Amid the Trump administration’s unending attack on the rights of immigrants, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized communities, one vulnerable group has flown under the radar: older adults.
As President Trump fixes his sights on our nation’s 61.2 million older adults — slashing programs and agencies that allow them to enjoy their golden years without worrying about necessities — our city is headed off a fiscal cliff, and they are taking elderly New Yorkers with it. Albany and City Hall need to be ready and develop a plan to protect our older adults from the threat of homelessness and poverty.
When my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease a decade ago, I became her primary caregiver essentially overnight. Through that experience, I saw firsthand how difficult it is to access services, resources, and navigate bureaucracy. And now that the Trump administration has gutted crucial programs that support older adults, that story has become far too common.
Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” cut more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and SNAP, and the federal government has withheld tens of millions of dollars for HEAP. New York alone is set to lose $15 billion in benefits, which could result in more than 1.5 million New Yorkers losing their health insurance and one million losing crucial access to food.
These cuts came after the president eliminated the Administration for Community Living, the federal office that oversaw many critical older adult programs like Meals on Wheels. And there’s more to come, with the local program Silver Corps becoming the administration’s latest victim after Trump eliminated $400 million in AmeriCorps funding.
Public assistance programs are particularly impactful for older adults, many of whom live on fixed incomes. In NYC, 40% of older adults have trouble paying at least one bill while 30% can’t purchase affordable, healthy food in their community. And as we expect to see a 40% jump in our older adult population by 2040, the Trump administration’s actions are both exacerbating our citywide affordability crisis and threatening the social safety net for low-income older adults.
That’s where strong planning comes in. Our city is already far behind in planning for our aging population, and these federal actions will only make the situation worse. As chair of the City Council’s Committee on Aging, I’ve championed proactive planning through two legislative packages, called “Age in Place NYC,” that represent a comprehensive approach to supporting our aging population.
We’ve passed 15 of these bills that do everything from providing free legal assistance in Housing Court for older adults and mandating universal design in city-funded housing, to requiring the city’s Department for the Aging to create and implement long-term plans. And tomorrow we’re holding a hearing to explore how to secure more city resources for older adults. But the City Council can’t do it alone.
We need the city and state to empanel a special joint task force that includes elected officials, government staffers, and nonprofit providers to identify every funding cut harming older adults and make a plan to fill any budget gap using new or existing revenue sources and ensure continuity of programming.
Without proper comprehensive planning and budgeting, our city will no longer be a place where older adults can age in place with dignity. A lack of available food may mean greater attendance for free meals at older adult centers. And HEAP cuts mean we may need to activate more heating and cooling sites to ensure older adults can stay healthy during extreme weather.
New York needs to not only fill in the gaps that Trump has created but also expand programming to meet rising demand. That means improving accessible transportation options, expanding home-delivered meals programs, creating more affordable senior housing opportunities, and strengthening support for family caregivers. And we must dramatically expand funding for older adult centers and increase the capacity of food programs that will see surging demand.
This moment demands more than empty rhetoric about respecting our elders; we need concrete action. We owe it to the generations who built this city — to create a city and nation where growing older doesn’t mean becoming invisible. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set our social safety net in motion to protect citizens “against poverty-ridden old age.” In contrast, the impacts of Trump’s actions, while devastating across the board, will be felt even more intensely by older adults.
With any luck, all of us will grow old enough to need a little help. Let’s work to plan for a future that lets this generation and all future generations age in place with dignity.
Hudson represents parts of Brooklyn in the City Council and chairs of the Committee on Aging.
