‘Distressing’ number of NYC adults found ineligible for emergency services, despite rise in referrals

Two numbers in Mayor Eric Adams' preliminary management report released last week starkly contrast with one another.

One shows that the number of New Yorkers who were referred to the city's Adult Protective Services increased by 1,668 between July and October last year. The agency is tasked with coordinating medical care and housing assistance for the city's most vulnerable adults, including older residents susceptible to abuse, neglect and financial exploitation.

Despite that increase, the number of people receiving agency services decreased by 32 over the same period.

The difference between those two figures marks a broader trend at the agency that Gothamist first revealed last year: dramatic increases in demand for aid, but few people actually receiving it.

Attorneys, advocates for older adults, lawmakers and even city officials themselves say that mismatch is the result of a staffing shortage at Adult Protective Services, which is part of the Department of Social Services, as well as the city's growing housing crisis, driven by rising rents and evictions after a pandemic-era moratorium on removals ended in 2022.

Daniel Barkley, the director of elder law at Legal Services NYC, called the latest data on the growing number of rejections “distressing.”

“That’s just way too much of an increase to see a decrease in the number of eligible clients,” Barkley said. “It just makes no sense.”

More New Yorkers are being referred to Adult Protective Services because of how the eligibility rules for the city's housing voucher program, CityFHEPS, are structured. Qualifying for the agency’s assistance is one of the few ways a person can receive CityFHEPS without first entering a homeless shelter.

As Gothamist previously reported, Adult Protective Services received roughly 6,000 more referrals during the 2024 fiscal year compared to 2023, but its average caseload increased by only 11 people.

“ They have to solve this because they're too crucial of an agency,” Barkley said.

The Department of Social Services attributed some of the rise in the number of people referred for assistance to an increase in evictions. City rules require marshals carrying out evictions to contact the Department of Investigation, which in turn notifies Adult Protective Services, before removing someone they consider elderly, disabled or otherwise “infirm.”

But Department of Social Services spokesperson Nicholas Jacobelli said those tenants often don’t meet eligibility criteria set by the state. Adult Protective Services staff are responsible for determining if a person is eligible for assistance. The criteria is based on whether a person's mental or physical impairment is putting them at risk for abuse or neglect, or if they can’t manage daily activities without aid.

“We are committed to ensuring that any individual who meets the program’s eligibility criteria receives the services they need to stay healthy and safely housed in the community,” Jacobelli said.

Two key councilmembers say they want more information from the agency.

Councilmember Diana Ayala, a Democrat who chairs the General Welfare Committee, told Gothamist last month that she plans to hold a Council hearing to determine the cause of the growing rejection rate.

Councilmember Crystal Hudson, a fellow Democrat who heads the Committee on Aging, said she also wants answers. The number of adults over age 65 living in New York City has increased by 500,000 since 2000, according to a recent report from the state comptroller’s office. Hudson said many of them are at risk for abuse or neglect and require more support.

“Without those investments, you get more people who become more vulnerable and more people who don’t have the services they should be receiving.” Hudson said.

The plummeting number of older and disabled adults found eligible for services — like elder abuse prevention, financial management and help paying the rent — corresponds with a decrease in the number of people working for the agency.

Adult Protective Services had 427 staff members at the start of the year, up from 352 at the end of June 2023, but lower than the 469 staffers in the agency in June 2019, according to data from the city’s Independent Budget Office.

Yet, staff are still assessing the needs of people referred for services within the required three business days 95% of the time, according to data from the preliminary Mayor’s Management Report.

Barkley, the Legal Services NYC attorney, hailed the workers’ “diligent” performance, but said he worried that a small number of agency employees making decisions quickly is leading to cursory assessments and improper denials.

“What we see  with distressing frequency is denials made after what we would consider very incomplete or ineffective assessments,” Barkley said.

In response, Jacobelli, the Department of Social Services spokesperson, said the reduced staffing is not affecting the agency’s ability to assess the eligibility of applicants, and that employees are being given overtime to keep up with the increased workload.

Other attorneys who represent older adults and people with physical or mental health needs said the increase in referrals to Adult Protective Services is also driven partly by the city’s current rules for issuing rental assistance vouchers through its CityFHEPS program.

Dinah Luck, a senior staff attorney at the nonprofit legal organization Mobilization for Justice, said the city could relieve Adult Protective Services through expanding eligibility for CityFHEPS vouchers by abiding by a package of laws the City Council passed in 2023, which Mayor Eric Adams has so far refused to implement. The Council sued the administration over the mayor’s inaction. A judge sided with Adams last August, and an appeal is ongoing.

“A lot of people, if they are on the verge of being evicted, there’s literally nothing they can do to avoid homelessness,” Luck said. “It’s the last resort.”