The City of Hialeah Gardens is proud to host a thriving and active Senior Center program that cultivates a sense of community, coordinates social activities, and hosts events for our elderly residents. Through this program, our senior citizens have long enjoyed daily meals, games, domino tournaments, educational classes, holiday celebrations, birthday parties, health fairs, beauty services and more in a dedicated Senior Center facility. Due to age and excessive damage, the one-story, 1970’s-era building next to City Hall has had to be demolished, re-designed, and re-built. 

The City is pleased to have secured funding for this initiative from various sources. The Florida Department of Elder Affairs, through the Florida Legislature’s 2019-2020 General Appropriations Act, granted the City $800,000 to support improvements and renovations to the City’s Senior Center. In addition, the City was allocated funding for the project in the $109.9 billion State budget which was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis for the 2022-2023 fiscal year. Specifically, $1 million was dedicated to the rebuild of a safe and secure Senior Center facility. Construction of the building began in late 2022 and was completed and ready for the grand opening held on September 23 of this year.

The State of Florida also allocated $500,000 to the Elder Meals nutrition program, which will allow the City to service more of those who wish to participate in the congregate and/or home bound meal plan.

Mayor De La Cruz emphasizes that overall, this is an historic amount of funding from the State that will greatly enhance the City’s ability to serve its low-income elderly population, which makes up a large part of the Hialeah Gardens community. The new and improved building will serve as headquarters for Senior Center staff, and will have enough space to accommodate about 150 patrons.

Mayor De L Cruz was joined for the grand opening festivities by Councilmen Rolando Piña and Jorge Gutierrez as well as State Senator Bryan Avila, Miami-Dade Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez and School Board Member Roberto Alonso.

More photos can be seen in the photo gallery here.