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Brooklyn senior center provided community and care. Now, it's shut amid a lease dispute.
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Jul 15, 2025
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Catalina Gonella / Gothamist
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Jul 15, 2025
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A Brooklyn senior center closed its doors at the beginning of July after a monthslong lease dispute, and the future of the facility that seniors depend on for meals, social connection and recreation remains uncertain.
“We sadly inform you that the center is closed temporarily,” read a sign taped to the center's entrance in English and Spanish this week.
The senior center's closure interrupted 51 years of operation and came after its 10-year lease for the 10,000 square foot space ended on June 30 without a new one in place. The senior center’s status had been in limbo for months due to what Executive Director Grisel Amador said was a planned 70% rent hike the organization could not afford. While those funds have since been secured, Amador said she can’t sign on to landlord Amy Grabino’s demands without more backing than she’s currently getting from the city.
Amador said the lease Grabino has asked the center to sign would require it to take care of all upgrades and repairs over the new 10-year term.
“If something broke here in the senior center, we don't have money to pay for it. For example, if the elevator broke, we don't have money. If the heating system broke or the air conditioner broke, we don't have money to fix it, and also the sprinkler system, we don't have money to pay for that,” Amador said. “For that reason, I cannot sign the lease because I cannot put my name in something that I cannot have money or funds to pay if something broke.”
A spokesperson for the city's Department of the Aging, which helps fund the center, told Gothamist there are costly terms in the lease that the city can’t subsidize, but did not specify which terms they meant.
Officials estimate seniors visit the center more than 40,000 times a year. They play games like dominoes and mahjong, meet with social workers, and are served breakfast and lunch. In May, as the center stared down the possibility of a closure over the cost of the lease, more than 250 people packed inside for a rally to denounce the 70% rent hike.
A sign informing visitors to the United Senior Citizens Center of Sunset Park that the facility is currently closed.
Catalina Gonella / Gothamist
During a visit to the center during its last week in June, 72-year-old Ernesto Ruiz told Gothamist he feared isolation if the center closed.
“ It's very important because this is the only place for the senior citizens to come, because a lot of us are all alone in the house, like me,” Ruiz said. “I don't know how to cook. I come here, get breakfast, lunch, entertainment, too.”
Maria Rivera, 80, said she'd be lonely and depressed without the center.
“ I've been coming here for 10 years and I come every day like clockwork — I get here at 8 o'clock in the morning,” she said. “It's nice to be here.”
Grabino has not returned calls seeking comment.
Officials with the center had originally said the 70% rent hike was more than they could afford. Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, the Department of the Aging's commissioner, previously said it was “an impossible ask.”
But the agency said it, local officials and stakeholders worked to secure more funds in the city and state budgets.
Cortés-Vázquez said the agency remains hopeful a new lease will be signed soon, though it is unclear when.
“The priority of NYC Aging will always be for older adult center members to receive quality services in a safe and welcoming space. We are similarly committed to working with small landlords and investing in local communities across our network,” she said. “Unfortunately, the lease negotiations between United Senior Citizens of Sunset Park and its landlord have been unusually prolonged, resulting in a temporary lapse in their tenancy.”
For the time being, Amador has redirected seniors to other organizations nearby, but said she worries about them every day.
“I just pray to God that they found another senior center, that they feel at home, that they feel secure, that they love the food also because that is very important and that they have the activities that we have here**,”** she said.
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Catalina Gonella
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