The care they provide allows seniors and people with disabilities to live independently and with dignity in their own homes. More and more of those in need of long-term supports and services prefer the comfort and familiarity of home care.

But right now, New York is facing an extreme shortage of home care workers, and there is a critical needto hire more workers now and over the next decade to meet the overwhelming demand.

Yet alarmingly, Gov. Hochul’s FY2025 budget proposal would reduce the wages of thousands of at-home caregivers enrolled in the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) by $3 an hour.  This would make it even harder for people seeking homecare services to find the help they need.

At the same time, profit-driven health insurance middlemen are taking billions of dollars of taxpayer money out of the homecare system through NY’s failed Managed Long-Term Care (MLTC) program.  Advocates are calling for reform through passage of bill S7800/A8470, to remove profiteering middlemen from the delivery of homecare services.

The high turnover and difficulty of attracting new home care workers is driven by low wages and unstable work. That’s why homecare workers are joining together through their union, 1199SEIU, and with homecare consumers and advocates to fight for fair pay for homecare. Our homecare heroes have earned and deserve a living wage so they can support their own families.