As a part of the Asian American & Pacific Islander celebration on Tuesday May 24th, India Home met with New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer. At the roundtable of Indian American leaders in New York City, the comptroller explained the duties of his office and expressed his willingness to work with the community.
India Home’s Lakshman Kalasapudi was there and discussed a number of pressing issues for South Asian seniors and direct service organizations:
- Small organizations such as India Home need timely reimbursement of their government contracts. As we are required to submit our invoices to our contracting agency (Department for the Aging) by the 15th, we expect a timely reimbursement of funds. Currently, there is no deadline for many city agencies to reimburse their vendors or contractors.
- The comptroller’s focus on Minority/Women Business Enterprises (MWBE) is commendable. The comptroller stated he is committed to increasing the number of contracts and the amounts of those contracts to MWBE. As community-based organizations (CBOs) led by immigrant women of color, India Home and its partners (e.g. Sakhi, Sapna NYC, SAYA and more) receive very little government contracts and those we do are not in the Mayor’s baseline budget. We asked the comptroller to show the same commitment to Minority and Women-led CBOs.
- Housing is a huge need for South Asian seniors. Many of our members are looking for affordable options to live full and independent lives. However, small, growing organizations such as India Home need support to fulfill these needs. We requested the comptroller to look into capacity building opportunities and coaching for small organizations so we can better serve our communities with capital projects.
Comptroller Stringer addressing Indian American community leaders