NEW YORK, NY December 17, 2008 —Mayor Bloomberg has tapped Lilliam Barrios-Paoli to be the new commissioner of the Department for the Aging.

At the announcement of her new post, Barrios-Paoli says the economic crisis could pose serious challenges for seniors who may turn to the city for help:

BARRIOS-PAOLI: I think the number of seniors that will access the services will increase as well. Whenever the economy is not good unfortunately stress, violence, all of those bad indicators tend to go up and I think our job is to manage them as best as we can and I think seniors are vulnerable.

REPORTER: A veteran of the Koch, Dinkins and Giuliani administrations, Barrios-Paoli will find herself in the middle of a contentious debate over a Bloomberg plan to restructure the delivery of senior services when she takes office in late January.