TESTIMONY
Terry Troia, President, Project Hospitality on Advocacy for Homeless and New Immigrants Support Systems
3:41:53
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3 min
Terry Troia highlights the financial and systemic struggles faced by Project Hospitality in aiding the homeless and new immigrants on Staten Island.
- Shares 40 years of experience working with homeless individuals and the critical state of support systems.
- Discusses the financial challenges faced in running immigrant shelters, including a $10 million debt owed to them by governmental agencies.
- Advocates for a rapid response team to streamline funding processes and support housing for those with mental and behavioral health issues.
- Urges for the expansion of housing qualifications to include domestic violence survivors and a 5% cost of living adjustment for human service contracts.
- Stresses the importance of fully funding city agencies to prevent deaths on the streets due to inadequate support.
Terry Troia
3:41:53
And and esteemed staff and council members.
3:41:57
I'm Carrie Troya.
3:41:59
I'm a local pastor and president of Project Hospitality serving homeless people on Staten Island.
3:42:05
I have been working with homeless people on the streets of Staten Island for 40 years.
3:42:09
I have watched and held on to fragile bodies as their lives slipped away on the streets of our borough.
3:42:17
I've had dinner with homeless people in sewer pipe rooms, in abandoned train cars, in huts underneath the abandoned North Shore line, and on the headstones of cemeteries.
3:42:28
And tomorrow morning at 5 AM, I will lead a team of 6 clergy people from concerned clergy of New York City to Washington, DC to advocate that additional federal funds come to our city for the way that we are handling the crisis of the new immigrants.
3:42:42
But Our interfaith effort is dying and not a slow death either.
3:42:50
We sponsor 2 of the new immigrant shelters on Staten Island, since October of 2022.
3:42:55
We've only gotten 2 months advance.
3:42:58
We are floating 2 hotels with all of our saved money, and we can't do it much longer.
3:43:07
We are owed $7,000,000, nearly 7 dollars, $6,900,000 from DHS, 2,300,000 from NYCD, and a half a 1,000,000 from HRA.
3:43:17
We are owed monies from DHS back to 22, 23, and now 24 fiscal year.
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$10,000,000 we are owed.
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We really advocate for some strategy of some kind of rapid response team that is able to cut through the red tape and assist agencies getting the passport process in place and getting the back monies owed.
3:43:46
We are not able to do this alone and passport did not input all of the budget figures.
3:43:54
They are missing in the budget breakout.
3:43:56
The city didn't transfer the full budget details from accelerated to transport, and we are stuck in the process and continue to be owed $10,000,000.
3:44:06
We have exhausted all of our lines of credit.
3:44:10
Beyond the concern of ourselves, even more so, is the concern for the homeless people who fill our streets and who need support of housing in order to survive.
3:44:22
For us, It is very crucial that people with severe mental health issues and behavioral health issues have the support of housing because that is the answer to their on house status.
3:44:33
So we advocate for additional congregate and additional scattersite units.
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More than the 7500 congregate units that are currently targeted by the city.
3:44:43
We need to have parity between the services provided by New York 1515 in Scatter Site, as well as in Congregate, so that we're able to provide the wraparound services to keep people housed.
3:44:58
We need to provide all different supportive housing models in order to get people off the street.
3:45:05
And we advocate that we expand the qualifications for 1515 to include survivors of domestic violence.
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We urge the city to fully fund and staff all of the city agencies serving homeless people, hungry New Yorkers, and building and filling affordable and supportive housing.
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And finally, we earned a 5% cola across all human service contracts in FY 25 for a $150,000,000 set aside.
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We need the people to care for the people so the people don't die on our streets.
3:45:41
Thank you.
