Bringing seniors services directly to seniors is a priority for a group of New Jersey lawmakers. In addition to health services, a newly proposed mobile unit would help seniors with apps, food services, internet access and use, among other services.
Deputy Majority MP Angela McKnight (D) – along with Carol Murphy, Shanique Speigh (D) and Gabriela M. Mosquera –
introduced legislation earlier this year that, if passed, would establish a state-run Mobile Elder Assistance Scheme. The Assembly’s Committee on Aging and Services for the Elderly passed the law on September 15; the bill is headed to the Assembly Health Committee.
The invoice calls for the “periodic deployment of staffed vehicles to locations in or near nursing homes and senior centers, events, gatherings, low-income senior housing” and other locations . The recent committee amendments added low-income seniors’ housing and other seniors’ residences and forms of housing to locations to be patrolled by mobile seniors’ assistance vehicles under the program. The Ministry of Health would operate the unit.
McKnight and Speight are also among the sponsors of a bill before the General Assembly that would require owners and operators of nursing home businesses that rent out their buildings to cap their annual rent increases at 4%.
If passed, a landlord who violates the provisions of the bill with annual rent increases greater than 4% would face a penalty equal to two and a half times the monthly lease or rent payments for each violation. The fines collected would be deposited in a fund that would be used to offset the cost to the courts of administering the provisions of the bill.
