Thousands of senior citizens across the city are facing a critical shortage of services because of a fight over state money. Seniors citizens living in what are known as "Naturally Occurring Retirement Community" face the loss of basic care that has often allowed them to age gracefully in their own neighborhoods. As State House Reporter Zack Fink explains, elected officials are scratching their heads about why those funds are now being denied.

Seniors at the Central Queens YMCA are carefree as they participate in an afternoon ballroom dancing class.

But a loss of state funding could make things much more difficult for seniors who are looking to stay active and avoid institutional care.

"$150,000 is being cut, which is incredibly significant because while those dollars are not large, they actually affect our ability to serve over 600 seniors in the community each year through our NORC program," said Danielle Ellman of the YMCA.

A NORC stands for Naturally Occurring Retirement Community, and there are 23 of them in city. The state denied funding to nine NORCs statewide, seven of which are in the city and five of which are in Manhattan.

NORC funding often pays for a social worker to help seniors stay in their communities as they get older.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer: Their needs can be addressed in terms of doctors and other kinds of support. They don't go to the hospital, and the whole purpose is aging in place. In your home.

Fink: And it saves the state money?

Brewer: It saves the state money because, obviously, they don't end up in the hospital spending Medicaid dollars.

What's unclear is why exactly the state has suddenly turned down so many funding requests all at once.

"Because of a lot of miscommunication, some technical glitches, the state agency in charge of NORCs has denied certain programs from their funding," said State Assemblywoman Nily Rozic of Queens.

According to Rozic, it is not an issue of money.

"There is money in this year's state budget that has been allocated for NORCs and for seniors," Rozic said. "That money has not dried up yet."

A spokesperson for the state's Department of Aging said officials are aware of the issue and are looking into the matter, but there are no promises to restore the funding.

Members of the State Assembly whose districts lost funding have written a letter to State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, asking him to look into the contract and rectify the situation.