure equitable opportunities for all older adults in
Boston thank you and I will and I will now pass it along to Priscilla Foley from the Boston Public Libraries good morning um I have the privilege of being the um director of neighborhood services for
the Boston Public Library overseeing our 25 amazing uh branches as well as working very closely with our central colleagues uh the dedicated staff at our branches do everything from greeting wonderful amazing community members as
they come in making book recommendations and hearing suggestions about the types of programming that people would like to see including concerts arts programs book groups tax help computer help and many
other ways that we serve our communities at every branch across the city uh we are fortunate in uh West Roxbury to have worked with the staff at that branch when we had a new staff member that was going to be coming on and the
conversation we had was what what is the best use of that new person and we brought on a a librarian who was focusing on programming for older adults um because the staff there very much recognized that and this is a brand new position that we have in the library
that works closely uh with our other branches as well as our colleagues at Age Strong and other uh city departments we look forward to continuing to bring amazing programs to all of our branches and
I in general when I'm speaking to communities I'm always like "Let me give you my email address i want to hear from you." And um it's very much um a a flow of communication because we want to hear what people are interested in and we want to look at other ways that we can
bring amazing film programs quilting programs we are purchasing sewing machines for many branches and and as as we uh go into the next fiscal year we are expanding our library of things which means we're going to be able to
check out more telescopes binoculars and other items that people have been asking us for so we're really excited to be launching that for the next fiscal year thank you [Applause] thank you
um and I do just want to recognize that the commissioner for BCIF Ma is here in the crowd somewhere thank you for um being here Ma um thank you um we will do a first round of questions from my colleagues and then
we'll get back to public testimony from all of you so in order of the lead sponsors first um Council Weber sorry thank you Chair um uh well it it was great to have public testimony you know
in part first because it it it this is all about you know helping seniors and and the people who've come out here today and it's great to hear your stories and uh it it I I can I'm sure I speak for the rest of my colleagues but your stories are what helps us push for
stuff like this um and increase programming um you know so to prepare for today's hearing I looked at there was a 2017 report uh on making Boston age friendly and there was a 2024 report I talked about earlier and that the one thing that links those two reports is is
is Commissioner Sheay you know who's who's photographed in the 2017 report under Mayor Walsh and so you know I think uh I think we're all generalists we deal with a lot you know I I I try to come up with some alliteration it's like
everything from potholes to property taxes uh but you know we have an advocate you know I think everyone in this room has an advocate in Commissioner Sheay who's really made a life's work of uh of fighting for seniors so um yeah council I'll go on record to say
the best commissioner in the country hands down hands down [Applause] um yeah Chief Maso may be the best at chair yoga among uh the cabinet but um uh so I guess you know
uh Commissioner Sheay uh this question is really for you but uh other you know folks can uh talk about it i mean so in the in the the October report it talks about uh space and increasing space uh I think it says they were the according to
the state recommendations we're supposed to have four to six square feet of senior programming or or senior you know facilities uh per per senior and we would by 2030 have around somewhere between five and 600,000 square feet
allotted for program do do you look at that you know um state guideline does the city look at it you know how how close are we or how are we going to get to that goal I guess sure um so obviously space is a critical
piece of being able to provide good programming for people um and I think it's it's up to us at the city to utilize kind of all of the city space that we currently have right all of our
uh library community rooms all of our uh BCYF centers all of our senior centers um in addition um because uh because those spaces are used uh you know the community centers and the libraries are
used by everybody um uh it's also important for us to identify where there are gaps and when there are gaps right there's often um a lot of youth in those spaces especially in the summer and the vacation weeks um so it's important for
us to identify gaps and to figure out additional space whether that is city space or um external space uh we've recently been uh really uh doing a
search for um the to for spaces that we can use and activate regularly throughout the year um and so I'll just name a couple of those that we're starting to activate now um we have uh the DIT center will be coming online for
a couple of days a week uh that's a space in Roxbury we'll be coming online for a couple of days a week starting in April um we have um the guild in Dorchester that we'll be activating a couple of days a week also starting uh probably in April or or maybe in May um
we have uh spontaneous celebrations in Jamaica Plane uh that we have that we've started activating um uh we will need to take a break for the summer because youth will be in that space but we'll be back in there in the fall um we have um
and then let me think sorry I think we have a couple of others that have escaped me but oh um we're working with the Boston Public Library in um in the West End to activate that community um space there so we're trying to we're
trying to build on the spaces that the city already has and make sure that we have places that we can activate um at least a couple of days a week and then we'll need to build from there um yeah I will say I you know here at the Ro Community Center there is there is a
senior spa they use it for I don't know there's senior programming in that space I think for sure yeah twice a week i for sure and Lauren is here we should give Lauren a shout out back there um Lauren is here from the Roach and so I think yes there's a lot of a lot of the BCYF
programs um like I I had mentioned a lot of the BCYF programs are activating their space and then um I think uh you know there are I think there it's it's a balance between what we're able to
activate with older adults and and when the youth are in those spaces yeah thank you and and the spontaneous celebrations i I had a chance to visit with them there was a popup uh there and there was one program I I thought was interesting it was um doing some uh basic sort of
physical activity and then moving people to a a boat house on the in Brighton uh on the Charles River with the goal of having people row and then putting them on a boat to row down the Charles River which I don't I it sounded fun i I
wanted to do that uh but they wouldn't let me um yeah they're they're in conditioning right now for the rowing they're taking they're actually literally taking conditioning classes i'll make the boat sink though um Yes yeah no it was so that I I I had
heard of that one before anyone interested in rowing on the Charles you know we will apparently help you reach that goal if you haven't done it already or if you did it a long time ago and want to return um so uh I guess can you
one thing that comes up in the reports and in terms of these spaces and what what I think makes the Elks Lodge successful is transportation it's easy to get here and to park um and you know I I we had a hearing last year uh
Commissioner Sheay where you and I think you've said this a number of times the participation in this popup here has exceeded expectations and it gets people from all over the city it's not just West Roxberry the demand in West Roberry is very high but um you know this really
is an asset for for folks from all over the city um what are we doing uh to make transportation easier for for seniors um to get to places like this in the Ro Community Center and sure you know it's
our it's our goal over the upcoming year to really uh try and roll out a a an overall transportation plan but we currently have three transportation programs we have the a strong shuttle we have the taxi coupon program and we have
um a small ride share pilot um and um and I think that we have modernization that we'd like to do to all three of those programs to uh and and ways that we'd like to grow resources in those
programs because we know that uh it's not only important to be able to get to a medical appointment but it's also important to be able to get to healthy aging programming um as you said the this program here um was pretty much
immediately successful in full um the Mildrid almost immediately successful in full this is not uh unique to Boston this is if you build a space for older adults across the country it will be immediately successful in full because
uh because older adults are growing across the country and and our baby boomers have changed everything that they've been through right and so now our baby boomers are changing aging and we need to respond to it um transportation is an important piece of
access and there's lots of other pieces of access that we're looking at okay thank Thank you and I um I know the uh we've talked a lot about development in the city and its impact on neighborhoods and uh the mayor did you
know unveil it's a the anti-displacement action plan and I think part of that I I don't know if you if if you want to comment I I you know my sense is part of that anti-displacement because we want to we we we need more housing in Boston and and uh you know but at the same time
we don't want to lose our our residents you know and push them out of the city we don't want to lose our local businesses uh you know have you had discussions uh you know during the construction of that plan about keeping seniors from being displaced and is there anything in that
plan that that we should know about sure we did um we did work with uh the uh planning advisory committee to give input um and to seek uh seek some community input for that plan and I know that um I I won't say too much about it
because I know there's an upcoming hearing on it I think maybe on Monday um but um but there is an older adult section of the anti-displacement action plan that really focuses on financial planning and um uh expanding the elderly
exemption which I know that the mayor has been very supportive of and the council has as well um uh really increasing the income um and asset requirements for the uh 41C elderly exemption um there are a lot of other things throughout the plan that aren't
kind of specifically in the older adult section but that make for communities where people of all ages can stay and that are really important for older adults and so um looking forward to uh I think getting additional community input
on the plan um and and making sure that um uh we really uh elevate our older adults as we're thinking about both anti-displacement and then kind of all other um city planning and policies that impact people as they age
thank you um just so my colleagues know I'm starting off the first round with seven minutes i know council Mia you like me to set the stage there expectations thank you Councelor Fitzgerald you're next thank you thank you Chair uh and thank you everyone from the administration for coming out here
today it's awesome um so I apologize to the audience i am going to have to do my job and represent Dorchester for a moment uh and speak and speak just to that neighborhood but it does it will uh the answers will apply to what you all will need to do as well um I know in
East Boston they have a great senior center right but I know it was paid for I believe by a casino uh and so uh without dropping a casino no was it not was it didn't they no we were hoping it was going to be paid for by a casino they ended up not doing it well no so
it's uh it's partially funded by Massport okay mass all right so aside from putting a casino or an airport in Dorchester to get money for a senior setter what what do you see the steps being in terms of a budgetary process um
and I know you know I know but for for the folks here as well um and and what is sort of like the reality of it because I I know we're up against some constraints and I I don't want to fudge around that right it's difficult um but advice for us as the council from you
all as to maybe how best to try to approach this uh to make these things happen wow i I don't know i don't have a capital plan so um so advice I would give counselor is
just so I think it's similar to what commissioner Shay just shared just in terms of um identifying spaces and places and that's what we've done so we already it's just identifying the spaces that already exist so our our community centers our libraries our existing senior centers now I know the ideal that
everybody has is like creating something new you know space is at a premium if we had infinite resources that's something that you could definitely consider um we don't have that we have a finite amount of resources available capital you know funding uh space etc what I'll say about
Dorchester uh and it depends on who you speak to we just had this conversation about Grove Hall i I consider that to be Dorchester nonetheless I know there's some other folks that have opposing views uh we won't get into that space whatever we do have an existing senior center there as well uh exciting to see the Grow Hall uh community center the
brand new Growall Community Center that uh you know knock on wood shovels in the ground this fall um which will also you know incorporate a senior space as well and so uh just thinking about along those lines um as Commissioner Shay has shared looking at the guild uh to expand
programming there as too so I think the recommendation and or advice if you will is to identify existing locations we want to meet people where they are we know uh parking and transportation is the issue and that's that's something the reason why we chose the Elks is because that was one of the biggest things that people you know commented on
it's like we need we want to make sure we have places to park when we get there um so as you are navigating the neighborhood as you are talking to community members if you are identifying spaces that would be ideal for folks to be able to activate let's first explore that and so you know I really want to make sure that we are doing the best
that we can in offering programming at existing spaces before we explore building new spaces and please I I would just add something to that that um the the East Boston um senior center as I said it's partially
funded by Massport but it's in a a a city space that the city was no longer using for the purpose it was originally using it for right it's an old library space so I think as we look at um you know I think that we could also be
looking at how we prioritize older adults as we think about how we're disposing of spaces that are no longer being used for kind of the purpose they were used for before would you happen to have so in those those redoss that that the city space that we went in and redid and you
don't have to do a new build and Lord knows with construction and prices and everything today that that that might not that only makes the route harder to get to to build a senior center what was a do you know a rough estimate of a cost i'm thinking so when as developers come in to Dorchester as people come in like
where where can I start to pull from and what is the goal I have to reach to say okay we we we've got a critical mass of of money to maybe make and find a location and then I can go to you guys and say I got some funding I got some this and I just need a gap filler sure i am really good at aging services i am
not a facilities person yeah in fact our senior centers we don't even own we don't even uh manage the space um uh uh property management does that for us um but I would say that um for the East Boston Senior Center which the building
I think the Orian was it's the old Oran Heights Library it was it was um pretty wellmaintained so they didn't have to do a ton to it i think it needed like a new roof and maybe some new windows um uh uh and it was in 201 we probably started
that in 2018 maybe 2019 um and that I think was about $5.5 million okay i think that's probably I would say that's on the low end for space it's actually it's also a pretty small space it's about 4,000
square feet gotcha no that's helpful i appreciate that um so the way we're thinking about it across the board is obviously short-term and long-term right and that's how I want to like just like to say just even getting this third room to expand activity here at the Elks uh is a great short-term plan while we look
to try and locate site and raise money for uh and find funding for a a more permanent location and I think um I will I will take that back to my district as well and I appreciate your time thank you so much thank you Chip thank you um Council Aurora
thank you chair thank you chair and thank you to the administration um just wanted to just also just give a big shout out to Commissioner Shay um and your team i know we partnered on a few senior events inside of the district uh where there
was the um the senior love day over at Prince Hall um and then um just countless amount of coffee hours um across the district and then uh shout out to um Chief Maso um and all your work that you do and and Commissioner
Martyr uh well Commissioner Rivera and Grove Hall is Dorchester Chief grove Hall is Dorchester um all day long what what is the process or how much funds do we have allocated as a city if we were
to find space um to um provide senior programming um is there a part of money that um the commission or the the department has um to actually fund um you know new startup organizations that
would provide uh senior programming and then what what is the process for existing organizations to apply for any funds to provide additional service sure um so I can start maybe with the
second one first what is the process to apply for funds so we give out our grant funds um in in a few different buckets we have our expanding engagement grants and that grant opportunity for this year
um giving out FY25 funds and the grants will operate over the next year um that just closed on March 13th and so um as I mentioned in my testimony we had 92 applications for that um about $1.8
million in requests we're currently reading and scoring grants and we have $500,000 in our operating budget um and we'll be issuing those grants sometime um next month um we also have uh a pot of money
$450,000 in our budget for behavioral health grants um that that grant opportunity is actually open right now um and so we are trying to get the word out about that and folks can apply um actually I know currently we fund ethos
um uh with some of that money um to for a Spanish- speaking clinician for their behavioral health older adult behavioral health program um as well as a number of other other folks that we fund for that work um also very important work um we
also give out our federal uh federal older Americans Act funds we have about $5 million that we give out in federal older Americans act funds the majority of that goes to nutrition elder nutrition it's very the federal government says you can spend this much
in this category this much in this category this much in this category we have um one flexible category in that that where we have a little more flexibility to fund local needs and out of those dollars um we give out 380,000
um to for uh social engagement programming um as well as uh evidence-based healthy aging programs um so we go out to bid for for those two pots of money um uh every two years and
so we're not out to bid now but we will be back out to bid for those actually we do we now do a grant invitation for those programs and we'll be doing that next spring and um Oh yep i'm sorry go ahead what was Tell me your first one the first one
is if you know uh new organization was to find a space to start providing services yeah or or were you asking about our budget um and and what we had so so so our budget our our city operating budget is about $8 million and
um and uh within that we we do the best we can to kind of get programming up and running and and [Music] um but but I I will say in order to kind
of in order to meet the vision that we have in terms of accessible programs for all older adults that want them in the city we will need to grow external partnerships and uh leverage additional resources
got it and um you know whether it's here or at the Mildrid it sounds like we're kind of bursting at the seams when it comes for uh senior programming yeah i mean our older adults want to stay active engaged healthy and have fun absolutely absolutely um so how often do
we re-evaluate and increase um the funding that goes to um the programs that are bursting at at the seams yeah i mean I think I would say that we've been actively growing uh both um
the programs that we're offering and funding for the programs and if you have if there's any opportunity that you see for um for external partners that we could advocate to for funding or apply for funding we'd be more than happy to take you up on that we know that the
need is there it's just about um it's it's part of it growing the resources got it and and if there was a you know let's say you know it's Christmas right and we're saying commissioner access um for the amount of resources or capital
that you would need from external partners um in order to just provide um for the demand right whether it's at you know the organizations that are in need of increasing capacity what what would
that dollar amount be yeah I I mean I I would say we have 130,000 older adults in Boston and with all of our programs we're probably scratching the surface of the need okay um when I go to the coffee hours one of
the things that I hear often is transportation um is a barrier getting to and from um that also that our um our a strong population not only wants the transportation to go to you know medical appointments but grocery stores but you know they see the cool things that we do
at city hall or you know some of the events that's happening downtown plays um I know that the council um allocated um more money to help start healthy rides i know that's a pilot program where we're offering five rides um a
year or Yeah five ride a year to every senior um in the city um and it's at any hour of the day I believe and it's through Lyft can you talk to me about the success of that program um and then are we looking at making that a
permanent program here yeah that program is very successful and um and uh you know we we need to we need to uh get additional funds for that program in order to kind of
make it a permanent program okay and what's what's the total cost as of now so at as of now we had um we had I'm trying to think $40,000 I think Karine to start that program
$30,000 15 20 20 and and then how many You can tell I don't do the work right i have to get the answers we had 20 $20,000 to start the program awesome and then you know
how many rides $20,000 and I I don't know off the top of my head but we can get that we can get that information back to you all right awesome uh thank you chair and thank you Commissioner thank you Brian um Council
Brady here you go oh here we go um thank you for all the great questions um I think the transportation access pro is a critical piece because not everyone um has a car not everyone drives um and
uh public transit can be a little undependable at times so um that's one issue that we hear a lot about um uh Commissioner and I think we've had this conversation about before about um the the local grocery stores are too
expensive for our seniors on limited income and they would like to go to Market Basket from Brighton so I know that's on your list i know that's on your list the destination uh the the um the market basket in
Waltham is a prime every every uh council for the aging like Brookline buses their people to to Waltham to Market Basket so um just just saying um I'm I'm just curious um Commissioner you know thinking about the present climate
and all the uncertainty are uh federal older Americans funds um are we anticipating any any impacts on the in the immediate term or what are we thinking about and how are we preparing for a possible fiscal shock sure um uh
yes so currently Older Americans Act funds uh through September 30th at the federal level have been level funded um with the with the most current federal budget that was signed um I think that
none of us know what will happen with federal funds after that um and I think that um we certainly are concerned um both about older Americans act funds also about um Mass Health which pays for
the majority uh probably 70 80% of our uh inhome home and community based services supporting our older adults who are are more homebound and need need additional support um we're so we're concerned about um we're concerned about
many things um I think that we'll need to see how things go we'll need to advocate together and and I would say that Arg is here to help our older residents try to kind of navigate and um
we have a couple of things I guess that I would just just elevate here for folks um I know we we were having some social security office some social security changes in terms of um having to access social security um either digitally or
in person um and then we also have the state the real ID requirement so both of those things I think um could be hard to navigate and our office is there to help support people um who need additional assistance navigating both of those things um I I I appreciate that is there
anything more that we can do to advocate for like I'm thinking about our our veterans who've you know served our country and there in such a level of you know a huge number of our seniors are also veterans um are are we able to
possibly organize advocacy or is that up to the community itself to organize and advocate for the services for seniors and our and our veterans yeah uh I I mean I think that um I think that certainly the city and the council
does its own advocacy and we'd love to you know pair with the community for any advocacy i think it's going to take all of us at the table to um make sure that uh that people get the resources that they need and and I think that uh you
know we're going to um be navigating some tricky times but hopefully we can all be here to support each other through that thank you i yeah I think it it's going to take us all working together to try and um raise
elevate the challenges for our seniors our elders and uh and our veterans it's it's really critical I think at this point to let our voices be heard so um let's let's work together uh and and then also reaching out to the veterans organizations to help you know a full
court press because as you say there's some pretty tricky times ahead of us and uh we have to we have to all work together to try and get the best support we can from the federal government for all of us not especially our seniors and our young people thank you thank you
Madam Chair um so it does seem like someone has raised their hand formally we don't ask questions in the middle but do you have a specific question you'd like to share forgive me if I'm wrong that's okay but I was under the impression that this
meeting was going to be held to hear from senior citizens as to what senior citizens need absolutely is so that's why we did start usually we wait till the very end for all public testimony we did start with the public testimony first there are some hard stops from the
administration we have two more colleagues who are going to put their questions on the record and then we're going to go right back to public testimony thank you know it's almost 12:00 yes I do thank you Counciloman here
Sally i appreciate you holding us to task with time and I will be quick um just so that we can get to the reason why we're all here um and I'll be brief with my with my questions i'm I'm curious about a few things one is the
the threat on the federal level and some of the funding that potentially can be taken away i know that's on the hearts and minds of some folks who I've interacted with here today so curious how are we grappling with some of the federal funding that potentially you know if there are any
threats we'd like to hear what those are so if you could talk to us a little bit about that and then I always like to just go I I I've said this when working in the nonprofit sector is that we are resourcerich but coordination poor and I think that there's so many resources already existing here in the city of
Boston and so I'm really happy to hear how the city has tapped into a lot of our nonprofit organizations and are looking to figure out how we utilize spaces and places to do senior programming i'd like to just advocate for and so for consideration and maybe
this you could tell me why or why not but I know the um boys and girls club they don't operate during the day so there's might might be some spaces there um I also think about the BCYF centers um they a lot of the programming is
usually after school and I'd love to see a world when we're our city resources are used throughout the entire day so mornings could be for seniors afternoons for young people and in the evenings could be for other families around some educational uh learning time
right and I'm just curious what could that potentially look like and then I'd love to hear because I have heard from folks about how we can expand this particular site i would like to hear where we are with some funding as it
relates to expanding this um place how much would it cost i know you you we keep going back and forth but I like numbers i'd like to know if you have a number what that magic number is um so that we can fight for those dollars in
our budget process and I'd like to know from a logistical standpoint um the timelining for that like what does that look like in terms of making it happen there a lot of questions counselor um so uh in terms of the federal
um uh picture I I think we're all navigating that together right um news is coming down every day we're trying to stay on top of it and we're trying to make sure that we have the information so that we can help people navigate that i am going to um DC tomorrow for a
policy briefing around the Older Americans Act funds and I'll be spending Tuesday up on the hill so um talking to our our federal policy makers so um I think it's important we're all kind of advocating and raising our voices around
around the federal issues um for uh Oh I should have written it down for um the the community centers yeah for the community centers um we're working handinhand with BCYF to and and all the BCYF centers um we've been meeting
regularly with them and working on how we can collaborate more together um and um and um we are uh we've been working with them to identify kind of which pieces will BCF doing how what pieces
are is a strong being bringing to the table to support as you know every center is just a little bit different just like every neighborhood is a little bit different and so um so looking forward to even expanding our partnership even further and continuing that work together
and council I just want to add to that as well is that um in addition to each center being um you know uh unique is that um we have more flexibility with our standalone centers and so of course we have constraints with our schoolbased sites and so uh we can't operate throughout the school day that's the reason why we have to have school
programming but what that looks like is exactly what's taking place um and if we don't have access to those uh spaces is the reason why we were able to enact uh the programming at our Boston public libraries as well so um again you have a dedicated uh you know administration and staff who will focus on addressing this
issue uh you know again shout out to the roach and the work that happens there the Orberger and Susan and her team the work that she does there and excited to share that you know um next month at the Draper Pool will be coming back online as well so looking at extended programming is taking place there as well so again a full commitment to the
work that's happening across the city so and then my last question was regarding the programming here oh right and extending that and what's the dollar amount and and what's the timeline and you know like giving us some sure perspective on what we should be anticipating sure so for the third day
here at the Elks we're anticipating it will cost about $100,000 which um which we think we can do through external funds um we're working on the procurement for the space because in order to pay for space we have to follow we have to follow kind of the
procurement rules um and so we're working um handinhand with the with the city's procurement team around that so that we're doing it in a in a legal way um and um we are um are are meeting regularly with the have met um a few
times with the ethos team and kind of working out um uh you know all the different pieces so that we can make sure we want it to be uh kind of one coordinated program um that we're partnering on we partner with ethos on many many things so I know that that um
I you know I know that uh I don't see I don't anticipate any roadblocks um I would hope that we would be able to have this space we haven't really chatted about it but I would hope we'd be able to have it uh kind of up and running I would say by May um but
some of that depends on the procurement piece of things that's great and that means the whole like this beast I because I know when we I heard earlier it was some of the spaces out there but I know that there was some interest in utilizing this space here too so I'm just curious is that part of the negotiating yeah so I will say for the
third day for the um the city will be able to pay for one day of space and for the third day we are planning to rent the entire space um uh and I I know that
um you know I I I'm not sure what ESO I know ethos knows that they need more I'm looking so many ethos people here um I know that they know they need more space i think in terms of procurements um uh we would need to procure a different way
and go out to RFP if we um if we paid for any more than one day so we're trying to kind of figure out what our options are thank you thank you for that and I'll just end with like for me it's always important and making sure that everybody wins right like this is this is what it creative and innovative ways
of approaching this issue where you're able to utilize the space there's some income coming here so I think that that's a really good model and I just I'm happy to see and hopefully you all feel like we're making some progress two years later we're moving so I just want to say thank you for your leadership in
this space thank you thank you so we will go to councelor Flynn and then back to public testimony thank you madam chair and again thank you for providing leadership on this important issue i'll make one comment and one
question i know I'm here to listen to uh residents talk about what's important to them so I'll try to be brief here's my comment um several weeks ago is what Senator Michael Rusher was here earlier and Congressman Lynch we were out in
front of the West Roxbury VA facility um and we were fighting against cuts to the Veterans Administration healthc care um that's also going to impact seniors significantly i spend a lot of time in
Jamaica Plane VA and West Roxbury and see a lot of Boston residents that get their care there i'm going to continue advocating against these cuts i'm going down to DC again to advocate against cuts to the VA um it will have a
devastating impact on on the city but also I'm going to hold my council colleagues accountable also that we can't cut the city of Boston veterans budget either that's also important um my second that's my comment here's my
here's my question um to the commissioner commissioner can you tell us what areas of the city currently do not have any type of city programming for for our seniors i don't know that there are I don't know that there are any
areas that have none now um uh whe if you count kind of all of our partners providing programs and and uh Art Strong and BCFs and libraries um
what I would say is that I don't think that any area probably has enough um but but is there any area I know that we don't have enough but is there any area specifically that has
very limited services for our seniors that it's almost um it's extremely difficult to provide that service to seniors yeah so so what I would say is the areas that were kind of seeking um additional space so for example that
when where we're rolling out uh trying to roll out the guild in four corners there's not a lot in that area of Dorchester um there's probably not a there's not a lot right now kind of in the in the south area of Dorchester we're looking for kind of a space in
kind of the Adams Village Ashmont Lower Mills kind of area um uh uh there there could be more going on in JP which is why we activated spontaneous celebrations um we're we're
looking forward to the new Mass General space that's coming online in the West End um to try to activate that um and certainly if if there are folks out there or if you on the council feel like there are um other areas that don't have
enough we're we're um interested in looking at that right now we're taking a kind of citywide approach and we're trying to put the puzzle pieces together with what we fund what our partners do and what we do and we're trying to identify gaps we're also looking at gaps
for different populations um so uh especially you know there are populations of people that don't speak English that we want to make sure also have access to programming so it's it's like a big puzzle thank you Commissioner
thank you Madam Chair thank you um next up is Peter Peter Angel and while you come up I know councelor um Weber just had one question but please join us yeah I thank you and and I know I I think I've talked to a lot of you uh about how
the the the the quick way to increase programming is through what we're doing with ethos but long-term senior centers uh especially in a place like West Roberry you know I think is needed i don't know just as a show show of hands who here wants to see a senior center in
West Roberry okay i thank you i just think it's it's how many of us do Tuesday and Thursday okay how many of you attend Tuesday and Thursday at the at ethos and representing
us for those two days clearly and then who here will attend a third day if they have one at ethos okay great okay uh well thank you i just wanted to you know we're here to make the case you know in the long term for a senior center uh and I guess my question to the panel is
anyone has have you looked at any places have you uh one of the things we've talked about is Walgreens closed i know uh State Rep mcgregor and I have reached out to Main Streets and the you know potential buyers uh so yeah well tra the
rumor is Trader Joe's is coming in yeah I've heard yeah I mean yeah anyway so we don't know what's happening any discussions any locations that you've looked at in West Roberry i'm sorry Peter to delay you here but if the panel has any answers to that
um I don't have any answers to that uh I would say for the council members to continue this conversation with uh capital projects and PFD uh those would be the appropriate parties to be able to explore you know uh what planning looks like in the city of Boston um and we'll have some of the answers to questions that you're asking in regards to access
to funding etc as of right now our dedication to expanding programming and making sure in the short term um our older adults have the resources and the services that they need um again in the short term while also keeping our eye on long term as well is definitely going to be critical uh Commissioner you have
anything to add to that i do have a hard stop um uh Chair Murphy as you are aware of and so I do apologize i do have to um exit um to the residents in the in the audience I just want to thank you sally brought up a really good point uh this conversation could have been had over
email or in person and this was a space for you to be able to ask the questions and talk to us directly um I'm going make sure you have my contact information so we can follow up if there's anything that relates to the work that we're doing that we could be supportive of um and that goes for all of you all as well so and Commissioner Shay will be here as well and so there's
any follow-up questions that you have uh please feel free to ask our colleagues here on the panel and thank you all again thank you chief thank you and thank you Peter you can go ahead [Applause] yeah uh I'm Peter Engel i'm also a
member of JP at home uh I am a retired geriatric physician VA physician i spent a lot of my time taking care of vets across the street at the West Roxbury VA and am super supportive of vets um as well as uh older people who aren't vets
u I just wanted to put uh the care of older people in some perspective and major issues for the counselor thanks thank you all for coming here uh to visit us um some of the major issues and they've already some of them have
already come up are housing and I'd wonder about uh multigener plans for multigenerational housing since there is a serious housing shortage in Boston um and many um many people uh live in multigenerational families there are a
lot of positive aspects of that and adapting housing so that babies and mothers and dads grandmas and grandpas can live together in a way that's safe com uh accommodating and comfortable uh seems like it would be an efficient way
to expand housing uh stren and strengthen our community as well as family relations uh another super important aspect of of uh caring for older people is mobility uh and there are many aspects of that
including um safe places to walk in JP at home we have a walking group walking improves health walking is a way of socializing as you're walking around uh it's a way of getting to the store and getting what you need um and uh like
improving the sidewalks in Boston could make a huge difference to make it safer for everybody not just elderly people but but everybody uh health care super important uh and uh for a lot of older people
uh having uh access to quality health care is is essential and uh care of people as they get older and when uh disabilities creep up uh and having a a good means of access to the sorts of
help they need is is essential um there are our population of of older people is getting bigger you mentioned uh 130,000 uh but they're also getting healthier that is it may take longer now to get
older than it than than it used to uh and uh I think that would be important in terms of what do you need when you're 65 what do you need when you're 85 what do you need when you're 95 um and one of the things that happens
with aging is one is transitions uh like giving up work is a big deal it certainly was for me um and uh Julia Mahia your mom is still working right uh but that may be an important part of her
identity and meaning and the transition can be pretty tough so as a physician it was very tough to give up some of that doctor stuff you know I felt pretty important as a doctor then I didn't feel very important feel very important anymore after I after I retired uh so
making provisions for supporting people and helping with the transition and I think all of these efforts to provide activities and meaning and purpose in people's lives at the time of retirement is is uh is an essential uh part of that
uh transition time um another point which I think is very important and I don't think anybody has brought it up is caregiver support and Ben Weber you you told a story of of your family and your dad i heard stories like that all the
time during uh my career and uh I did want to emphasize that there's really underrecognition of first of all the difficulty of that kind of transition for your dad for thousands of dads and moms and the difficulty of that
transition for the people who are caring for them it's really underappreciated and it needs to be recognized and and appreciated that is support for people in multigeneration families where the
caregivers who have a lot of responsibilities um have some access to resources and support uh so they can make it through that time as can the elder in the family in a way that uh makes it less difficult
so those are Oh one one more point about outfits like JP at home Jamaica Plan at Home which uh I got in after I had a heart attack and was about as close to death as as anybody could be uh that's when we learned about JP at home um well
I totally recovered and uh like now I'm bicycling taking 20 mile bike rides uh during the summer uh like shouldn't have happened um JP at home is structured and financed
largely by its members but there are a lot of people in the community that is it's it's sort of suitable for middle income or highincome elders but there are a lot of people in the community could who could tremendously benefit from programs like JP at home if they
had some financial report uh support that is uh funding some kind of scholarship uh and I'd like to advocate for that and maybe through age strong or some other funding source however it can be done under the the wing of of ethos I
think would uh open up this wonderful organization to a lot more people that's what I have to say thank you thank you Peter um is Mike Russo still here do we know if Mike Russo would like to speak next
he's all set he's all set okay and we have been joined by councelor Pepin thank you if you want to just say hello and I'm going to call up the next person um dot you are next so if you want to come on up dot Valente sure good afternoon everyone city councel Enrique Pepin here for district 5 representing
the neighborhoods of Roseno High Park in Madapan uh honor for be here today sorry I was late i was at a transportation meeting in my district on the other side of my district but it's a pleasure to be here i'm just here to listen to what the needs are as the other counselor that represents the other half of the parkway i know that a senior center has been
asked for here for quite some time so excited to hear the comments thank you thank you i guess it's afternoon now good afternoon uh thank you all for coming and it sounds to me um that you're on our side which is important to
us uh I haven't got a lot to say about programming and everything except that what we have here is almost like a family since its since its inception really and it's been growing and growing and
growing it means so much to me as I'm sure it does for most of the people who come here every day or every two days that we're here and possibly a third one now um most of us are alone and
aging and nobody wants to get old but it happens it happens everybody has to be aware of that and it happens a lot faster than anybody anticipates to have something like
this to be able to come to and really relax you can do as you please you just want to sit and talk and have a cup of coffee that's fine if you want to engage in all the activities that they have that's fine too and they're and they're
very adaptable to most of us so from my heart I want to thank Ethos and the people who run the programs here i also would like to reiterate that um BCIF also has programs that are adaptable for
um our seniors as well so just from my heart I want to thank you for your programs and thank you for your time thank you thank you Doth um up next is Jan jan Hamilton hi everybody i'm Jen Hamilton uh
wonderful to see a good turnout here as always and I'm going to give if if we have the time just about a fiveminute history lesson for the creation of this program which is and first of all I want to thank everybody here city councilors
um our state rep and state senator because they got the approval way back when people that are that are now dead wanted the senior center here i'm 78 and people come here that are up into their 90s but the people before that were
requesting because the percentage of seniors in this area of the city has been high notoriously over 20% three or four years ago part of West Foxbury and Rosundale um was more than 20% so I was
part of the group that originally started advocating for a senior center in the Parkway area and it isn't necessarily we on purpose don't call it it's not the West Roxbury Pilot Center it's the Parkway Pilot Center and
because we get state funds people come in from as far away as well not far away we have some that come in from Framingham that somebody somebody um joined us and is a member here and they have company that are seniors that are coming in to visit them so they bring
them here to the center which is absolutely it's wonderful because the environment here is just so inviting so warming and the way that the schedule is made out this is a typical
schedule which we get a month in advance okay which has all the activities what's involved in it okay and on the very top of it so from three years ago when I was up here actually speaking and I think I
made the statement that uh that that you made that that Emily made if you build it we'll come and I remember at that meeting Dot who spoke prior to me she said she hoped to God that we had something in this area before she was
dead and that was part of our request that please please please can we please have something in this area for seniors because we knew at that time that seniors had been along with everybody else coming off the pandemic seniors
were in their houses okay with no contact with another human being day in day out you know getting services maybe getting some food delivery from Meals on Wheels that was their contact with the person so when this first started and as
I think Mimi mentioned it first started there were only about 60 of us here but we put flyers out we put flyers out at St john's we did it in the the the stores in Center Street we did it um we did it at the three churches holy name
so flyers flyers flyers get the word out and that's why I'm telling this story because if you want to open other senior centers and everything use the word of mouth use those seniors use the advertisements this we get online every
month in advance so I saw somebody that was in there yesterday in the in our uh Thursday session and I forget she may be here now but she's circling what she's coming to yeah no she's not here now i remember who it was but she's circling
what she's coming to on Tuesday and Thursday that it's very important and just to um just to I want to go to the back page on this that this this comes out every Tuesday every Thursday and
it's listed by hour so you can mark you can look at everything that you want to join so um and one of the one of the um Mimi alluded to this the drop-in tech program it is awesome her program has
taken off like you wouldn't believe because she helps us with our laptops our phones and once a month or once a once a month she gives a presentation on something which is wonderful that's
attended now by about 40 or 45 of us once a month that we come in and we can get personal attention or we can schedule a meeting with her for tech support and stuff like that but the thing that I wanted to point out is here
um so now we're up to 693 this here is this here is as of um as of April 1st so it's through May it's through May third May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May May yesterday through that date okay uh now we have signed up for the
programs 693 unique individuals total visits since our inception of a year ago June 13 938
visits in that length of time so that's why I wanted to recap the history of this program because it is so sorely needed around the city i wish this here is a this here is a gem of the city and I feel as though we're the extension of
the emerald necklace thank you for ethos and the city uh the city the state reps everybody that has created this because this here is what people need um seniors really need this and one other thing I just want to say and that is when we
first come in here every morning at 9:00 our first program isn't until 10:00 you know what it is 9 to 10 it's coffee hour and they have coffee they
have tea they have pastries they have fresh fruit and we sit around the tables and we chitchat before we decide before we go to the programs but that's what has ma that's what has made that the success of this program I
believe is that when we get together first thing in the morning at first people didn't talk that well no I can't say that even from the first time when 60 of us were together because everybody was just so happy to be together and and and somebody one other individual paying
attention to that one- on-one conversations what that does for us you know it's just unbelievable So I think that's it for what I want to say and I want to thank uh thank everybody that's made this program possible and I want to
give a shout out ethos all the way but especially for my good friend here from the very very beginning well everybody with ethos I see Carol and I see I see a lot of them here car Carol does this by the way and uh Carol didn't talk but
Carol does this she heads up all the programs in here and but my very good friend Ann Glora from Ethos and we go back I go back with Ann Glora at least 10 or 12 years and doing programs with Tai Chi and and and all those other
programs so that's it for me so thank you all so much for listening thank you Jan um next is Margot Kleti hi everybody hi Marggo hi hi everybody my name is Margot Kleti i am 72 years
old and I reside in Matapan um I want to thank everybody who's come here today and I want to thank everybody who has funded i mean I want everybody was fought for the funding for all the programs that I have
been able to take uh advantage of six years ago I retired um and retired to take care of my younger sister who's 66 and uh she is schizoeffective and autistic so she
lived at the time in Florida with another sibling before that she was living in Illinois where my mother was and she cannot live by herself so we as a family decided that Massachusetts was
the best place for her um specifically Boston was the best place for her which I found out a lot more about when she came so she came to me six years ago i was scared to death and I didn't know what I was doing i had never been a
caregiver before and I hadn't lived with my little sister since she was 12 years old and I was 18 i hadn't even lived in the same state as her in all that time and my very good friend Linda Kogat who
some of you know she told me "Get with Ethos call Ethos call them before she comes." So I did i connected with Ethos and they set Mary Joe up with all of these programs all of these we had a
home health aid who came in and and cleaned uh Mary Joe's room and the first floor which I just loved although in the beginning I was like you know I don't want no stranger coming into my house but then I got used to it and she became
a wonderful almost member of the family after three they also set her up with Meals on Wheels and um a couple other services nutrition counseling uh and I forget what else and after
three years I couldn't take care of her anymore uh she became very unsteady and I live in a three-story townhouse and she was falling down the stairs i am not a professional and I made a big screw up with her medication once which scared
the hell out of me and I thought she needs professional help and I was fortunate enough to get her placed in Mount Pleasant Rest Home and I didn't know that i asked uh do you have other
people with major mental illness here and they said yes and like Mary Joe it's it's um you know controlled with medication and I don't know who those other residents are who may have major mental health problems but I know Mary Joe is one of them and I cannot say
enough good things about Mount Pleasant Rest Home it's the best place on earth they have the best staff on earth so I am here for two reasons one is to express gratitude i have immense gratitude for everybody who works for
the city and the state who has made all these things possible and the other is I have a little bit of anxiety not a little a lot of anxiety about what's happening with the federal government and I am here to
ask you if there's anything that we can do we're here advocating for ourselves we would like to be advocating for ourselves at the federal level and advocating for each other none of us
wants to see our veterans end up in terrible situations because they can't get the health care that they need none of us wants to see people whose Medicare Good God everybody here probably in this room receives Medicare and Social
Security if anything were to happen to either of those programs and they are both very much in danger we wouldn't know what to do so we're here to ask I'm here to ask if there's anything that we can do to advocate for ourselves on that
federal level thank you thank you um Sally Cohen go Sally it's your turn Sally i didn't imagine that this was I was
going to be in front of you and speaking to a whole lot of you it's very frightening i just had ideas about what I what I would like to see for senior citizens in the area i'm 73 years old i'm a very very
old resident of Boston and at the same time I'm very very new i grew up in Boston i grew up in Dorchester Matipan i went to High Park High School i went to Northeastern University got a master's
degree at BEu and then fell in love with a boy from New Jersey and I got exiled to New Jersey sorry to hear that but I'm back here i'm back here my three children are in different points in the
United States they're far far away and I'm back here because I said "Oh we still have a tiny decrepit little house in Hyannis that's where I'm going to go and I don't want to be there in
the winter you don't want to be there in the winter i love Boston and I've come back but I've come back to a different city i'm one I'm the last of six kids we grew up we were Greek immigrants we came
to the United States we worked hard we did well i am the American dream now I'm a senior citizen and as the last of six kids guess who's getting to take care of who's
left i have a brother who's 84 years old and he just had a knee transplant a knee replacement yes and I have a sister who's
76 and she is developmentally disabled and I am overwhelmed so I need help she needs a place to go she's very healthy but she's developmentally disabled and there's no place for her to
go my brother needs help he's very hard of hearing and he's very stubborn if I say to him "Don't walk without the cane," it doesn't matter if someone else a visiting nurse a visiting physical
therapist says "Don't walk without a cane it matters i need help we need technological help because my two siblings cannot handle a cell phone
they need a landline 90% of the calls that come to the landline are you know who people who want to sell you insurance a grave plot blah blah blah i can't imagine
why a country of this caliber who 50 years ago put a man on the moon cannot figure out how to keep people from calling up to sell us insurance how many of you have a
dog raise your hand got two only one person i'm surprised here oh here there is no dog park in West Roxbury i have a big beautiful dog that's now
living down south because there's no place for him to be to run i take him to Hinesfield i walk with him on the little leash he's 110bs i don't want to give him up but
where can he run millennium Park is there a dog park in Millennium Park no people think it is dogs need to socialize with other dogs just like humans need to socialize with
other humans why can't there be a dog park in West Roxbury who owns the land behind the Atrius building atrius Health Bel uh Atrius Health Building that's on Route
One that's across the street from Hanok Village who owns all that land back there i go back there with the dog it's littered with garbage does anyone know who owns all that land the city why isn't there a dog park
there [Music] hinesfield is very pretty there should be a dog park there there's a place for little children to play there's a place for basketball players to
play there's a running path you can go around but people go there with dogs because dogs need to socialize like people need to socialize why can't one be put there this
room a dog park needs to You have to have fencing around it you have to have benches for old people to sit you have to have trees so they're going to go there with their dogs and be in shade and not in
sun that's all I had to say thank you for listening thank you Bill [Applause] Tob hi everybody you're safe from me because I no longer
drive my name is Bill Tob and I am visually impaired and I serve on the H the H1 Commission's Senior Advisory Council i think I'm the only person from West Roxbury on the council i urge you all to join if you
want to have a voice commissioner Sheay thank you for the improv classes that I just finished there were tw 20 of us we got to go to the improv asylum and we had fun
next week there'll be ceramic classes in Rosen Hill for 10 of us i haven't done ceramic since I was in elementary school i think fifth grade now I'm going to get serious the Boston Public Library according to its website has only one computer for people who are
blind or visually impaired like me it's a disgrace it's the worst library in the country it would only cost $500 per computer per library for a computer for people who blind and visually impaired
child who's blind and visually impaired can't use a computer at the library that's a disgrace and lastly there are people in this room who have heard me speak about this and I've written reports and made
recommendations to the Boston Public Library and here's the sad part the Boston Public Library is not in compliance with the ADA Act the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 section 504 i've researched other libraries
across the country Cambridge Newton Seattle why Seattle because it's the comparable size of population of Boston boston Public Library is the worst library in the country for assist of technology if you're blind or visually
impaired like me and lastly please raise your hand if you sing or you play an instrument please there's an amazing nonprofit where you can go and sing and record your music
and I was there last night listening to jazz thank you very much thank you Bill sarah Deleo are you here sarah
she left did um anyone else that's the last one who has formally signed up is there anyone else in the room who would like to come up and speak if you Yeah go ahead sure go ahead sorry sorry i'm Marggo Kleti from Matapan and
I just forgot to mention um one thing and that is that Senior Boston Home Care was also instrumental in helping me they set me up um invited me to a caregiver support group and that made all the
difference in the world because uh a lot of us are caregivers here in spite of our age and it only gets harder as you get older and you need the support i needed the support i was in tears all the time until I got into this caregiver
support group so that's all oh and one more thing just because I've always wanted to say this i yield my time back Madame Chair wow thank you and you know what i love when my colleagues say that and they have no time to yield back but they say it anyway it's like well thank
you um we are going to go through a second round of questions or comments from our colleagues we'll start with the lead sponsor Councelor Weber okay i guess uh you know we we heard from Bill Ta and um I I guess Priscil
okay they're going to have a chance also oh okay uh Sure uh I I I I just I I have a comment but uh Priscilla did you have a response to that an access basically what we're
talking about is is access Okay uh just to the library you know for people who are you know having trouble seeing or hearing or getting around like um uh specifically i know I've talked to Bill Tab about this a lot uh and I'm just
interested to hear what uh the the public library is doing uh well I appreciate your your uh comments i will u be working with our IT department on um you know the comments that you made we have heard these from other uh
comments we've also worked with um Age Strong to do an assessment to make sure that um our our buildings are friendlier for um people that are having memory issues and uh we're also working with the disability commission and making
assessments for all of our buildings um the uh the computer question i appreciate that and we'll if um if it's possible I'd like to be able to get your contact information so I can follow up that would be really helpful to me
yeah uh that's and and Bill I know we'll talk about this and and I met with Sheila Scott here at West Roberry yeah uh I'm just I'm just saying I met I talked to Sheila Scott at the West Roberry Library about this uh this week and they say they they they've been
working with you anyway um but Bill did you have you I I'll listen and then I'll I'll let you know what what Bill's saying microphones just so we can all hear you thank you i don't want to not have everyone here
i've been studying this for five years it's not very hard to do in every computer in the Boston Public Library there is software built into the operating system Windows or
Apple it's free it's called a screen reader it converts text to audio what else does the library need headset city has hundreds of them what else do you need well you need a lamp so
people like me can see the keyboard if a library doesn't have a keyboard with yellow keys you can buy yellow stickers on Amazon they cost less than $15 what's the big cost 127 in 4K
highdefinition monitor so people who are seniors don't have my eyesight disease but can see it better total cost as I said less than $500 per computer per library total cost less than
$15,000 pretty simple it's not a lot of money and I'm very lucky and I'm very grateful because I get services from Massibility and Easter Seals my eyesight is taking me around the world literally and there are lots of
organizations that are willing to help the city of Boston make the city of Boston the best city in the world for seniors it's all there less than less than $15,000
thank you okay thanks Bill uh yeah uh I So I I I don't have any other questions i know we've this is uh it's been it's a long time to sit here i'm really happy that we could have this on site uh you know this is the second hearing we've
you know the council is hosted here uh hopefully there'll be more um I will certainly push for that uh and you know I I mean I I do think we we have partners here you know uh I I know Miss Foley and especially Commissioner Sheay
who care deeply about the community and we're going to do whatever we can to fill the need uh and so I I look forward to working with the mayor's office and you know my colleagues here on the council to continue increasing the amount of programming we have looking for ways to build a senior center out
here in West Roxberry uh and uh listening to to you and and everyone else in the community who needs the services so thank you Chair thank you Council Fitzgerald thank you Chair i appreciate my colleagues for coming out here today appreciate uh
council staff for hosting this meeting today and to the administration for their guidance on some of my questions and and and my other colleagues um I don't really have any further questions unless folks I would like to give my time to you all if there's any other comments or concerns but if not um we can move on thank you chair thank you
council council mia thank you um I'd like to I'd like to thank councelor Weber uh for continuing to sound the alarm and bringing us here to West Roxberry where we belong right listening to the people so I just want
to thank you Councelor Weber for your intentionality you know oftent times we do hearings at city hall i think there's something beautiful about being in community with people and so I just want to thank you for making sure that we continue to have this conversation here in the heart of West Roberry where it
belongs um and I want to thank everyone for showing up as I mentioned earlier showing up is half the battle and I think that the more that we do the more that it's a visual indicator to us as city councilors and also to the administration that y'all mean business
right do y'all mean business right now the question is is really about like what do we do with this information and I'm like as I said in the past my office is dedicated to ensuring that we work alongside Councelor Weber um and our and our colleagues here to ensure that you
have the resources that you need to make this happen and then I just want to thank the folks who spoke and raised a few new things because I think that oftent times in communities where you can really listen and learn like the issues around accessibility that's information justice if you can't
actually be able to see and read and and understand and comprehend those are the issues that we need to address on the city council so I just want to say thank you for raising it here and giving us some more work to do councelor Weber I'm here for that and it's only $15,000
uh we are we sure that's it because that's an easy fix it's a legal fix so we'll get that done yeah that's a retail okay okay I know we're on a bootleg budget nowadays considering everything that we're going through right now but $15,000 is $15,000
and I think that there's 13 city councilors and if each of us said $1,000 towards our little budget negotiating that we want to put towards this I think that that's something that we can do collectively behind and I think that that is how we do the people's business right so I I think $15,000
um Commissioner Sheay is coming your way and also you over in the library to make things happen right now hold me accountable to that but I I need everybody on board with it okay um and then lastly um you know I hope that my mom is able to um
retire one day but I think you said something doctor so important that I think helps me understand probably her why it's probably it's more than just um economics i think it gives her a sense of purpose and it helps her stay um
mentally healthy because isolation is real and even though her kids live next door I think that because she has a community that's consistent i'm sure that's probably another reason why she's not willing to give up the job so it was
a good reminder to for you to say that cuz it made me think about my mom's journey differently and maybe me giving her a little bit of slack to say "Okay you can keep working as long as you can." But so thank you for for sharing that um and thank you for all for being here thank you thank you Council Mia um
Council Flint thank you thank you Madam Chair and thank you to my colleagues to the administration to city council staff but especially to the residents for being here today listening asking excellent questions advocating for new for a new
center in the in the parkway for our seniors which which I support i want to say thank you to councelor Murphy and councel Weber for their advocacy and councelor Mahia as well um for their advocacy and trying to get a new center
here in the Parkway area um my final point is I also want to I'd like to go forward with a city council hearing order to discuss how we can ensure that all our
spaces are accessible for persons with disabilities including including in the library and want to make sure that we um we respect our all people with disabilities i'm a disabled veteran as many of you know but I also know that
there's a lot of challenges that we face seniors face and we want to make sure every space is accessible to seniors and and persons with disabilities that's a federal law we don't have the luxury
to abide by it or not we have to abide by it that's the law um so it's important that we do have a formal discussion about about that i have a good relationship with the commissioner of disability rights at city hall uh
Commissioner Mccash and I'm sure she'd be glad to participate but it's something that we must do here in the city is ensure every space is accessible to persons with disabilities and our seniors thank you Madam Chair thank you Council Fl
thank you Madam Chair and to my colleagues thank you for hosting this hearing i think that it's always beautiful to have a hearing in the community because it really changes the dynamic of the conversation where we get to listen directly from the residents in a room that's packed and that really does influence us when it comes to
decision- making for me I look at this view of a senior center even from a more broader perspective in a more holistic way because it's about having a senior friendly city and literally where I was at this morning was a group of residents
over near the Mildrid A Community Center they were asking for more time to be able to cross the street to be able to have a safer crosswalk um to have better so that cars have better visibility when they're trying to cross the street there and there's a there's a senior program at the Mildred right there so that's who
I was with and when I think about the work that we're doing today and making sure that there's ADA compliance in our in our buildings I also think about our street infrastructure so I I just I love to take everything into consideration and I'm here to continue to support my
colleagues in this fight because I know that this area has been fighting for this for quite some time now you have an ally in me here so thank you all so much for coming out and I look forward to continuing the conversation thank you thank you Council Pepin um so I will just make a few comments and then I'll
pass it back over if the administration wants any closing remarks but thank you all for showing up i know when I do come out to West Rockspray Parkway community you are always here and thank you for voicing you know your concerns and your
ideas because many of you did say it but not everyone can show up and not everyone feels comfortable advocating for themselves so for those of you who did speak up just know that you are speaking for so many others so I appreciate that um just a few thoughts that I will be bringing back we talk
about this new master facility plans and BPS which we're still um waiting to get that hearing scheduled but as we talk about closing some of our schools and merging schools we should be identifying some in neighborhoods that could be used as senior centers because there is no
plan yet for what we'll be doing or at least not shared with us yet what we'll be doing with those spaces i also want to say um I grew up I'm born in 1970 so when the um community centers right the Orinburgger is out here I was at the
Murphy community center we did a better job sharing our spaces in the 70s 80s 90s that we don't do now and I know that property management just last summer did take over managing our BCYF facilities but those shared spaces during the
school day were shared and my grandmother was having lunch in the senior room while I was in kindergarten and then I remember vividly that we um you know our severely disabled students would be in the pool and the seniors would be swimming with them it was just
I know it was a different time but now it does seem like it's very rigid when BCF centers can open when we can staff them i do know that the library now is open another day but we know that many of our spaces on the weekends both days
aren't open so I think we do need to look more at how we can use the spaces we have more efficiently and have them um and we talk I have a story like so many intergenerational I was always felt
so fortunate that my children had greatgrandparents for many years and so grew up with grandparents and my mom my dad's in his 90s my mom is in her late 70s my aunt my two aunts still go to work a very similar story to council
Mahia they're in their 80s and um don't want to give up work and I do know that it's because of those you know relationships it's so important that we keep people connected and I know um dogs I do have to also say one of the things I learned when we had the meetings a
couple years ago about budget requests the number one thing people came on to advocate for were dog parks because it's so part of the um isolation and being having spaces to show up with our pets and be out there but I do just want to give one shout out our um community
police officers i know you have wonderful ones here in West Roxbury and across the city but many of the events I go to in neighborhoods across the city like in Charles Town in the north end are sponsored senior events by our community police officers so the police
department in that community policing does do a wonderful job so there's many different departments that step up and do programming with our seniors so I want to thank them across the city and just know that we on the council are here to advocate we have to get that
third day over you know the finish line and then talk about where gaps across the city where we also need other programming i know it's something um Commissioner Shay and I have talked about a lot but if either of you would like to make some closing statements
please do and then we can move on sure i I don't want to take up too much more time except just to to thank um thank you all for coming out thank you council for uh elevating these issues and I you know uh I think together we can make
Boston a good place where we all can age well thank you yeah I just want to say thank you for the the feedback the opportunity and uh we always want to hear uh as much from our counselors and our communities to
improve our services so thank you thank you very much and with that this hearing on docket 0261 is adjourned [Applause] [Music] i'm
[Music] feeling it