Perhaps lost in the discussion over the 22,000-square-foot Center for Modern Aging and Human Services planned for Abraham’s Path in Amagansett has been the human services element of the project. The department would occupy nearly a third of the fidget-spinner-shaped building. A recent visit to its current home, across the parking lot from the senior citizens center on Springs-Fireplace Road, makes clear that an upgrade is not an outlandish request.
“Yes, it’s a trailer,” Diane Patrizio, the human services director, said, flanked by Patrick Derenze, East Hampton Town’s public information officer, in the low-ceilinged, fluorescent-lit entranceway to the department.
Being inside the trailer doesn’t feel very different from stepping into a basement from the 1970s. Undoubtedly retro, but undeniably current in responsibility, that is the irony of the situation in which the department finds itself. Its work grew in importance during the Covid era, when the department provided to-go meals for senior citizens who were afraid to leave their homes. It may be hard to remember, but only a handful of years ago people were wiping down groceries with Clorox hand wipes.
The department works with people in need, a population that can be forgotten since most services in the Hamptons focus on wants. Someone needs a ride to a doctor’s appointment. An older person needs help with grocery shopping. A snowstorm approaches and the town’s emergency services manager needs to contact homebound seniors. Someone needs a meal. Someone needs a lightbulb changed, or an air-conditioner hoisted into a window. (The department employs two full-time maintenance workers.) Maybe a senior needs simple encouragement to get out of the house and stretch.
The walls of the trailer are practically peeling with brochures and fliers. Ceiling tiles in it and in the senior center across the parking lot show water damage.
Office space for the Human Services Department would not increase in the new building, which has been criticized for its footprint, and adding staff is not foreseen. Being in the same space as the senior center would not only help the department deliver services but also inform seniors of its existence.
“A lot of what we’re trying to do with a new building is bring us together,” said Ms. Patrizio, who has worked in the trailer since 2008. “Because you don’t think it’s that far, but try to get a senior to walk over here to me. I’ll go over there, but I miss a lot.”
“We have a crew of six in here,” she said, gesturing to an office at the end of the trailer that houses the transportation team. “They come in the morning at 7:30 a.m. with a list of where we’re going for the day. Everybody we’re picking up. We could be bringing people here to lunch. We could be bringing people to lunch in Montauk. We take people to their doctor’s appointments. We get them at their homes.”
Down the hall was Liliana Rodriguez, a case manager who has worked there since 2006. “She helps anyone in the community,” Ms. Patrizio said. “Not just seniors.” A Spanish-speaker, Ms. Rodriguez has recently fielded calls about immigration concerns.
Earlier this month, Ms. Patrizio gave a presentation before the town board, detailing all the services her department provides. She said the senior citizen population, for which several wellness programs are provided, in addition to daily lunch, had increased here 72 percent from 2000 to 2020. “Seniors aged 60-plus now make up over 32 percent of the town population. More older adults are living outside of nursing homes, further increasing the demand for community-based services.”
“We want to age in place,” said Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who has made the construction of the new center central to her tenure.
Councilman Tom Flight noted the diversity of the senior population. “There are some people 60-plus who have zero need of any support, and there are some who need incredible amounts of support,” he said, wondering about the age profile at the center.
Ms. Patrizio said they have only recently started gathering that data for the Human Services Department’s wellness programs, like chair yoga (packed full on the day of The Star’s visit), but she did have data for the 335 participants of the nutrition program: “From age 60 to 69, it’s 19 percent, which are 62 people. From 70 to 79, it’s 36 percent, so it’s 119 people. From 80 to 89, it’s 34 percent, which would be 111 people, and from 90 to 99, it’s 12 percent, which is pretty good and that’s 38 people. Believe it or not, we have some people 100-plus. That would be five people.”
The board was unanimous in its appreciation of the department’s work.
“Every one of these numbers and data points is a connection between people in our community with each other,” Councilwoman Cate Rogers said. “We tend to talk about, you know, this program or that program, but inside those words are people getting up every day and having human contact with each other. They may be otherwise isolated, and unable to be able to have the necessary human activity of friendship and of conversation that we all crave.”
