TESTIMONY
Ameya Biradavolu, Licensed Social Worker, on Challenges Faced by Asylum Seekers in NYC and the Lack of Adequate Support
3:22:50
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5 min
Ameya Biradavolu, a Licensed Social Worker, testifies about the severe challenges faced by asylum seekers in New York City due to inadequate support and resources.
- Describes firsthand experience managing a shelter for asylum seekers in Harlem, emphasizing the lack of recognition for service providers by the mayor's office.
- Highlights the hardships encountered by asylum seekers, including inadequate emergency housing, access to food, and legal hurdles.
- Criticizes the city's failure to offer comprehensive support during the asylum-seeking process, exacerbating the vulnerability of this population.
- Shares success in obtaining permanent housing for clients and efforts to provide IDs, health insurance, food, clothing, and legal support on a volunteer basis.
- Calls for policy amendments to improve support for asylum seekers, emphasizing the dire need for proper shelter and resources during winter months.
Ameya Biradavolu
3:22:50
I'm, like, kinda hot and cold at the same time, so bear with me a little bit.
3:22:54
My name's Amaya Biraj Divalu.
3:22:55
I'm 1 I'm a licensed social worker, and I managed one of the first shelters, if not the first shelter for asylum seekers in New York City.
3:23:01
In Harlem from 2019 to 2023, but the shelter was there since 2011.
3:23:07
And I just wanna say I was pretty disgusted with the mayor's office, and there inability to recognize all of the service providers, mostly black and brown that have been here doing this work for years when I started managing the shelter was 25.
3:23:20
So I don't really take excuses from other service providers, putting out, you know, problematic policies and saying this is under the guise of care, it's not, as someone who's actually done that work on the ground and trained other social workers to to do that work on the ground.
3:23:36
So I have firsthand experience on how to provide trauma informed care to asylum seekers through progressive shelter policies.
3:23:42
I did this through the Trump administration's change in policies, through COVID and through the mayor's emergency crisis.
3:23:49
75% of my clients received permanent housing after a year in New York City And for the past 8 months, I've been working alongside Malika, mostly on a volunteer basis to support over 850 asylum seekers with IDs health insurance, food assistance, clothing assistance, and legal support.
3:24:06
I've also been working as a volunteer with legal providers to set up prosay clinics this spring in lieu of the city's services.
3:24:15
I'm testifying again to pass the amendment to this bill.
3:24:19
I'm especially concerned because the day after New Year, so this January 2nd, People were woken up out of their bed and told to leave with nowhere to go a few days before one of the cold coldest blizzards of the year.
3:24:32
I personally received phone calls from service providers, and this is the 1st winter in 5 years that I haven't been able to provide housing.
3:24:40
So it was especially heartbreaking.
3:24:42
Being the one place where people googled me from across, from other countries, press Googled me from everywhere, and were able to find me, but the mayor's office wasn't.
3:24:53
I had more to say.
3:24:54
Gonna go fucking.
3:24:55
So clients have told me that they've experienced night leaving on the street in blizzard conditions, struggled to find food, and some people have been going through trash.
3:25:04
And if provided stays are provided 1 night emergency spaces where 3 to 400 people are crammed into a room, mostly filled with pews, no beds, no pillows, and limited heat.
3:25:13
Most of these places do not adhere to the building and safety regulations that any other shelter or nonprofit would need to operate and receive funding.
3:25:20
When I applied for house of worship funding, we were told that we'd have to spend 100 of $1000 on a space that was fully renovated over 1,000,000 of dollars in renovations, a church.
3:25:32
And we had our space held in all the I mean, the funding held in bureaucratic systems.
3:25:36
My 1 to 2 staff team did not have the capacity to continue with our private funding and remain and keep our shelter open.
3:25:42
And The only other alternative without the city shelters is sleeping on the street or even for me this winter dressed in snow gear.
3:25:52
I can't imagine spending more of the 5 to 10 minutes out on the street.
3:25:55
Let alone someone who's faced persecution and death threats more than about three times within the course of a year.
3:26:02
As someone who shelter people from the cold, it breaks my heart that many people experienced their 1st winter on the streets without winter clothes in freezing temperatures.
3:26:09
To file for asylum, you must fear persecution for your life and be on US soil at the time of filing, the document i589.
3:26:16
Unlike refugees, asylum seekers are still being processed in the country and are therefore ineligible for most programs.
3:26:21
They're not given refugee reallocation as stance, which is a a federal budget line since the 19 eighties that provides temporary stipends to resettle in the the US.
3:26:30
They're also barred from SNAP, Medicaid, social security and other programs until the 5 I589 is received by the federal government put on a 180 day clock and then a work authorization application is is filed and then processed and mailed back.
3:26:46
During these 8 months, asylum seekers don't just wait in poverty.
3:26:49
They wait in stream poverty and are reliant on mutual aid and shelters to fill the the gap of services.
3:26:55
I'm confused why shelter limits don't take into consideration immigration policies that we know our clients are navigating.
3:27:01
We know it takes a 180 days for work authorization to process, and we know migration happens during World Months and shelter needs are most important during winter.
3:27:09
And asylum seekers without work authorization is 5.6 times more likely to suffer from hunger.
3:27:15
For most asylum seekers, they're experiencing their 1st winter without any winter clothes and without access to comprehensive health care.
3:27:22
Just this year, 80,000 over 80,000 migrants haven't arrived in New York City.
3:27:27
And almost 95% have not been informed that they have to file a 5 I 589 form, which leaves asylum seekers in extreme poverty for longer stretches of time.
3:27:36
Not only have people fled dire situations in their home country, but now they're also dealing with deportation and now housing insecurity in a new country where they fear for their lives once again.
3:27:47
I'm confused to why funding to service providers is continuously restricted when New York City this year has a $117,000,000,000 budget, which is more than most countries have.
3:27:56
And I don't understand why individuals have to fill the gaps that the city services should be managing.
3:28:02
Thank you.