AD66 candidate backs senior center funding and aging-services bills, says fixed incomes and a senior boom are squeezing older neighbors in a district.

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, June 15, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Furhan Ahmad, candidate for New York State Assembly District 66, is calling for stronger state support for older New Yorkers who are struggling to afford food, even in a district people assume is uniformly wealthy.

AD66 covers Greenwich Village, the West Village, SoHo, NoHo, TriBeCa, Hudson Square, and the Meatpacking District. The topline numbers look comfortable. The reality for many seniors is not. Across New York State, one in ten older adults is food insecure, and more than half report difficulty affording quality food, according to the New York Health Foundation. In Manhattan, about 18 percent of residents 65 and older lived below the poverty line as of 2023, according to the Center for an Urban Future.

The older population is growing fast. In Lower Manhattan, nearly 14 percent of residents are now 65 or older, up from under 11 percent a decade ago, per the Center for an Urban Future. Citywide, the 65-and-over population has grown by roughly a third over the past decade to an all-time high.
"People look at this district and see money," said Ahmad. "They do not see the senior on a fixed income who pays rent, pays for medication, and then has nothing left for groceries. I have met these neighbors. They worked their whole lives here. They should not have to skip meals."

Ahmad pointed to the work of local organizations already filling the gap. Citymeals on Wheels delivers more than 2 million meals a year to about 22,000 homebound older New Yorkers. Greenwich House has run older adult centers in the neighborhood since the early 20th century, serving daily hot lunches and connecting seniors to care. EVLovesNYC, a volunteer-run effort, has cooked hundreds of thousands of meals for food-insecure New Yorkers since 2020.
Ahmad said the state must back these efforts with real funding and real legislation. He praised this year's enacted state budget, which added $45 million through the State Office for the Aging for older New Yorkers awaiting services, bringing total funding to $68 million, up from $33 million the prior year, according to NYSOFA. He called it real progress and the right direction.

But he said the job is not done. A 2025 report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found that even as state funding for major aging programs grew 88.5 percent since 2019, roughly 16,000 older New Yorkers were on waitlists for in-home care, meals, and other services in 2023. Ahmad said that gap is the problem.

"Record funding is good. A waitlist is not," said Ahmad. "No senior should wait in line for a meal in the richest city in the country. I will fight to close that waitlist and keep our senior centers open."

Ahmad voiced support for legislation already moving in Albany, including a measure to establish a Senior Center Council within the State Office for the Aging to plan for the long-term sustainability of senior centers statewide, which has passed both the Senate and the Assembly. He also backed proposals to boost food assistance for seniors and to remove barriers to in-home services that include home-delivered meals.

Shivani Dhir
Furhan for Assembly
+1 516-754-0205
email us here
Visit us on social media:
Instagram
YouTube

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.