At JASA, we’ve spent over five decades as New York City’s premier nonprofit championing older adults, providing housing, health services, and legal support that stabilize lives amid crises. For many of the low-income seniors we serve, our civil legal services are the thin line between stability and homelessness, safety and abuse, dignity and exploitation.
Those lifelines are now in jeopardy. JASA has been a longstanding recipient of New York State IOLA (Interest on Lawyer Account) funding, which supports critical civil legal services for low-income older adults in Queens and Brooklyn. For the upcoming fiscal year, beginning April 1, JASA’s IOLA allocation is just under $249,000, funding that is now at risk because of a shortfall in the Governor’s proposed budget.
IOLA funds aren’t taxpayer dollars. Established in 1983 under New York State Finance Law, they capture interest from attorneys’ escrow accounts holding small or short-term client deposits, and the IOLA Board of Trustees then awards multi-year grants to over 80 nonprofit providers statewide, funding more than 300,000 civil legal cases annually. These cases include housing, family, immigration, and other essential civil legal matters that determine whether vulnerable New Yorkers can stay in their homes, access vital benefits, or escape violence.
At JASA, IOLA dollars are not abstract line items; they are the backbone of our legal program for older adults. This funding currently supports the core infrastructure needed to operate a high-quality, compliant, and accessible civil legal services program. That includes case management systems, compliance oversight, supervision, and administrative support that allow us to deliver legal services effectively and ethically to low-income older adults.
With this support, JASA provides comprehensive civil legal services in three critical areas: housing stability and eviction prevention, public benefits access and income security, and elder abuse and family violence prevention. In FY25 alone, our IOLA-supported legal program closed 990 cases, benefiting 1,805 individuals; secured $4.4 million in financial benefits for low-income older adults; and reached thousands more through community education and legal presentations and pro se assistance. These outcomes translate directly into homelessness prevention, financial stability, protection from exploitation, and the ability for older New Yorkers to age safely in their communities.
However, the Governor’s FY27 Executive Budget, set to take effect April 1, authorizes just $77.5 to $80.9 million in spending authority for IOLA – representing a devastating 20-25% shortfall from the $102.5 million required for the second year of existing five-year grants.
As a result, we will be forced to ration justice for older New Yorkers. A cut of this magnitude would mean fewer seniors receiving eviction defense, fewer older adults securing Social Security and other benefits they are legally entitled to, and fewer survivors of elder abuse obtaining the orders of protection that keep them safe. Seniors will face utility shutoffs and illegal rent hikes without counsel.
Older adults will be left to navigate complex benefits systems alone, risking loss of income that pays for food, medication, and home care. Survivors of elder abuse and family violence will be turned away or left on waiting lists while their safety is in peril.
IOLA’s genius lies in its self-sufficiency: by leveraging interest on attorney escrow accounts, it creates a non-taxpayer revenue stream that reduces pressure on state coffers.
Our IOLA-backed interventions have preserved affordable housing units, avoided costly nursing home or shelter placements, and secured public benefits that support older adults in the community rather than in more expensive institutional settings. Cutting this funding shifts costs, rather than saving them, from a cost-effective civil legal system to crisis-driven, taxpayer-funded services like emergency shelter, hospitalization, and long-term care.
The seniors we serve are already on the financial edge. When a landlord illegally raises the rent, when a benefits check suddenly stops, or when a family member begins siphoning off an older person’s income, a JASA attorney funded by IOLA is often the only thing that stands between that senior and catastrophe.
The Governor and state lawmakers must act decisively in final budget negotiations. Restoring the full amount in IOLA spending authority is not a luxury; it is the minimum needed to honor a multi-year commitment already made to legal providers and to protect the civil legal safety net for vulnerable New Yorkers. The lives and dignity of New York’s seniors hang in the balance.
Gayle Horwitz is the CEO of JASA.