Senior Housing Benefits to Expire

The deadline to renew SCRIE benefits for senior citizens is fast approaching

Attention all New York City Seniors! Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) benefits expire on May 24th.

Elected officials like Aging Committee Chair Jessica Lappin want to remind New Yorkers that less than two months before the deadline, 6,100 elderly New Yorkers have yet to renew their SCRIE benefits. If the deadline passes, rents will immediately skyrocket to market value, and seniors could lose their homes. As a reminder, if your income is equal to or less than $29,000 and you are 62 years old or more, you qualify for SCRIE.

"If you are a senior, and you haven't sent in your renewal paperwork, please do it today!" said Lappin. "This is your last chance. You must act now to save your subsidy."

The program exempts 47,000 low-income seniors who live in rent-subsidized apartments from paying rent increases. The New York Department of Finance recently sent out letters to the 6,100 adults who have yet to send in their paperwork. There is traditionally a 6-month grace period after the initial deadline, but even half of that timeframe has whittled away.

City Council Member Jessica Lappin has been working with The Department of Finance to make the paperwork as easy as possible. If seniors are at all concerned or confused, they are encouraged to call Lappin's office before it's too late.

"When my SCRIE benefit was revoked, I was very concerned for myself and the many seniors in NYC who need this program to stay in their homes," said Beatrice Rotoni, a SCRIE beneficiary from the Upper East Side.