Officials in Westchester County recently made an offer to the federal government in a last-ditch attempt to save the Social Security hearing office in White Plains, New York. The office is slated to close at the end of May, due to issues with its lease and efforts by the Trump Administration to cut spending nationwide. Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins says he's offered to move the hearing office into a county-owned location in White Plains. But since making the offer in February, Jenkins says he hasn't received a call back.
"We haven't heard anything back from the federal government," says Jenkins. "And certainly, we're working with both of our Congressional representatives. They're working together to make sure the federal government was aware that the county had offered to host them. And obviously, it wasn't free space, but it was still space that could be utilized by the time we get to May...We're always ready to hear from the federal government, but we have not heard anything from them."
You mentioned that this wouldn't be free space. But it would save the government money compared to what it currently has, right?
Correct. I mean, we have to charge based on the state law — we just couldn't give them the space for free. But the space that we were first considering was at the county center, where we used to have our arts program. And certainly we'd work with the federal government to outfit the space as it needed. We had an incubator program down there as well. So, we think the space could be perfectly utilized. It's centrally located in Westchester County and has available parking, and all those kind of roadways — whether it's the Bronx River Parkway, the Cross Westchester Expressway, the Metro-North, there's convenient buses, both the express buses that go across to Rockland County as well as our regular Bee-Line bus system. So, there's very, very great convenience. And again, in being fair to our federal government, it sounds like the landlord wanted the government office to be moved at the end of their lease in May.
Aside from this location, are there any locations that you're eyeing, in case the federal government says, "We want it somewhere else?"
In White Plains we have four county office buildings, and we certainly would provide an opportunity for the federal government to look at all of those things. We wanted to start with offering that specific space, but we also have the spaces on Court Street, on East Post Road. Certainly, there's things that we can do, and some other spaces that we have available in White Plains alone, and we have several dozen buildings throughout Westchester County if those don't match up. But again, they're the hearing office — and there's a very limited amount of people that have a base in their current office here in White Plains. We're happy to continue to work with them to do this. And again, their lease ends in May, so there's a bit of time to help make sure that it could be outfitted appropriately, because those things, in any types of moves, take a little bit of time. But we're open and willing to work with our federal government to make sure we have convenience for Westchester [County] and surrounding areas that use the White Plains office, instead of them being inconvenienced by going to New Haven, Connecticut; Albany; or down to the Bronx.
You've touched on it, but I just wanted to ask: Why is this hub so important? What kind of work is happening here?
It is important, because administrative hearings take place when someone is denied benefits, or when there's additional services that they would like to have and there's been a rejection or declination of those services. These hearing offices provide that in-person space for people to be able to take their case up and to be able to work with the federal government and Social Security Administration. Again, the federal government is sprawling, it's huge, and trying to navigate through the various agencies — in this case, Social Security — can be daunting. And everyone is not [comfortable] enough to be on a video conference to do that. So again, having this in-person opportunity that's been here for decades, to be able to work and have that here in Westchester County, here in White Plains. We want to do everything possible to assist and make sure that our constituents in Westchester County can be able to continue to receive the services that they have earned and deserve.
