As a heatwave blankets NYC, a Midtown senior center with multiple infrastructure problems had to be cut from the city’s cooling center list because of a broken air conditioning system.
Encore Community Services, located in the basement of St. Malachy’s Church at 239 West 49th St., offers seniors a place to socialize, get a nutritious meal, and, in extreme heat, stay cool. But this week, seniors at the center are bearing 85-degree temperatures inside their community respite, which at times seem even hotter than it is outside.
At best, the air conditioning works at half capacity, though there are times it does not work at all, explained executive director Jeremy Kaplan. The coolest the center can get, at the moment, is 85 degrees, which is why Encore had to pull out of the city’s list of designated cooling centers this week.
Meanwhile, electric fans are tucked into every corner and countless bottles of cold water are available to cool down the seniors, staff and volunteers.
“The HVAC in this space, which is acting like the Little Engine that Could to cool this space down on this very hot day, is well over 30 years old,” Kaplan said on Thursday. “The manufacturer of this HVAC doesn’t even make the parts for this system anymore.”
Encore, a public-private organization with three locations in Manhattan, gets most of its funding from NYC’s Department of Aging. But private donors and other city contracts help support it, too.
NYC Department for the Aging Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez said the city’s network of older adult centers are “deeply committed” to offering hundreds of cooling centers across the city. She added that the agency has been in discussions with Encore and its landlord — St. Malachy’s Church — about the space’s lack of cool air.
“Encore’s Older Adult Center was not designated as a cooling center during this heatwave because of the ongoing issues with their air conditioning,” Cortés-Vázquez said. “Encore staff can use the Cooling Center locator to direct older adults to nearby cooling centers.”
Kaplan added that city funding is imperative to support the Big Apple’s growing population of older adults.
“The NYC Department for the Aging is the lowest funded agency of any city agency in New York,” Kaplan said. “Aging services in NYC have been chronically underfunded, and now we’ve hit a point in time where our city needs to be more accessible. Our city needs to be a place where older people can get around, have safe spaces where they can congregate, where they can get community care.”
Another major infrastructure problem at Encore is its elevator. When it works, only one person can ride in it at a time. It also gets stuck multiple times a day. Staff have to pull a lever to get it working again.
A faulty elevator also creates an obstacle for an organization that delivers hundreds of thousands of meals each year to homebound seniors. To prevent getting stuck, staff will load the elevator with one 50-pound box of food trays, send it down to the ground floor, and have someone ready to take it out.
Encore has been in service for 50 years, but the last time the elevator was updated was about 20 years ago, Kaplan said.
“Twenty years of wear-and-tear and increased usage has taken a toll on the system,” Kaplan said.
Despite the issues, the maintenance company that services the elevator assured staff that it is safe to use, Kaplan added.
But unbearable heat and a quasi-functional elevator do not keep the seniors home.
For many older adults on a fixed income, Encore is a place to get tasty and healthy food. For others who live alone, it is a place to connect with friends and have fun.
And for most of them, recreation at Encore is a big part of their daily or weekly routines.
Gloria Gomez, a fashionable and upbeat woman in her 80s, comes all the way from uptown to see friends three times a week at Encore, even during a heatwave. As for a faulty elevator, she is used to it. The one in her apartment building acts the same way, she said.
“I’m very daring. I’ll take it, but think to myself, ‘I don’t want to stay here, I might not be able to get out,’” Gomez said. “Plus, where I live I have an elevator and it breaks today, and then tomorrow it’s ok, and then next week we don’t have it.”
Encore is in NYC Council Member Erik Bottcher’s (D-Manhattan) district. He stressed that it is important to “do right” by seniors.
“They paved the way for us, and we must to everything we can to make sure they lead happy, healthy lives,” the council member said. “Honoring and caring for them is not just a duty, but a reflection of our humanity and a testament to our values as a society.”
Bottcher said he supports more funding for the Department for the Aging and senior centers throughout the city.
“Encore Senior Center is a vital community hub, feeding hundreds of seniors each day and providing them essential social services,” he said. “However, their operation is severely hampered by an unreliable HVAC and elevator system. When these systems fail, it greatly impairs their ability to serve. We must do all we can to ensure repairs can be made promptly which includes increasing the capital budgeting for senior centers and DFTA to ensure these critical services can continue without interruption.”
Where to stay cool in NYC
Cortés-Vázquez said extreme heat can be very dangerous for older adults.
“Because inclement weather — including extreme heat during the summer — can have very devastating effects on the lives of older New Yorkers, NYC Aging works closely with our colleagues at Emergency Management to provide some respite from the heat to the nearly 1.8 million older adults who call New York City home,” the commissioners said.
In addition to the online cooling center locator, NYC Aging shared a list of cooling centers that are available near Encore on 49th Street:
FIND Aid Coffeehouse OAC -OLDER ADULTS ONLY
Older Adult Center
331 W 42 St.
New York, NY 10036
FIND Aid Woodstock OAC -OLDER ADULTS ONLY
Older Adult Center
127 W 43 St.
New York, NY 10036
Times Square Corps Comm Center
Community Center
315 West 47th St
New York, NY 10036
