REMARKS
Council Member Diana I. Ayala opens oversight hearing on the Department of Social Service's monthly eligibility reporting
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3 min
Council Member Diana I. Ayala initiates an oversight hearing to examine the Department of Social Service's manipulation of monthly eligibility rate reporting and discuss related bills.
- Ayala, Deputy Speaker and Chair of the General Welfare Committee, highlights the hearing's focus on Department of Social Services' reporting malpractices and two proposed bills.
- An investigation report from January revealed violations and manipulations of shelter eligibility statistics under the current and former mayoral administrations.
- The hearing aims to address issues surrounding shelter stay limits and enhance support for individuals needing housing aid, especially asylum seekers.
- Ayala emphasizes finding dignified living conditions for asylum seekers, rejecting the implementation of shelter stay limits.
Diana I. Ayala
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Thank you, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's hearing.
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My name is Diana Ayala, and I am the deputy speaker of the New York City Council and the Chair of the General Welfare Committee.
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Today, we are holding an oversight hearing on the Department of Social Service is manipulation of monthly eligibility rate reporting.
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We will also be hearing 2 bills.
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The first intro to Times sponsored by council member, Hanif, would prohibit any city agency from imposing limits on the length of time an individual or family may remain in shelter or emergency congregate housing provided such individual or family is eligible for temporary housing assistance on the state law.
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The sex intro 349, sponsored by council member nurse, would make clarifying edits to local law 34 2024 to indicate that required reports are to be submitted on a quarterly basis.
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In January of this year, the Department of Investigation issued a report detailing its findings after conducting an investigation into allegations of unlawful overnight stays at path intake centers in the summer of 2022 and improper manipulation of the publicly reported path eligibility rate from 2017 to mid 2022.
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Amongst findings, DOE indicated that the Department of Homeland Services under both Mayor Eric Adams and administration and former mayor, Bill De Blasio's.
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Administration had unreported right to shelter violations in added with record keeping and a blatant manipulation of statistics.
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In addition to violations being unreported, the DOE found that the top homeless service official artificially lowered a publicly reported statistic, which ultimately painted the wrong picture of what shelter capacity needs are in New York City.
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This could have resulted in long wait times for families to qualify for housing vouchers and move into permanent housing, further clogging up and overburden shelters to them.
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Council member, her niece, will be speaking about her bill, intro 3 49.
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I wanna underscore that rather than issuing a shelter state limit for asylum seekers the city should be finding ways to ensure that asylum seekers can live with dignity.
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This cruel policy is destabilizing to so many who are already struggling to navigate being here.
0:02:58
I look forward to hearing from the administration and advocates today and gathering feedback on this oversight topic and on intro 210.
0:03:05
At this time, I'd like to acknowledge my colleagues who are here today, council members, Gabang, Jose Ng, Aveelas, Figueroa, and Stevens.
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Oh,
Madelyn Elfenbein
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who Hanif.
Diana I. Ayala
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And, council member Hanif.
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I would also like to thank the committee staff who worked hard to prepare this hearing.
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I'm Mister Kila Warren, senior counsel, David Merrill, counsel Caroline Strauss Legal Extern, Julia Harrimus, Unit Head, Parina Raman, Finance Analyst, Andrew Skol data analyst.
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And finally, my staff, Elsie and Gardena's young chief of staff.
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I also wanna take this time to express my gratitude to our counsel, David Romero, who will be moving on from this at from his time at the council.
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David has been an invaluable asset to his body.
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While we are sad to see him go, we wish him the best, maybe.
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Maybe.
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In his future endeavors, we will really, really miss him.
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I will now turn it over to our panel of impacted individuals.
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And I just really wanna point out that I'm very disappointed that the administration is not here to hear from these individuals because that is the the the whole point when we allow these panels to go first is really to give an an opportunity for the administration to hear how, you know, on from the people that are impacted by our policies on, you know, the detrimental ways that these policies are impacting their lives.
0:04:38
With that, I'll pass it over to counsel.