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Growing numbers of older New Yorkers live in housing specifically tailored for their needs, or are helped by programs like Dorot that provide everything from home-delivered meals to volunteers who escort people to doctor visits. An increasingly age-friendly mass transit system, along with discounts for items ranging from subway rides to movies, can help older New Yorkers get around, manage on fixed incomes and fill their days pleasurably. The wealth of hospitals and social service agencies provide support in times of need. Even at a time of widespread budget cuts, Manhattan does relatively well in this respect.
And especially in Manhattan, with its rich cultural offerings, retirees can easily keep busy, active and stimulated. The concentration of apartment buildings can facilitate providing services like visiting nurses. All these things can help older people stay in their own homes, a goal that has broad public benefits.
Of course, the very sick or frail may be daunted even by the most sophisticated buses or the most welcoming museums. People from all income groups fall through the safety net, unserved by the programs intended to reach them. But for the relatively healthy and mobile, and those with some resources, Manhattan’s offerings are considerable.
Here are ways some of the borough’s older residents have made places for themselves.
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Harold and Phyllis VanderMalle, both in their early 80s, and their friends Sally Praver, 79, and her husband, Paul, 86, live in Penn South, a middle-income co-op in the heart of Chelsea. They can often be found in the complex’s popular senior center, a space that suggests a well-equipped playroom for adults. Shelves containing thousands of donated books line the walls, and origami birds made by residents flutter from the ceiling above a huge flat-screen TV.
Penn South, which turns 50 next year, is what is known as a NORC — the initials stand for “naturally occurring retirement community.” Its 2,820 apartments are home to 5,000 people, of whom 22 percent are over 75. More than half the households include a resident over 60.
Thanks to large dollops of public and private money, the co-op offers a wide range of services intended to ease and enhance life for its aging population.
The VanderMalles, who have been married since 1956 and have one son, were among the original tenants. They live in a two-bedroom apartment, for which they paid $3,250. The Pravers, who have two sons, arrived in 2003 from Queens after 21 years on the waiting list. They have a one-bedroom apartment that cost $15,000.
“I didn’t think I’d be alive by the time my name came up,” Ms. Praver said.
They are among the many who partake enthusiastically of the services offered at Penn South, not just the library, which the VanderMalles run, but also the twice-monthly pizza and film evenings and the classes in activities ranging from yoga to indoor gardening.
And the center is just one of many offerings available at Penn South to address the needs of its older residents. On-site nurses measure blood pressure. On-site social workers help residents get access to Meals on Wheels and home health care.
When Mr. VanderMalle broke his pelvis, a walker appeared as if by magic. Nearby supermarkets have been encouraged to offer discounts to older customers. The landscaped grounds function like a college campus. “Outside, I greet I don’t know how many people,” Ms. VanderMalle said. “I never knew older people were so much fun.”
Penn South is one of more than 40 NORCs in New York — 16 of them in Manhattan — that receive combinations of city and state money. And in the opinion of many who deal with the elderly, NORCs are the wave of the future.
“This is clearly the way to go,” said Elaine Rosen, the social worker who runs the programs for the elderly at Penn South. “The real issue is the ability to stay in your home and not be isolated, not to be bored or lonely or scared.” Another benefit is that the population includes younger people who can provide an informal support system for their older neighbors.
It’s no surprise that the Penn South waiting list, now closed, contains 6,000 names.
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Elaine Habib and Jo Marchese, widows who describe themselves as “over 75,” have lived for about a decade in the Hamilton House on West 73rd Street. A handsome building with a crystal chandelier in its double-height lobby, the Hamilton House is one of three nonprofit residences operated by Project FIND, one of the city’s most established organizations for the elderly. Rents are controlled and social services provided. To live in one of the 173 apartments, a person must be at least 62 and have an income that falls below a certain level (currently $45,850 for an individual and $52,400 for a couple). The waiting list is long.
Ms. Habib and Ms. Marchese each have one-bedroom apartments, pleasantly crowded with furnishings and memorabilia, for which they pay about $400 a month. The balance of the $940 rent is covered by a federally funded rental subsidy program called Section 8.
They realize that without a place like the Hamilton House, they could not afford to live in such a pricey part of the city. They’re appreciative of the in-house social workers, the lively activities at the senior center next door and the rich cultural offerings in the area.
“There are so many pluses,” said Ms. Marchese, who used to work in customer service. “You’re independent. You’re in a beautiful neighborhood. You feel connected. What’s not to like?”
Ms. Habib, a former legal secretary, agreed. “Originally I was skeptical,” she said. “I didn’t want to live with all these old people. But now I’m one of them, and it doesn’t bother me at all.”
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Eleanor Kremen, an 84-year-old former social worker who is divorced and has no children, lived for years in a one-bedroom apartment on West 96th Street. But her training made her conclude that as she aged, she might not be able to live alone. “I foresaw the future,” Mrs. Kremen said. “I realized I might need someone in another room.”
Twenty years ago she moved to a two-bedroom apartment in her building for which she pays $1,000 a month. The decision proved wise. Today she has Churg-Strauss syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease. Her arms and legs are thin as a child’s, and she can get around only in a wheelchair. Round-the-clock aides sleep in her bedroom, while she finds it more comfortable to sleep on the living room couch, near the old upright piano that she still plays.
And through the home-sharing program run by the New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, Ms. Kremen also has a roommate, Amy Ronek, a 37-year-old communications director from Iowa. Ms. Ronek, who has her own bedroom, shares the kitchen and bathroom and contributes to household expenses. She also provides companionship, or as she puts it, “I’m the entertainment.”
The home-sharing service, a sort of Match.com for the elderly, is free. Pairs are formed via a questionnaire that touches on everything from smoking to overnight guests. To date, the foundation has matched up more than 2,000 people.
For Ms. Ronek, the benefits are many. She had had roommates previously and enjoyed having another person around. Because she has her own room, she has privacy. And the arrangement allows her to live in a neighborhood like the Upper West Side, which she might not be able to afford otherwise.
For Ms. Kremen, also, the benefits are both financial and social.
“It’s very nice having someone in the house,” she said. “And Amy is a very special person. She’s more cheerful than me. She’s more cheerful than most people.”
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Despite the number of services for the elderly, most Manhattan residents over 75 manage on their own, often in places they have lived for decades.
Brigitta Ortner, who is 83 and who emigrated from Germany with her family in January 1939, has lived since 1952 in a fourth-floor walk-up on West 95th Street, where her monthly rent is about $1,000. Years ago, when her stepmother first saw the apartment, she described it as a dollhouse. Despite the climb, Ms. Ortner, who used to work at Saks Fifth Avenue, has no intention of leaving. “I guess I’m too lazy to move,” she said.
Ms. Ortner walks a great deal, sometimes three to six miles a day. “The wonderful thing about New York,” she said, “is that you can walk everywhere — to the grocery store, the movies, Lincoln Center, in the parks.”
Her energy may be one reason she can manage all those stairs. And as an inveterate walker, she is especially enamored of the benches recently installed on her block where she can stop and chat with friends.
The benches were provided through the efforts of Gale A. Brewer, the local councilwoman. Her district, which covers a large swath of the Upper West Side, is home to nearly 50,000 older people. Partly for this reason, Ms. Brewer has been a prime mover behind the Age-Friendly New York Initiative, an effort sponsored by the New York Academy of Medicine, the City Council and the mayor’s office to institute modest changes that taken as a whole are meant to improve life for the city’s graying population.
Earlier this year Ms. Brewer’s office produced the Age-Friendly West Side Grocery Guide, analyzing 23 grocery stores in terms of amenities like handicapped-access restrooms, seating, senior discounts and meat in single-portion packages. Her wish list is long and includes goals like making parks more user-friendly (more restrooms, fewer stairs); making streets easier to navigate (fewer potholes, slower traffic signals); fine-tuning public transportation (adding bus shelters, repairing subway elevators); improving the Access-a-Ride program, which provides transportation for disabled people; and finding better ways to alert the elderly to the city’s many free or discounted cultural events.
For older New Yorkers who have no intention of forsaking the city they love, despite obstacles that can sometimes be formidable, such changes can’t come soon enough. “Someday I may have to retire to California, where my niece wants to take care of me,” Ms. Ortner said. “Till then, I’m staying in New York.”
