More than 300 seniors face precarious situations due to federal gov’t shutdown

Jonathan Morales Adorno, president of the Long-Term Care Institutions Federation

By THE STAR STAFF

Jonathan Morales Adorno, president of the Long-Term Care Institutions Federation, has raised alarms about the precarious situation facing more than 300 seniors who are currently at risk due to insufficient Social Security coverage and the lack of income from their children employed in federal agencies.

On Wednesday, Oct. 1, President Donald Trump announced a government shutdown after Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a compromise, leaving thousands of federal workers without jobs.

“Our biggest concern is that authorities have identified 320 seniors as the parents or family members of federal government employees. In Puerto Rico, as we know, seniors often don’t receive substantial Social Security benefits. Consequently, family members frequently have to bridge the gap in payments that Social Security doesn’t cover,” Morales said in an interview on Radio Isla. “This situation becomes increasingly challenging since many of these children or family members aren’t earning a salary and can’t provide the necessary support that the institution relies on.”

Meanwhile, Minerva Gómez, president of the Care Center Owners Association, voiced her worries regarding statements made by La Fortaleza the Chief of Staff Francisco Domenech Fernández indicating that the Puerto Rican government plans to secure a week’s worth of funds for nutritional assistance via the PAN (the Spanish acronym for the federal Nutrition Assistance Program) starting Nov. 1. Domenech announced Sunday night that the island government will be able to finance the PAN funds for the first week of November.

However, Gómez pointed out that owners of homes receiving more than 6,000 long-term care subsidies from the island Family Department confirmed, upon reviewing their budgets, that those funds may not be guaranteed given the ongoing government shutdown.