TESTIMONY
Juan Diaz, Policy Associate at Citizens Community for Children on Recommendations to Combat Family Homelessness
5:37:53
·
117 sec
Juan Diaz emphasizes the necessity of implementing strategies to prevent family homelessness and address the challenges faced by vulnerable New Yorkers.
- Diaz highlights serious delays in housing and public benefit application processes, and vacancy rates in social services organizations.
- He proposes implementing the CityFabs expansion, improving public benefits access, resolving contracting issues, and enhancing service stability through various measures.
- Recommendations include funding for community-based coordinators, meaningful cost-of-living adjustments for home services staff, and streamlining the approval process for housing units.
- Diaz underlines the importance of investing in programs and strategies that preemptively combat family homelessness.
Juan Diaz
5:37:53
Thank you.
5:37:53
My name is Juan Diaz.
5:37:54
Thank you, Charlie.
5:37:55
I know members of the committee on general welfare for holding today's hearing.
5:37:59
Name is Juan Diaz, and I'm a policy associate at Citizens Community for Children.
5:38:03
I'm multi issued Children's Advocacy Organization.
5:38:06
CCC is a co convener of the family home in school.
5:38:10
Today, I will focus mainly on our recommendations to combat family homelessness, but our reading testimony will contain additional recommendations related to child welfare, do justice, and food insecurity.
5:38:21
New Yorkers are experiencing serious delays in essential housing and public benefit service applications.
5:38:26
As well as severe vacancy rates as social services organizations and delays in payments to community raise organizations that provide essential services to vulnerable New Yorkers.
5:38:36
We urge the city to invest in program to a strategy that will prevent family homelessness.
5:38:41
We therefore urge you to take the following steps.
5:38:44
Implement the CityFabs expansion, which will significantly expedite the housing support for families in the community and in shelters.
5:38:52
Improve public benefit access and retention by removing red tape and implemented technology solutions to ensure that housing subsidies Payments and renewals and public benefits are secured, prioritize access to home based services by providing funding to support community based organizations with Ministry of Homeland Prevention Programs to keep up with the ever increasing demand of services.
5:39:15
We solve contracting issues and payment delays to community based organizations provided that impede workforce and service stability.
5:39:23
Baseline funding for community based community coordinators to have children to get to school every day into access much needed educational support.
5:39:31
We urge the city administration to implement meaningful cola for home services staff.
5:39:35
And finally, we urge the CD administration to invest in streamlining the approval process of baking of photo housing units by reducing repetitive paperwork in hiring the necessary staff.
5:39:48
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
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Jeanine Costley on Overcoming Nonprofit Challenges in Tackling Mental Health and Homelessness
