Sanders Thanks NYC Council for $253,000 Rochdale Village NORC Funding Restoration

Late yesterday, the New York City Council adopted a $75 billion dollar city budget for fiscal year 2015. Included within the new budget is a $253,000 appropriation to fund the Rochdale Village Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC).

Rochdale Village's NORC was scheduled to close next month after its application for a renewal of funding was declined by the New York City Department for the Aging (DFTA) due to projected budget constraints.

Upon learning of the NORC’s impending discontinuation, New York State Senator James Sanders Jr. (D-Rochdale) immediately convened a meeting between him, his aides and DFTA Commissioner Donna Corrado, to urge the program's funding be renewed.

Aides to the Senator also conferred in recent weeks with representatives of City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, to advocate the Council restore funding to Rochdale Village's NORC.

Senator Sanders welcomed today's news about the replacement of funding to the program. He remarked, "I applaud my former City Council colleagues for providing the money essential to ensuring the survival of this vital program.”

“In recent months, I received several hundred letters from seniors within my community of Rochdale Village who have benefited from their NORC’s services. For more than a decade, it has enabled them to age with grace and dignity from the comfort of their own homes, and they can now rest assured that comfort will not be taken away from them."

A senior DFTA official also confirmed funding had been restored to the Rochdale Village NORC.

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The 10th Senatorial District includes Far Rockaway, Jamaica, South Jamaica, Rosedale, Richmond Hill, Rochdale Village, Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, and Springfield Gardens.

Click here to view the NYC Council "Fiscal Year 2015 Adopted Expense Budget Adjustment Summary/Schedule C"