After serving Sunset Park’s senior residents for 51 years, the United Senior Center of Sunset Park (USC), located at 475 53rd St., is at risk of closing at the end of June due to a proposed rent hike of more than 70%.
At a rally on Friday, May 9, local elected officials, seniors and community organizers gathered at the center, calling on landlord Amy Grabino to reconsider what they called an unreasonable rent increase and to make a fair offer.
Officials say USC’s landlord is seeking a rent increase of more than 70% — $86,800 — for the first three years of a proposed 10-year lease, followed by an additional 7.6% hike, or $16,800, over the next three years, and another 8.4%, or $18,200, over the final four years. The cumulative increase would exceed 86%, or $121,800.
The New York City Department for the Aging, the center’s primary funding source, offered a 5% increase to help keep the center in place, but the landlord rejected the proposal. The current lease is set to expire at the end of June, and requests to negotiate a temporary extension — giving the center time to secure funding or identify an alternative space — were also denied.
Council Member Alexa Avilés, whose district includes Sunset Park, presented a folder of petitions signed by more than 500 community members and over 20 local organizations calling for the center to remain open. The petitions will be delivered to the landlord.
Calling the center “the heart of Sunset Park,” Avilés vowed to fight for its survival and urged Grabino to return to the negotiating table with a “meaningful” offer.
“I ask again, with humility, to not come with 125% or 99% or 70% but to come with meaning, with a reasonable offer, because we want to negotiate. We want to remain in place,” said Avilés, calling the rent increase “another form of gentrification.”
Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Adrienne Adams described the center as a “home away from home.”
“Centers just like this one provide so much more than programs and food,” Adams said. “This center connects the elders in our community so that you are not isolated at home. This center provides both physical and mental health support, which is essential. This is what it means to live and thrive in a diverse community together.”
Adams called the hike of 70% and the subsequent increases of the 10-year lease “unacceptable.”
“I join all of you here today to call on the landlord to negotiate in good faith with us and to help avoid the displacement of our precious seniors,” she said.
Council Member Justin Brannan, who is also running for New York City comptroller, acknowledged the landlord’s right to turn a profit but urged her to propose an offer both sides could accept.
“In a time of so much uncertainty in our world, in our country, our seniors just want something to rely on. It’s time to put people before profit for once,” Brannan said. “We’re just asking the landlord to come to the table and negotiate in good faith.”
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Randy Peers said the Chamber requested a two-year grace period to help the center find a new home.
“We were told no way,” Peers said. “Well, there is always a way.”
The multilingual United Senior Center is the largest older adult center operating in Sunset Park, serving more than 4,000 adults each month with meals, recreation and fitness programs, cultural activities, referral services, health care and transportation.
Community leaders warn that closing the center and displacing thousands of seniors could lead to increased isolation, hospitalization and reliance on home care.
According to the National Library of Medicine, about 24% of Americans age 65 and older are considered socially isolated, and 43% of adults 60 and older report feeling lonely. Studies show that prolonged social isolation and loneliness significantly raise the risk of serious health conditions, including dementia, heart disease and stroke. Data from the National Center for Health Statistics also shows that suicide rates among older adults have been on the rise.
Sunset Park resident Hector Gonzalez told Brooklyn Paper the senior center is more than just a gathering place — it’s part of the community’s fabric and an extended home, where a diverse group of seniors who helped build New York City have formed close-knit bonds, learned from one another and become like family.
“They don’t call each other friends. They are brothers and sisters, and they come here, they play, they eat, and their mind is not going back. Their mind is going forward,” said Gonzalez, a Vietnam veteran. “They look forward to another day when they wake up in the morning. They know they come in here and feel comfortable.”
Brooklyn Paper has reached out to the landlord for comment and is awaiting a response.
