The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Westchester County

Aging in Place: A Partnership Helping Make Homes Safe & Secure for Seniors

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Karen Haycox, Habitat for Humanity NYC and Westchester CEO

As people age, it’s important for them to have a home where they can feel secure, live comfortably, and thrive. With that in mind, Habitat for Humanity New York City and Westchester County in partnership with Westchester Residential Opportunities (WRO) in White Plains launched Aging in Place (AIP), a program to empower seniors to remain safely and independently in their homes.

“The program serves a very critical and practical need. There are many seniors who don’t have resources to complete simple home repairs that would allow them to age safely in their homes, in their communities, within their network of support, in their declining years,” said Karen Haycox, CEO, Habitat for Humanity NYC/Westchester County. “We see this as an opportunity to stabilize this vulnerable community at a vulnerable time in their lives.”

Habitat partnered with WRO to establish AIP, a home renovation and energy efficiency program for seniors that provides upgrades to improve safety and mobility. It serves homeowners aged 62 and over whose income is 80 percent or less than the area median income and who demonstrate a critical housing need. “Small repairs can make a big difference, such as repairing a loose railing or unsafe steps or finding a better way for seniors to navigate out of the bathtub,” explained Haycox. “We focus our interventions on places where we can make a strategic difference.”

An Acute & Growing Demand

WRO Executive Director Marlene Zarfes

A Westchester County Housing Needs Assessment reported that over 30% of homes throughout Westchester County were built before 1940 and will likely need major repairs and system replacements in addition to physical modifications to mitigate accessibility challenges. “The acute and growing demand for resources that empower seniors to remain safely and independently in their homes was a common refrain. We saw an opportunity to step in and make a difference,” said Haycox. “The mission of Westchester Habitat is to create, preserve, and advocate for healthy, affordable homes for all. We envision a county that’s a national leader in meeting the housing needs of its growing senior population.”

For WRO it has been the perfect collaboration. “We have 55 years of bringing all facets of housing help to vulnerable populations in Westchester, and pairing that with Habitat with their skills is perfect. Our mission is to promote equal, affordable, and accessible housing opportunities for all residents of our region,” said Marlene Zarfes, Executive Director, WRO.

“As our senior population increases, with the number of residents aged 60 or over expected to rise to 25% by 2030, our existing county-wide deficiency of affordable housing for seniors, many of whom live on fixed incomes, becomes more acute while the wait for affordable housing grows longer. These funds will help us make necessary aging-in-place repairs that enable seniors to remain safely in their homes while increasing energy efficiency.”

The program targets interior and exterior home repairs, safety improvements, and energy efficiency upgrades. Current services include grab bars/handrails; light switches and door knob replacement; lighting and trip prevention modifications; and accessibility modifications for hearing and vision-impaired homeowners.

Haycox pointed out AIP can offer seniors a positive outlook. “We try to do what we can for these valuable members of society as they age. We aim to improve their quality of life, enabling them to live safely and independently in their homes, close to family and friends, while saving them money and even reducing their carbon footprint,” she said. Zarfes added, “As seniors are aging in place, the home has to be safe and secure. As their mobility and income declines, we need to get involved.”

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and former U.S. Representative Mondaire Jones also allocated $500,000 in Congressionally appropriated funds in the FY 2023 Omnibus Budget to support seniors in need of these services. “We depend on the commitment of like-minded like-hearted individuals,” said Haycox noting AIP serves as a lifeline to seniors. “We hope people feel Habitat for Humanity is there for them. We will respond to this need as our resources are able, to reach out and provide stability to this community, and we urge people to join us.”

For additional information about the inaugural supporters/partners including the Field Hall Foundation, and to apply for initial AIP accessibility and mobility modifications, write to: AgingInPlace@HabitatNYCWC.org, call (914) 240-7003, or visithabitatnycwc.org/aging-in-place.

Westchester County Office of Economic Development and Sustainable Westchester Team Up to Launch Clean Energy Accelerator Program

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Collaboration launches with formation of working group to identify local industry needs and support workforce development

Westchester County, New York  – The Westchester County Office of Economic Development is pleased to announce it has partnered with Sustainable Westchester to launch a Clean Energy Accelerator Program (CEA). The Program, which includes a Careers Working Group that recently met for the first time, convenes key stakeholders who will work together to identify the workforce needs of the clean energy sector and create strong clean energy career pathways for Westchester residents.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer said: “The clean energy industry is booming, with state, federal, and utility incentives, creating more career opportunities at every education level. And, clean energy projects are increasingly in disadvantaged communities, creating an opportunity to train a local workforce who historically and disproportionately have been harmed by environmental burdens. Expanding Westchester County’s capacity in this sector will have a tremendous benefit to both current and future employers, as well as our residents.”

Westchester County Director of Economic Development Bridget Gibbons said: “We understand that clean energy project implementation can be challenging due to workforce barriers, which range from lack of skilled talent to limited awareness among potential workers of opportunities within the industry. The climate career field is growing and there are opportunities for residents to both build new skills and pivot existing skills to a new industry.”

Sustainable Westchester’s Interim Executive Director Jim Kuster said: “We are delighted to partner with Westchester County to scale career pathways in clean energy for residents. The heart of this work speaks to Sustainable Westchester’s mission and we welcome the opportunity to participate in an initiative that benefits the community, economy and environment.”

Sustainable Westchester’s Program Director Rachel Carpitella said: “As a non-profit in the clean energy sector we know firsthand the challenges surrounding recruitment, hiring, and retention. We see our solution provider partners seek to hire skilled workers and at the same time we are aware of community members across the county who desire a career.  This program solves for the missing links and will accelerate the just transition to a clean energy economy.”

Among the CEA Working Group’s goals, are:

  • Align resources to implement existing and develop new clean energy training programs;
  • Provide local clean energy businesses access to a qualified workforce and increase their capacity to broaden their activities, including potentially hiring workers at a subsidized rate through the NYSERDA program;
  • Create strong clean energy career pathways for Westchester residents;
  • Support local businesses to broaden their services in correlation with the market demand for clean energy; and,
  • Attract clean energy companies to Westchester and ensure workforce availability to accelerate the implementation of money saving, pollution reducing technology across the county.

About The Westchester County Office of Economic Development

The Westchester County Office of Economic Development works to improve the County’s economic well-being and quality of life.  This includes a broad range of activities to attract, create and retain jobs, and to foster a resilient, pro-growth and inclusive economy. For information, visit https://westchestercatalyst.com/.

About Sustainable Westchester

Sustainable Westchester is a nonprofit consortium of Westchester County local municipalities that facilitates effective collaboration on sustainability initiatives. Sustainable Westchester’s goal is to bring socially responsible, environmentally sound, and economically viable solutions that create healthy, resilient, sustainable communities. For more information visit https://sustainablewestchester.org/

 

Editor’s Note: The above news release has been republished in its entirety to help support efforts of  the Westchester County Office of Economic Development partnering with Sustainable Westchester. Opinions and information presented have been neither independently reported or fact checked. Please refer questions pertaining to the news within to the sources cited.

 

 

Inside 914Cares: A Lesson in “Actionable Generosity”

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Inside Press Photos

A tour through the 914Cares facility feels a bit like landing on a cloud where a group of earth angels are busy creating little miracles daily within a dizzying number of rooms with clearly marked shelves. Sooo many shelves. Sooo many helping hands. Santa’s elves have nothin’ on this crew!

This celebrated, and nearly all volunteer effort, a ‘basic essentials distribution center’, as its founder and CEO Jessica Reinmann proudly describes 914Cares, “distributes everything other than food.” 914Cares works closely with over 80 Westchester County programs to distribute items for them regularly, but as this not for profit has gradually evolved (it began in 2014), it also responds to calls from many different organizations and individuals seeking assistance for underserved populations.

“We have become known as the organization in the county that can get things to where they need to be immediately!” related Jessica, who together with with Marjorie Troob, Program Manager and Lisa Horten, Director of Communications and Development, took time out to acquaint the Inside Press with 914Cares.

Sometimes, the diversity of the calls can surprise even them. One time, for example, 914Cares received a phone call from a film crew who had to have their employees’ quarantine. “They had microwaves, coffee makers, and more…so we just got those items out really quickly!… We figured that we have these distribution possibilities…let’s put it all together!”

And to ‘put it all together’ 914Cares filled that void in a most monumental, year-round effort! Clothing essentials is probably still the ‘biggest’ item continuously sorted by volunteers. For a sense of the effort, consider that 914Cares distributes around 3,500 bags of clothing every year in its work with some 80 to 90 community partners each month. These partners arrive from every corner of the County to deliver the bags to the populations they serve.

914Cares volunteers in the meantime work to tailor the bags as much as possible to satisfy a child’s distinct wishes and needs. “Every bag is packed for the individual child. When an order comes in, they can say: “This is a Yankees fan” and the volunteers will look for Yankees items. Or we can have a girl that, let’s say hates pink, so we will make sure to not put in pink!”

Each bag contains a week’s worth of clothing. They also contain books and a ‘hygiene bag.’ Much thought goes into those too. “We have different hygiene bags for different age groups, because say, for example, ‘under 4s’ can’t have fluoride. “We are very thoughtful about what types of products we put in the bag….

Avi’s Library

The clothing is also ultimately something you would be happy for your own child to wear. “We do not give away anything with a specific school emblem or holiday images on it, anything with rips, stains holes, are rejected. We get shirts that will say “Little Brother” and we can’t give that to a child because we don’t know their situation.”

“A lot of our partners say we focus on dignity of the recipient.”

That level of dignity extends to books recipients find in the donated bags as well, as 914Cares packs and/or delivers about 50,000 books a year.” The 914Cares experienced librarian Miriam Minor is also a volunteer who trains library volunteers and manages ‘Avi’s Library,’ a children’s library housed inside 914Cares, too.

Books are packaged with clothing bags, by request of any organization: For example, 914Cares recently packed almost 8,000 books last year on behalf of the Ossining School District–after receiving their request for only 20! That effort led to each child receiving four books for their summer reading.

Most items are individual donations, but 914Cares also has evolving relationships with different clothing companies to receive overstock items, etc. They recently solidified “a strong relationship with Carters” as one example These relationships help enormously with meeting the greatest challenge in sorting the bags: making sure there are always enough sizes, and not an overabundance of any one size or too many items specific to one gender.

All Seasons Caring

The tour extended into a ‘seasonal’ area where 914Cares volunteers create bags whether it’s for back to school or for summer camp. “We fill about 200 camp bags a year, half sleep-away and half day,” said Jessica. “A lot of kids get scholarships to camp but they can’t go because they require a sleeping bag and certain sheets. The parents can’t afford that, so we have tried to play that role in the community, and make sure every kid that gets an opportunity to go to camps gets to. We separate the clothes between boys and girls. Then by size, then by item.”

It’s impressive but if it all also sounds daunting (it did to me!), my tour guides insist that it is all eminently doable thanks to a concept 914Cares promotes called “actionable generosity” that builds empathy along with passion and commitment among volunteers spanning different age groups. While most volunteers are parents with kids in school (they open daily at 10 a.m.), volunteers also include retired people and “tons of kids” after school.

Jessica encourages volunteers of every age to be ‘hands on’ to really learn what it means to not have clothes. She will especially tell kids to please NOT wear nice clothes “because you are going to work, pack diapers, hygiene supplies. There’s sweating and working here!”

These dedicated efforts ultimately help meet the profound needs of the most diverse families–from refugees to people coming out of the foster care system to fire victims and to those impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic.

Ever changing wish lists depend on the season or what supplies are on hand. “Our goal for every bag is to get a pair of sneakers which we don’t always meet, but it is our goal. Our goal for every winter bag is also a pair of boots,” she explained pointing out the long coat rack for the winter bags receiving a coat, a hat, and gloves. All socks and underwear are brand new. “As you can see our shoe bins depends on what we get, and what gets filled up.”

Her partner in passion for caring is Marjorie Troob, Program Manager, who manages the 914Cares Baby Bank. “It is a program which helps the County’s neediest babies–we work with six or seven organizations, along with high schools who contact us for help for teen parents. “For six months straight, each baby receives a month’s worth of diapers and wipes, clothing with updated sizing, and also, miraculously enough, essentials like car seats, strollers, bathtubs, portable high chairs, diaper cream, shampoo, bottle bibs, blankets, swaddles, diaper bags, and more.

Why Volunteer?

To explain the volunteer mindset, Lisa Horten, Director of Communications and Development, noted: “For me, I like knowing I’m helping someone less fortunate and who has not had the experiences my kids have had. That gives me great pleasure. It’s even selfish for me.”

Jessica explained further: “I spent years in the private sector making rich people richer, and I just couldn’t do it anymore. We get all these quotes from social workers about how the bags have literally changed their lives. There’s no place I would rather be.”

Added Marjorie: “We get to do good every single day, I love being here, we have fun and yet we do good at the same time. Everyone is genuinely caring at the same time.”

Lisa offered that it’s also an opportunity to educate people. “Last night I was at a meeting in Pelham and people don’t realize that poverty is here in Westchester. I didn’t realize before I got here, either. It’s a quieter type of poverty than in Manhattan where you can see homeless people walking on the street.”

The positive feedback from recipients is gratifying too. “Last year, two sisters who got dresses had never had dresses in their lives!… They were holding hands in a picture, and you have never seen a bigger smile on kids.”

Ever growing, 914Cares is also on the move to a larger (still undisclosed) space from their current White Plains location. Individual donations are especially sought.

“Financial donations are amazing especially in the diaper and ‘period world’, said Jessica. “But we also encourage people to do diaper and clothing drives! We just got a call from Seven Bridges Middle School in Chappaqua, where they are going to do a sneaker drive for us,” she added. “All these things are helpful!”

Please visit 914cares.org

Inside Press Intern Adrianna Cmiel-Walsh assisted in the preparation of this article.

Why the County’s Commitment to Prevent Homelessness is Working

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No one should be without a home.

County leaders fighting homelessness: Leonard Townes (left) and Craig Wong

Westchester County is on a mission to prevent the county’s most vulnerable families and individuals from homelessness. “The economy has picked up in Westchester in terms of how expensive it is to live here, and most people’s incomes haven’t matched that. It’s a blessing to know opportunities exist to be in a home,” says Leonard G. Townes, Commissioner of Westchester Department of Social Services (DSS). “We are doing all we can to keep our homeless numbers low,” he says. To ensure that, Westchester County has helped over 200 individuals and families in the county find leases for permanent homes through the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program, made available through the American Rescue Plan Act.

“The program came out at a time when there was a challenge to our national economy. It wasn’t just a simple one- or two- year program. The benefit of the voucher is for nine years so it secures them in housing for an extremely long time which is uncommon. That makes it special,” says Towne. “We’ve had a decline in homelessness over the years, but our numbers are starting to go back up little by little.”

Westchester leads all New York State counties in using the Federal plan to prevent homelessness. “We are more than proud about that level of success. It’s always been a challenge to house people throughout Westchester County. These opportunities don’t come around too often where we get support in housing our individuals,” says Townes. “Westchester County is a very wealthy county and it’s challenging for lower earning people to find housing here. Our goal is to identify housing available, help people find housing close to where they work, and also provide them with the supports to make it possible.”

The program has specific criteria to identify those most at risk of homelessness and in need of safe, stable homes, such as individuals and families who are homeless, at-risk of homelessness, fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking, or were recently homeless or have a high risk of housing instability.

According to Westchester County Executive George Latimer, the county had serious concerns about the impact of Covid and the most vulnerable being able to stay in their homes when Covid arose. “By staying ahead of the curve and using all available resources to keep people from homelessness, we’re not only preventing human tragedy for those individuals and families, but we’re reducing the social and economic costs of homelessness for everyone in Westchester,” he says. “In the end, government programs are only as good as our ability to execute on them.”

The county’s success rate is attributed to diligent advanced planning by the County’s Department of Social Services and the County’s partner in the program, WESTHAB, a nonprofit agency that develops affordable and supportive housing, operates homeless shelters, and provides youth programs and employment services. “WESTHAB has done a tremendous job in helping us along with the program. When the state made us aware of EVH, it was all hands-on deck. We pulled together as a community organization and government organization to really make this a success. We want to serve the population with whatever funding and programming is released,” says Craig Wong, WESTHAB Program Administrator in Homeless Services. The County’s proactive response to processing applications places Westchester in a position to help even more people as additional federal application slots become available.

“Westchester County is really looking at making sure that affordable housing is being built throughout the state and we’re trying our best to look at all land and space opportunities to create additional housing,” says Townes. “Our team and their level of commitment and the partnerships we have are meeting the needs of the people we serve and that makes me proud. People are really helping the communities of Westchester County, but we have to zone in on more community support in developing housing.”

The work goes beyond providing homes to retaining their housing. Wong explains DSS has developed a thorough follow-up care program. “A lot of these folks have never had their own place before so there is a feeling of elation, but they also have that apprehension of how they will be able to keep their home,” he says. “We have a really cohesive team of DSS workers in place who can help them manage, whether it’s budgeting or accessing services or community organizations to help them succeed. We also have a Continuum of Care Board whose goal is to end homelessness as well as hundreds of people and dozens of agencies who have the mindset and the heart to help.”

Offering stability to families and individuals is important especially around the holidays. “Everyone wants to be home for the holidays, so it’s a great time to have this initiative come into play,” says Townes. “The holiday season is always a time when people tend to think a little bit more about other people and how they’re doing. To know that we are helping people establish a home and have their own private dwelling and that opportunities exist for people to move their lives forward is a blessing. If you can get in your first home now and celebrate the holidays, there’s nothing like that feeling.”

Rising Senior at Horace Greeley Completes Westchester County Executive’s 2022 Summer Fellowship Program

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Top row (L to R): Isabelle Lahiri (McGill University), Sofia De Chiara (The College of William and Mary), Michael Waxman (Harvard University), Christopher Borst (George Washington University), Brandon Beame (Binghamton University) Devon Seixas (Vassar College) Bottom row (L to R): Ashley Dallos (New Rochelle High School), Stephanie Brooke Kornberg (Temple University), Westchester County Executive George Latimer, Bryan Goodman (Binghamton University), Netra Easwaran (Horace Greeley High School)

 

Netra Easwaran, a rising Senior at Horace Greeley High School, recently completed the 2022 Summer Fellowship Program with Westchester County Executive George Latimer. She and nine other college and high school students interned at the Intergovernmental Relations Department at the Office of the County Executive in White Plains.

Over the course of three months, they had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the daily workings of the office and gain an appreciation for the role played by the county government. The Interns engaged in various research opportunities, authoring briefs on various topics such as infrastructure development, employment trends, gun violence, and clean energy. They were also given the opportunity to tour establishments, such as the Westchester County Records and Archives and the Westchester County Department of Emergency Services. 

The Interns also had a chance to meet with County Executive Latimer in small groups and discuss the responsibilities, challenges, and rewards of the County Executive post. 

In addition to the political aspects, the Interns were also given an overview of how media is utilized in local government. They attended press conferences by County Executive Latimer and inaugural events to announce new initiatives, such as the construction of the Overture at Brookfield Commons, an affordable housing development. As an aside, the Interns were introduced to political campaigning and witnessed canvassing efforts for Legislator MaryJane Shimsky. 

Netra’s most poignant experience came from being able to attend a Board of Legislators Meeting on June 27th, in which the Board passed the Reproductive Health Care Facilities Access Act. She reflects on the experience: “As a young woman myself, it was incredibly empowering to watch, as a bill protecting safe access to reproductive healthcare facilities, was signed into law.” 

The Fellowship Program was led by Copernicus Crane, Assistant Director of Intergovernmental Relations, who mentored the Interns throughout the experience and coordinated the various opportunities described above.