Support Family Caregivers and Their Loved Ones!

TAKE ACTION!

Home and Community-Based Services, administered through the New York State Office for the Aging (SOFA), provide older adults with access to coordinated in-home and supportive services that help them live safely and independently. These services also offer critical relief to family caregivers—many of whom are juggling full-time jobs, raising children, and caring for aging loved ones.

New York has an array of wonderful services available from home-delivered meals to transportation, respite, and more, but also has a history of long wait lists that prevent thousands of older New Yorkers and their family caregivers from getting the services they need. In 2025, New York lawmakers finally made a historic investment aimed at eliminating the wait lists and ensuring services are available to all who need them. Now caregivers are counting on Governor Hochul and State lawmakers to keep up their commitment until all eligible New Yorkers can get the services they need.

Please take a moment to urge Governor Hochul, your State Senator and Assemblymember to keep up their commitment to ending the wait lists for aging services and supporting family caregivers across New York by fully funding aging services in the next state budget.

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Personalized messages are especially effective -- please consider explaining why this issue is important to you!

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Dear State Lawmaker,

Message Body

First, I would like to thank you for the unprecedented commitment the state made to end the waiting lists for aging services in the last state budget. These services include in-home personal care—such as toileting, bathing, dressing, and skin care—transportation to medical appointments, home modifications, personal emergency response systems, and home-delivered meals.
Such services are a lifeline for family caregivers and their older loved ones.

The additional commitment in funds to address unmet need for aging services was a huge step forward for New York, but there are still thousands of older New Yorkers stuck on waiting lists for home- and community-based services who are not receiving the help they urgently need. Many family caregivers struggle to help their loved ones live independently without the support they deserve.
 
The state’s own research shows that older adults waiting for these vital services face increased risks of hospitalization and poor health outcomes, which also leads to higher costs for the state when they are forced into costly nursing homes. It's estimated that every dollar spent on aging services saves the state four to five dollars in Medicaid costs.

In what is expected to be a challenging year for the state budget, now is no time to be penny wise but dollar foolish at the expense of family caregivers and their loved ones. Please keep up your commitment to ending the wait lists and fully fund aging services.

Thank you.

[First Name] [Last Name]
[Your Address]

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