{"id":284695,"date":"2026-07-02T10:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T10:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/284695\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T10:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T10:33:10","slug":"after-two-decades-beloved-senior-center-shutters-in-brooklyn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/284695\/","title":{"rendered":"After Two Decades, Beloved Senior Center Shutters in Brooklyn"},"content":{"rendered":"

After more than 20 years serving seniors in southern Brooklyn, the Ocean Parkway Older Adult Center is gone. The city-funded senior center served its last meal this past Friday and laid off most of its workers, according to the staff, after its landlord \u2014 itself a nonprofit built to house and serve low-income seniors \u2014 refused to renew its lease expiring June 30.<\/p>\n

The closure comes as New York enters a major heat wave, and the center had been one of the city\u2019s designated cooling centers, an air-conditioned refuge where the public can escape dangerous heat in the summer months.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s Office of Emergency Management, which oversees the city\u2019s cooling center network, confirmed the closure.<\/p>\n

The center\u2019s landlord, Ahi Ezer Housing Development Fund Corp<\/a>, the nonprofit that owns the affordable senior building where the center operated on the ground floor, has declined to renew the lease that has kept the program in place for more than 20 years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\""ProtectResidents of the Ocean Parkway Senior Center in Brooklyn advocated to keep it open, June 5, 2026. Credit: Alex Krales\/The City Reporter<\/p>\n

Its members and staff with the Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island<\/a> say the non-renewal blindsided them, and that the reason the owner has given for ending the lease \u2014 chronically low attendance \u2014 is incongruous with their own data and experiences.<\/p>\n

Attendance in Contrast<\/p>\n

Ahi Ezer notified the staff at the Ocean Parkway Older Adult Center in late May that it was not going to renew their lease, according to the staff. But they weren\u2019t told why.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But when a reporter visited the center in early June, a man who identified himself as the manager of the building, Eliot Harary, said the landlord is not renewing the lease because the program has been failing for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a show,\u201d he said brusquely, gesturing toward the lunch crowd and the dance class inside. \u201cFor years, no operating program. It\u2019s been a void.\u201d He said attendance had collapsed over the past four years, that the existing operator had \u201crun the place down,\u201d and that the lease had simply reached the end of its term.<\/p>\n

He also said that he had given JCCGCI ample time to hire a broker and find new space, and that a new nonprofit operator was ready to take over and \u201cboost the attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a written statement to the City Reporter, Harary said Ahi Ezer\u2019s board had \u201cmade a decision to move forward with another program operator for an adult senior program open to all senior citizens in our area,\u201d and that the new operator was \u201canxious to upgrade the space and improve the past operator\u2019s lack of enthusiasm toward the daily programming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The people who run the center, and the older adults who use it, vehemently disagree with his characterization.<\/p>\n

Esther Lustig, an administrative assistant, said attendance dipped during the pandemic and has been climbing back, with roughly 85 lunches served on a busy day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Ocean Parkway Senior Center provides lunch on a weekday afternoon, June 5, 2026. Credit: Alex Krales\/The City Reporter<\/p>\n

Brian Vinnitsky, the center\u2019s data manager, enters the daily count himself, and said attendance ebbs and flows for reasons that have nothing to do with neglect \u2014 fewer people during this past winter\u2019s repeated snowstorms, quieter in summer when many of the area\u2019s observant families decamp to New Jersey, lightest on the one day a week the city requires a vegan meal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if it\u2019s 10 people a day,\u201d he said, \u201cthat\u2019s 10 less people who might be hungry for the day.\u201d The kitchen also turns out around 180 home-delivered meals each day for homebound elders who cannot leave their apartments at all.<\/p>\n

The center\u2019s attendance records, obtained by The City Reporter, corroborate the staff\u2019s claims. In every month from last November through May, the kitchen served well over a thousand lunches \u2014 close to 60 on a typical weekday \u2014 never dipping below 940 even in its slowest stretch. The Department of Aging confirms that the center serves 65 participants daily on average.<\/p>\n

\"EhiThe center\u2019s senior program director Mazal Vachnine in her office, June 5, 2026. Credit: Alex Krales\/The City Reporter<\/p>\n

The center sits in one of Brooklyn\u2019s older and more immigrant-dense corners. In Sheepshead Bay, where the center is located, roughly one in five<\/a> residents is 65 or older, and 48% of the residents were born outside of the U.S, compared with 36% in New York overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The center\u2019s director, Mazal Vachnine, said she also could not reconcile the owner\u2019s complaint with reality. She said the seniors love the space and its varied programming, especially the outings that give them an opportunity to leave the house: a botanical garden trip that had 28 people; a Circle Line cruise scheduled for later in the month; Broadway shows twice this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very happy with the program,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2018It Changed My Life\u2019<\/p>\n

For some, the center is part of their family history. Gladys Mandalawi, 65, said she had brought her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother to the same center long before she was old enough to attend herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes us happy, it makes us great. And this should not be closed. It\u2019s extremely important that it stays open,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On a Friday morning in early June, the center was full of life. In the activity hall, a former dancer led a couple dozen members \u2014 most of them women in their 70s and 80s \u2014 as they twirled across the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like we\u2019re walking into our living room and meeting our family,\u201d said Terry Betesh, who has spent years at the center inside 1960 E. 7th St. in Brooklyn. \u201cIf they close it, everybody\u2019s going to be devastated.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For many, that community cannot be replaced outside of the center. Anita Smilowitz, 83, a widow who lives less than a mile away, said the community she found there cannot be replaced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s in the house. My husband died. Like most of the women, a lot of them are widows, and we really need places to go,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CancerCancer survivor Anne Klein says workers at the senior center are \u201ckind and caring,\u201d June 5, 2026. Credit: Alex Krales\/The City Reporter<\/p>\n

Anne Klein, 76, said the center helped her lose 100 pounds because she attended lots of its daily activities \u2014 tai chi, ballroom dancing, aerobics. The center also sustained her through cancer treatment. The assistant director at the center asked about how she felt everyday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I don\u2019t show up, I literally get called at home,\u201d Klein said. \u201cIt changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Search for New Operator, New Space<\/p>\n

The entity that did not renew the lease on the city-funded senior program is itself a tax-exempt charity whose stated mission is housing and serving low-income seniors.<\/p>\n

Ahi Ezer Housing Development Fund Corp and a closely linked entity, Ahi Ezer Kings Highway Housing Development Fund Co., are run by the same president \u2014 Hyman Escava \u2014 and tied to the Ahi Ezer Congregation, an Orthodox organization in the Gravesend-Homecrest area.<\/p>\n

And the Ahi Ezer network is expanding its own senior-housing footprint on the very same block. An affiliated nonprofit\u2019s plan to build 53 permanently affordable senior apartments at 1946 E. 7th St. cleared the City Council last September, as this outlet previously reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A flyer posted inside the center recently by Haray said the space is slated to be closed in July and August for renovations and re-open in September with a new operator. But there is no indication of who may come in to run it.<\/p>\n

The Department of Aging spokesperson said if Ahi Ezer wants to open a new city-backed senior center, it must go through the proper procedure. That means following the city\u2019s open, competitive procurement process and securing a contract. The agency says that a landlord cannot independently designate a new provider outside of the official process.<\/p>\n

The department also said clients of the former center have been redirected to nearby centers. King\u2019s Highway Older Adult Center, also operated by JCCGCI, Sephardic Multi Services Senior Citizens Center, and SBH Older Adult Center Senior Pavilion are all located within ten-minutes walking distance from the closed center, which all also serve as cooling centers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The agency also clarified that closing a single center does not automatically reduce the funding attached to JCCGCI\u2019s contract. The organization could keep that budget, NYC Aging said, by identifying another location to run as an older adult center \u2014 provided the new site meets the agency\u2019s contractual mandates and its geographic and location requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, finding a space that works for the center has proven a daunting task, according to the director Mazal Vachine, especially given the short notice that the staff has received.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Any replacement site has to be handicapped-accessible and equipped with a commercial kitchen capable of turning out hundreds of meals a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve looked a little bit, but nothing seems to be popping up,\u201d said Vachine, \u201cit\u2019s not so easy to just start over like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of June 30, no other location has been identified, according to the staff.<\/p>\n

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