Social Security Administration to close Long Beach office Friday

After Congress slashed nearly $1 billion from its budget, the Social Security Administration will permanently close its Long Beach office on East Park Ave. on Friday at noon, as the agency consolidates operations, scales back hours and transfers services to nearby locations.

The closure means that thousands of Long Beach residents, many of them seniors, will be forced to visit the agency’s locations in Freeport, Mineola or Far Rockaway.

District Manager Joseph D’Orio said that residents were being notified of the closure but declined to comment and referred the Herald to its regional communications director, Everett Lo, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The closure of the Long Beach office, at 25-27 E. Park Ave., is one of many office closures throughout the country — locally, the agency planned to shut offices in Mount Vernon, N.Y. and in Connecticut — after Congress provided nearly $1 billion less in federal funding to the agency’s budget this year. According to the Social Security Administration, nearly 55 million Americans received $727 billion in Social Security benefits last year, accounting for roughly 20 percent of the federal budget.

“Congress provided our agency with nearly $1 billion less than the President requested for our budget this fiscal year, which makes it impossible for us to provide the amount of overtime needed to handle service to the public as we have in the past,” Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, said on the agency’s website.

Still, with more than 30,000 residents in Long Beach, some said that the closure will inconvenience residents, especially senior citizens and those with disabilities who rely on the office’s close proximity.

“I did everything I politically could to let them know how it would impact our city,” said Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, adding that he called on federal lawmakers to find a way to keep the local office open.

“Our population is about a third senior citizens and we have a diverse population and many people with disabilities, and this is really an inconvenience. Considering our population, it was a pretty busy office.”