---
type: "Bill"
title: "Clarifies the meaning of the phrase greatest social need for purposes of the administration of programs under the federal Older Americans Act of 1965"
description: "Clarifies the meaning of the phrase \"greatest social need\" for purposes of the administration of programs under the federal Older Americans Act of 1965, defining it to mean the need caused by non-economic factors which shall include, but not be limited to: physical or mental disability; Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia; language barriers including limited English proficiency and low literacy; and cultural, social, or geographic isolation."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ny"
legislature: "New York Legislature"
session: "2023-2024"
identifier: "S 817"
citation: "New York S 817 (2023-2024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Brad Hoylman-Sigal"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 11
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2023-01-06"
last_action: "2023-03-03"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d7ee2431-7886-4b22-be62-c13d83f06d7c"
source_url: "http://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S817"
source_hash: "d374ce7761501131357fe1f9cf413a50edad719fea97b986d2560ed5c0802fa8"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ny"]
---

# New York S 817 (2023-2024) — Clarifies the meaning of the phrase greatest social need for purposes of the administration of programs under the federal Older Americans Act of 1965

Clarifies the meaning of the phrase "greatest social need" for purposes of the administration of programs under the federal Older Americans Act of 1965, defining it to mean the need caused by non-economic factors which shall include, but not be limited to: physical or mental disability; Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia; language barriers including limited English proficiency and low literacy; and cultural, social, or geographic isolation.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **S817** (committee substitute) — [source](http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?sh=printbill&bn=S817&term=2023&Text=Y)

## Votes

- Floor Vote — **57–6** (pass) · upper
- Rules Vote — **17–2** (pass) · upper
- Assembly Vote — **140–2** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Brad Hoylman-Sigal — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2023-01-06** REFERRED TO RULES `referral-committee`
- **2023-01-09** ORDERED TO THIRD READING CAL.26
- **2023-01-18** PASSED SENATE `passage`
- **2023-01-18** DELIVERED TO ASSEMBLY
- **2023-01-18** REFERRED TO AGING `referral-committee`
- **2023-01-31** SUBSTITUTED FOR A629
- **2023-01-31** ORDERED TO THIRD READING RULES CAL.57
- **2023-01-31** PASSED ASSEMBLY `passage`
- **2023-01-31** RETURNED TO SENATE
- **2023-03-03** DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR `executive-receipt`
- **2023-03-03** SIGNED CHAP.74 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d7ee2431-7886-4b22-be62-c13d83f06d7c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official New York legislature records).