by Jake Pearson
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The chair of the New York City Council’s Committee on Aging is calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders to overhaul the state’s beleaguered guardianship system in response to a ProPublica investigation that found elderly and infirm New Yorkers living in dire conditions while under court-mandated oversight.
City Councilmember Crystal Hudson introduced a resolution last week intended to force Albany to take up the cause of those whom judges have deemed incapable of managing their own affairs — a constituency without powerful lobbyists or political influence whose needs have long been ignored by state legislators.
“Too many people have been failed by this system, and a real overhaul is long overdue,” said Hudson, a Democrat. “We need a system that instills confidence — one that guarantees people in need of guardianships a dignified existence.”
More than 28,000 people statewide are currently under the care of court-appointed guardians, and nearly 60% of them live in New York City.
Hudson’s bill, which calls for an annual infusion of state funding to serve poor New Yorkers in the system, will be the subject of public hearings later this fall.
The proposal cites a series of stories this year by ProPublica that revealed how thousands of residents who have no family or friends to look after them are ill-served by many of the nonprofits and private attorneys that judges appoint to oversee their well-being. In the guardianship industry, this group of wards is known as “the unbefriended.”
The news organization found that there are too few guardians available to serve the people who need them and even fewer overseers, called examiners, to review the guardians’ work. A dearth of court staff and judges has compounded........