Good morning, and welcome to the New York City preliminary budget here in under committee on General Welfare.

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Cheers.

We're ready to begin.

Thank you.

Sorry.

I'm still trying to catch up my hour that I'm we're all missing, but I'm A little bit delayed.

But good morning, everyone.

I am deputy speaker, Diana Ayala, Chair of the General Wall Fair Committee.

Thank you for joining me for the fiscal 2025 preliminary budget hearing for the General Welfare Committee.

We will hear from 2 agencies, the Human Resource Administration and the Department of Homeland Services testifying under the umbrella of the Department of Social Services' DSS.

The city's proposed fiscal 2025 preliminary budget totals $109,400,000,000, of which $14,800,000,000 or 13.5 percent funds DSS.

This encompasses 10,800,000,000 for HRA and 4,000,000,000 for DHS.

DSS serves some of the most vulnerable populations in the city, and these services are more vital now than ever.

There were notable changes made in the preliminary plan for both agencies.

HRAs saw 1,500,000,000 in new needs added to fiscal year 2024 owning with the majority of that funding going towards entitlement programs lacking adequate baseline funding, including cash assistance, city theft vouchers, HAZA Emergency Housing, and domestic violence shelter other adjustments and pegs decrease HRA's budget by 100 and $12,600,000 in fiscal year 2024, $128,600,000 in fiscal year 2025 and by over 130,000,000 in the outer years.

On a positive note, I was very happy to see that the preliminary plan fully restored HRA's job training program, which had been cut in the November plan.

In the preliminary plan, DHS had 86,000,000 new needs and flew school year 2024 only, notably including $63,500,000 to pay shelter security, the prevailing wage, which has been legislatively required for years, but is still not baseline.

PAGS decreased DHS's budget by 58,900,000 in fiscal year 20 and by $89,300,000 in fiscal year 2025, largely due to the impact from the asylum seekers response cost re estimate.

I am concerned about the areas that the budget where the budget does not adequately support the essential programs administered by HRA and the necessary level of staffing required to provide clients with services in a timely manner.

While HRA has made headway in the backlog of snap and cache systems applications, denial rates have increased which is troubling.

We have been hearing that it is it is very difficult to get through to HRA by phone and their clients are experiencing very long wait times at HRA centers.

I am also concerned that not enough support is being given to community based organizations such as the ones operating the city's food pantries and soup kitchens.

While the budget maintains these central benefits programs administered by HRA and the shelter programs administered by DHS, we need to think more deeply about where we can Most effectively allocate our limited city resources, especially during these uniquely challenging times.

BHS's shelter census which is now over 87,000, has nearly doubled over the past 3 years, largely due to the influx of asylum seekers.

The ballooning shelter census and the high cost of the city's asylum seekers response makes the programs, makes programs such as the defense more important than ever.

And the best way to move long term shelter residents into stable permanent housing.

However, this program suffers from both underfunding and numerous process bottlenecks on top of the difficulty of finding affordable housing in a very expensive setting.

In today's hearing, we would look we look forward to discussing adjustments made in the preliminary plan, including the Peds, staffing for benefits administration, the impact of vacancies on agency operations, how DSS is working in contracted nonprofit provide us super improved contracting, the plan for asylum response, efforts going forward and the metrics included in the fiscal 2024 preliminary measures management report.

It is the council's job to carefully review the budgets and operations of city agencies to ensure that we are good stewards of public dollars.

And that we are providing the city's most vulnerable residents with the services that they need.

This is a job that I take very seriously.

Before I welcome the commissioner, I would like to acknowledge that we've been joined by Speaker Adams and council members.

Riley, Schulman, Kaban, and our and our viewers.

Finally, I would like to thank the general welfare committee for their work on preparing this hearing.

Perina Raman, finance analyst, Julia Harriman, senior head, Panina Rosenberg policy analyst and my chief of staff, Elsie and Carmezio.

Now I would like to turn it over to Commissioner Park, our council leader, Arun.

Please raise your right hand.

Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but truth and respond honestly to counsel member questions.

Ideally, yes.

You may now begin.

Thank you.

If we could go to the first slide on the presentation, please.

Good morning.

My name is Molly Wasso Park.

I'm the commissioner of the Department of Social Services.

I'm joined today by Jocelyn Carter, administrator of the Department of Home Services.

Scott French administrator for the Human Resources Administration Jill Barry, DSS First Deputy Commissioner, Ellen Levine, Chief Program Performance And Financial Management Officer Rosene Ferdinand, Executive Deputy Commissioner and Patrick Dystefano, Deputy Commissioner.

Today, we will provide an overview of the budgets for DSS, HRA, and DHS and highlight some of the programs and services we offer to support low income New Yorkers.

Next slide.

DSS is the largest government social services agency in the country.

Comprised of the Human Resources Administration or HRA and the Department of Home Services DHS.

Under the consolidated management structure and the shared mission of DSS.

HRA and DHS provide an integrated continuum of client services to millions of New Yorkers every day.

Across the agencies, our primary goal is to create a path to sustainability for low income New Yorkers through 3 pillars First, streamlining access to social services second, addressing homelessness and housing instability and third, creating economic stability.

In a joint effort to fight poverty and income inequality and to create housing opportunities, DSSHRA DHS collaborate with other public agencies and nonprofit partners to reduce street homelessness, assist New Yorkers, and successfully transitioning from shelter into permanent housing.

And return to self sufficiency through our various programs and services that we will discuss in more detail.

First, I will provide an overview of the projected DSS HRA budget for SLY 25.

Two slides forward, please.

And commissioner, I'm sorry to interrupt.

But when you have any graphs for accessibility purposes, can you just verbally interpret them?

Absolutely.

Thank you.

So we are starting with a an overview of the HRA budget just to before I get into the the graph, DSSHRA is dedicated to fighting poverty and income inequality.

Providing essential benefits, including cash assistance, nutrition, and food programs, public health insurance, employment, and transportation services, and access to housing.

Homelessness prevention and emergency assistance.

DSSHRA helps more than 3,000,000 New Yorkers annually through the administration of more than 15 major public benefit programs, with a budgeted headcount of 12,000 people.

As you see in this pie chart here, the FY 25 budget for DSSH is $10,800,000,000, including $8,400,000,000 in Citi Funds.

The majority over 80% of the HRA Citi Tax levy budget is earmarked for benefits that the city administers on behalf of New York State.

This includes cash assistance benefits, which is the red pie chart about 12% of the total.

Although we manage the application process for cash assistance benefit levels and eligibility rules are sent by state law and regulation.

Medicaid, which is the very large blue slice of the pie here is also a critical component of the HRA budget.

Medicaid fund services, including home care, managed care, mental health substance use services, hospice care, and so on.

The program is really administered by New York State.

The city pays a portion of Medicaid costs out of city tax levy.

That's the 70% of the DSS HRA Citi budget funded budget shown here.

HRA sends these funds directly to New York State, and the state uses it along with the state and federal funds it controls to pay medical providers and managed care plans.

HRA also administers SNAP for 1,700,000 clients.

These benefits which are federally funded to the tune of about $3,900,000,000 a year don't flow through our budget, but they represent another critical benefit that HRA is mandated to provide.

I will note that the administration section of the budget, which is the purple wedge on the pie here is the administration that covers both DSSHRA and DHS.

So it's for the folate.

3 agencies.

Next slide.

I'd like to turn now to talking about staffing, which is a key concern for all of us.

As you can see here, DSS HRA headcount had dipped significantly.

So the the bottom point in the in the graph shows sharp slope in the headcount and then rising fairly steeply.

Due to our focus on frontline hiring, we've been able to grow aggressively in a number of areas, one of our successful strategies to address the cash and snap backlogs.

Our current budgeted headcount is 12127.

Total HRA actuals is 10981 or a 9% vacancy rate.

There's still work to do, but that's down very substantially from where we were even a year ago.

Of the almost 11,000 HRA employees, 3104 are working on cash and snap We've hired nearly a thousand people to process cash and SNAP benefits in January 2023 and seen a net increase of 530 five people in these areas over the same time period.

Next slide.

Now I'd like to look at the pegs we've taken over the last two plans.

Over 80 percent of Citi funds in the DSS HRA budget support public assistance and Medicaid.

That rises to almost 90% of tax levy when we include rental assistance in the calculation.

On top of that, most of our programs have matching fund requirements.

So finding savings is a challenge.

In November January, HRA was able to find savings that largely avoided impacting our critical services.

We achieved the majority of our savings by looking first to administrative efficiencies and opportunities to maximize revenues to save city funds.

However, since so little of our budget is discretionary, we sometimes had to make difficult choices.

In these cases, we looked at options that will allow to continue meeting our mandates in the most efficient ways.

The agency's early actions identifying savings helped to balance the city budget and put us on better footing going forward.

As the mayor has said, if the city had not taken these early actions, it would not be able to forego the executive peg.

In the interest of time, I won't go through every item on this slide in detail, although I'm happy to answer questions, but a few items to highlight.

We will achieve meaningful savings and leases by using existing city space for back office IT functions.

We were able to maximize the amount of federal revenue we are bringing in to support fringe benefits for HRA employees.

And our multiyear investment in technology to support rental subsidy processing will allow us to speed up lease ups and spend less on holding units available before a client can move in.

Now I'm gonna pivot to an overview of the DHS budget.

Two slides forward.

Great.

Thank you.

DHS is committed to providing safe temporary shelter connecting New Yorkers experiencing homelessness to permanent housing, and addressing unsheltered homelessness.

With its not for profit partners, DHS is the largest municipal organization dedicated to addressing homelessness in the United States.

Commissioner, can you move the mic a little closer?

Because it's not picking up yet.

Sorry.

Thank you.

The agency has an FY 25 budget of 3,900,000,000, of which 1,900,000,000 is city tax levy.

And a budgeted headcount of 1905.

Over 95% of the DHS budget supports shelter for families and individuals and services for the unsheltered, including outreach and low barrier beds.

The DHS budget is broken out as follows in FY 25.

996,000,000 for family shelter, comprised of a combination of city, state, and federal funds, That is the the purple wedge on the pie chart here.

714,000,000 for adult shelter, virtually all city that'll be funded, the green piece of the pie.

714,000,000 I'm sorry.

I said that already.

278,000,000 for our street outreach services, including low barrier beds, which is all are also primarily city tax levy funded.

And and the small blue bar is general administration.

Support, that's about 4% of the budget.

There's 1,800,000,000 in our budget for asylum seekers sanctuary sites and services.

We've actually excluded that from the pie chart here to show a more representative picture of the DHS budget overall.

Next slide.

The DHS budget is largely a function of the shelter census.

As of March 6th, the overall DHS census was 86,360 people, an increase of more than 41,000 since the beginning of 2022 before the urgent asylum seekers to New York City.

Of the 86,000, approximately 62,000 or over 70% are families made up of children and their adult parents and caregivers.

Children make up nearly 40% of all people in shelter.

The families with children are the larger blue wedge on the pie chart here.

The those are the children, and then the yellow represents the adult in the family of children.

So the the lighter blue and the yellow combined represent families with children altogether.

Today, approximately 36% of the overall census is made up of asylum seekers over 30,000 people.

In January 2022, the census is around 45,000, lower than it was in 2020, immediately pre pandemic.

As asylum seekers came to New York City and began to enter shelter in large numbers, they drove up the census which increased sharply over the past nearly 2 years.

Asylum seekers account for 75% of the growth in the DHS census relative to January of 2022.

Next slide.

So this slide here is a visual representation of the trend that I just discussed.

The red line is the non asylum census.

You can see it's about 7% below the pre pandemic level and well below the pre pandemic peak of 61,400 reached in January of 2019.

The blue line represents the asylum seeker, the total census, excuse me, with the space between the red line and the blue line being the asylum seekers.

You can see that the very rapid growth over the last 2 years has been very much driven by the asylum seekers.

We noted at the beginning of this presentation that the DHS budget is $3,900,000,000 next year, a significant increase over the DHS budget before the asylum seekers began entering shelter in large numbers.

The significant increases in the DHS budget this year and next year over prior years are primarily due to asylum seekers costs.

36% of the DHS budget this year is allocated for asylum seeker costs increasing to 45% in FY 25.

This funding in DHS is allocated primarily for sanctuary sites for the cost of migrants in regular DHS shelters, for supplies, and for staff and overtime costs related exclusively to asylum seekers.

The current agreement with the state for reimbursement of asylum costs is 71% city tax levy and 29% state.

As of March 2024, DHS has submitted claims to New York State on behalf of DHS, HRA, HNH, and other city agencies totaling over $1,500,000,000.

Last state fiscal year, the state allocated $1,000,000,000 towards New York City costs.

And we are waiting for enactment of the state's fiscal year 24.25 budget to see if the state will allocate additional funds.

The government governor's proposal included 2,000,000,000.

More generally, we continue to advocate with the state and federal governments to provide adequate funding and pathways to work and sustainability for these newest immigrants to our city and country.

3.

Despite the influx of asylum seekers and its impact on our agencies, we have not lost focus on shelter housing placements.

We've seen increases in permanent housing placements from the DHS system as a result of the agency's efforts to move families and individuals out of shelter.

In FY 23, there were close to 15,000 placements from shelter, an increase of 17% over the prior year.

In the 1st 4 months of this year, there were 54100 placements, an increase of 11% over that same time window last year.

Next slide.

Our engagement with individuals experiencing un sheltered homelessness is another critical component of DHS is work.

Since the start of this administration, DSS DHS has doubled outreach staffing.

We have nearly 400 outreach staff on the ground as of today.

And aggressively expanded low barrier bed capacity, bringing nearly 300 new beds online since August 2023 alone with more than 39100 such beds online as of today.

As a result of critical investments in 247 outreach efforts and the intensification of the end of line efforts part of the subway safety plan.

Referrals to shelter and low barrier placements increased 70% in FY 'twenty three.

Since the launch of the subway safety plan in February 2022, more than 61100 New Yorkers have been connected front 2 shelter from the subways.

And I'm incredibly pleased to report that thanks to critical investments in a comprehensive continuum of care, DSS DHS more than doubled the number of permanent housing placements for people experiencing un sheltered homelessness year over year.

DHS placed almost a 1000 New Yorkers' adding in low barrier programs to permanent housing in FY 23.

I want to pause on that figure.

That is close to a 1000 people who used to sleep on the streets and subways who now have a lease and a place to call a permanent home.

Next slide.

I know we're all rightfully concerned about staffing.

However, DHS has not had the same kind of headcount swings that other agencies have faced.

DHS Staffing has remained relatively steady over the past 18 months.

As you see, this line here is relatively flat.

And has increased slightly since the end of last fiscal year.

DHS headcount is just over 1900 and the agency has a vacancy rate of 7.5%.

Next slide.

The DHS approach to pegs is comparable to that at HRA.

We look to avoid programmatic impacts wherever possible but again, we're faced with some difficult choices.

In some cases, we were able to achieve savings by improving service delivery.

New York State created a rental supplement program RSP that can serve long term stayers in shelter who are undocumented.

By helping these families and individuals exit shelter, we will see savings in our shelter budget.

Unfortunately, language in the state budget clause back most of the money for state budget savings, but we will be able to do a one time cohort of about 650 households.

DSS is required to use an outside vendor to administer the program as we are not allowed to use the state system that we normally use for payments.

Once this vendor is in place later this spring, we'll be able to start issuing vouchers.

There are also major changes in the DHS budget associated with asylum seekers.

I want to be clear that the savings in the DHS budget reflect lower than previously projected asylum census for the agency.

Whether were savings and some of the other agencies responding to the asylum crisis that did change service delivery models.

There were no service cuts for asylum seekers in DSS.

Or DHS.

Next slide.

As I mentioned at this mentioned at the start of my testimony, our primary goal is to create a path to sustainability for low income New Yorkers through 3 pillars of work.

Streamlining access to social services, addressing homelessness and housing instability, and creating economic stability.

Going to talk about each of these in turn, starting with some of the work where we have successfully modernized and implemented process improvements to streamline access to social services and benefits.

So the graph here is showing snap applications and caseload increases over time.

The green line is snap applications, and the blue line above is is the caseload.

You've all heard a lot about DSS and Snap And Cash Processing.

First, I'd like to recognize that over the last couple of years, DSS saw the highest snap applications and caseload since the period immediately following Super Storm Sandy.

As you can clearly see, that's the spike early in 2020, there was a surge of applications at the beginning of the pandemic.

Due to our investment in SHRA and the ability of clients to apply, recertify an interview online and on the phone, we were able to manage the surge and ensure clients got these important benefits.

The federal and state governments also provided a series of easements that suspended certain requirements and allowed us to postpone recertifications.

This simplified the process for clients and staff during the health emergency, but led to spikes in caseload processing once normal requirements were back in place.

These and other factors contributed to a backlog in applications and recertifications.

But I'm very pleased to say that thanks to the hiring of the traditional additional staff investments in technology and process improvements, we have nearly eliminated the backlog.

I will have more to say on that in a minute, but for I want to give some more detail on cash assistance.

Next slide.

This chart here, the blue line shows the total cash assistance case load, the orange line shows applications.

And you'll see both of those are rising.

As the city council is aware, In recent years, New York City has seen remarkably high increases in cash assistance applications and recipients due to a variety of factors.

At the height of the COVID 19 pandemic in March of 2020, DSSHRA received nearly 13,000 more applications in the previous year a 53% increase.

That increase made for cash assistance has continued.

In FY 24, the average number of cash assistance applications exceeded 40 7000 per month, demonstrating New Yorkers' continuing need for economic support.

In addition, we have significantly reduced the barriers to access benefits.

We believe that increasing access to benefits via our online platform and mobile app access HRA results in more applications.

That's the right thing to do, but also increases workload for the agency.

Demand for one time assistance is growing as well.

One time emergency rental assistance is growing as well.

In FY 23, HRA issued emergency rent payments to over 40,000 households.

The graph here, the the both the blue and orange lines show both one time and recurring recipients.

In January 2024, there were 505,000 ongoing and 500 one time recipients.

The increased caseload has budget implications for the city.

FY24 preliminary budget for cash assistance is $2,500,000,000 to support an average of 500,000 recipients through June of 2024.

186 118100 and no.

Excuse me.

816,000,000 of which 467,000,000 were tax levy was added in the preliminary budget for FY 24 based on these projected costs.

Next slide.

As I mentioned earlier, I am immensely pleased to report that DSS has nearly cleared the backlog of 46,000 cash assistance and 4000 SNAP applications, ensuring low income New Yorkers can quickly and easily access the federal benefits that they qualify for.

This chart tracks the backlog back to the beginning of February 2023.

You can see it spiked in the summer.

And is down to 9 almost extremely substantially down to to very close to 0.

Investments in staffing, technology and process improvements have reduced the backlog of cases by 97% for cash assistance and 90% for SNAP.

In total, the city processed more than 600,000 cash assistance and SNAP applications since the July backlog peak.

Faced with a record number of applications as federal pandemic related support expired, the city deployed a robust plan to process applications quickly and make it easier for Low Income New Yorkers to access critical benefits.

DSS hired nearly a 1000 new staff people since January 2023 to process cache assistance and snap applications, double down on training for staff and strengthen remote application processes to make it easier to apply for benefits.

The agency also worked closely with chief efficiency officer Denise Clay and the mayor's office of efficiency to identify application process enhancements to eliminate bottlenecks that contributed to the backlog.

We also developed and implemented plans to expedite the processes going forward.

As of January 2024, more than 1,730,000 New Yorkers are receiving SNAP benefits and more than 510,000 New Yorkers are receiving cash benefits.

I'd like to thank our dedicated staff for their hard work throughout the pandemic and over these challenging couple of years for their ongoing commitment to serving New Yorkers every day.

It has been a difficult time, and they have done extraordinary job under extraordinary circumstances.

The lessons learned from this experience have made us better prepared to handle this high volume of applications in the future.

Next slide.

Cash and Snap are our highest profile benefits, but there is so much more that the agency does.

Even these additional highlights are just scratching the surface, but since I was last year to speak about the budget, we have also been able to expand childcare for those leading the cash assistance roles, grow the Fair Fair's program that provides discounted transit benefits.

And get heating and cooling assistant grants out to those who need them.

Next slide.

Next, I would like to talk about some of the ways in which we've been able to further our goals of keeping New Yorkers in their homes, moving families and individuals out of shelter and helping people remain stably housed.

Wherever possible, we wanna keep people in their homes.

I want to highlight 2 of our most important tools for doing so.

The bar graph on the left is our emergency rental assistance.

Also known as one shot deals.

This is a cash assistance benefit.

What this graph shows here is that the number of households receiving emergency, rental assistance in FY 'twenty three increased after a drop in FY 'twenty one and 22 during the pandemic.

This year, we are on track to dramatically exceed last year's spending.

The chart on the right shows our legal assistance programs, which are also critical to keeping people housed.

In fiscal year 2023, the office of civil justice or OCA funded legal organizations, provided legal assistance to an estimated 98,000 New Yorkers in approximately 4th 43,700 households across New York City.

These households were facing housing challenges, including eviction, repair, landlord harassment, and other threats to their tendencies.

The number of households served in fiscal year 2023 is the highest on record since the start of the universal access to council program.

These services proved to be essential.

The number of action filings increased by more than 57,000 or approximately 83% in the last year.

However, it should be noted that eviction filings in FY 23 were still significantly lower than pre pandemic levels.

Since 2014, OCJ has provided legal services ranging from brief advice to full representation in 291,000 eviction and other housing related matters.

Based on estimated household size, that equates to more than 700,000 New Yorkers served.

OCJ will continue to work hand in hand with all civil justice stakeholders to make civil legal assistance available and effective for New York City tenants in need.

Next slide.

And for those who do enter Shell we want to connect them back to permanent housing as quickly as possible.

In FY23, DSS saw 17% increase in permanent housing placements from shelter.

And as the PMMR shows, we are on track to exceed those placement numbers this year.

More New Yorkers are now living safely and stably in supportive housing units.

In fact, 46% more New Yorkers were connected to permanent supportive housing in 2023 than in the preceding fiscal year.

And as they mentioned earlier, a 1000 un sheltered individuals were placed in permanent housing.

DSS has also taken steps to strengthen rental assistance programs.

We've made CityFETs easier to use by reducing work requirements, eliminating the 90 day rule, allowing for the use of CityFETs statewide and streamlining the program of technological improvements.

To ensure that more New Yorkers gain access to affordable homes, DSS launched the affordable housing services in to use social service dollars to create affordable housing.

Through HS, DSS will be facilitating the creation of stable housing opportunities for nearly 1500 households in shelter.

Furthermore, the AHS initiative provides sustainable funding solutions to help not for profit providers secure long term building wide leases or even acquire permanent housing sites.

While providing light touch services for tenants who are formally experiencing homelessness.

DSS has also rolled that extensive training to improve and increase housing package submissions.

Next slide.

Now for the 3rd pillar, creating economic stability.

We recognize that more and more New Yorkers rely on our city's resources to make ends meet.

In addition to the public benefits, rental assistance, and other essential resources we provide, to help people get back on their feet.

I will provide an overview of our career services and other supports that enable New Yorkers to secure steady income and live sustainable lives.

DSS offers education, training, and employment services to help clients develop job skills and build a career that will lead to success financial stability.

These programs are funded in FY24 at a total budget of $300,000,000.

As part of our revitalization efforts, we launched the pathway to industrial and construction careers or PINK program to connect clients to jobs in these 2 industries.

We're also restructuring our career services programs and contracts to ensure that we are focusing on connecting clients to growth industries with jobs with long term potential.

Thanks to changes in state law, we are able to implement new income disregards to support clients' economic growth.

This means that clients who are participating in training programs or who get a job do not immediately face a benefits cliff.

As a result, they are more likely to achieve economic stability and growth.

And one that I'm particularly excited about, we are strengthening the pathway for our clients to access human service jobs.

In FY23, human service providers hired nearly 6000 public assistance clients.

This is a gain both for clients and for providers who are frequently struggling in the labor market.

It's a priority to to create and expand opportunities that will help low income New Yorkers sustainability and our work reflects that.

I will close by underlining our ongoing commitment to break down government silos and improve access to services.

DSS, HRA, DSS, work DHS work to confront challenges that bridge across agencies and jurisdictional boundaries.

Overcoming these challenges goes to the heart of creating the kind of care and compassionate communities we seek to live in.

We appreciate the opportunity to testify today, and we welcome any you may have.

K.

What is DSS doing to ensure that city contract reimbursement rates are keeping pace with the cost of providing services and employing and retaining skilled staff.

There are several things that we have done.

We we look on an individual contract by contract basis we are happy to work with providers on needs related to costs that they are seeing, places where we have seen cost increases relative to our model budget or things like insurance and we know that's an ongoing issue.

We work through that on a case by case basis.

Recently within the DHS budgets, we gave providers some flexibility to realign some of their staffing salary levels so that they could retain recruit and retain staff that are And then there are always ongoing conversations about place with LMB about places where we think we need more systemic change.

Okay.

Thank you.

When or or will Fairfares actually go to the army system?

Do we know?

We're starting a pilot with the Omniceystem this year.

We're working very closely with the MTA on that, certainly before the MTA transitions away from the metro card entirely, we will be in a position to be fully on cards.

But we believe it will be this year.

We're we're absolutely starting a pilot this year yet.

Okay.

What types of outreach and education is HRA doing to ensure that all eligible individuals are aware of the program that's been our biggest issue?

We do a lot of outreach.

I'm gonna start, and then I will pass it over to first deputy commissioner Barry.

We do transit talk events with MTA.

We promote it within the MTA customer service centers.

Promoted online both through DSS online applications and with the MTA.

But Joe?

Hey, commissioner, I think you got a lot of it.

We also do paid advertising in neighborhood newspapers, local local language newspapers advertising in the on bus shelters and in the subway system.

Okay.

Thank you.

Do you see that outreach expanding further than what you're doing right now?

Yeah.

One of the things we really spend a lot of time with on the Outreach is looking at those ZIP codes where it appears that people are eligible and not enrolling in the program and targeting the outreach each year to those specific ZIP codes and doing that, reevaluating that each year.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

I had a just out of out of curiosity, I we've seen that there's been a significant increase in the number of applications for cash and SNAP benefits.

What do you think is driving the increase because it seems pretty significant.

I think there's 2 primary things going on.

1st, during the pandemic, the federal government invested in a lot of anti poverty programs.

Right?

There was the enhanced child tax credit, there was enhanced unemployment, there was rental assistance, there were a variety of tools that we saw made a really significant difference in poverty rates.

And then those have all been pulled back.

And so I think what what this is exposing, what we're seeing in the benefits application right now is exposing that pandemic recovery has not happened equally across every community.

So that is a big issue.

Shoe, and a really serious one that we all need to be thinking about.

The other piece of it, which is slightly more positive, is I think we really have lowered the barrier to location significantly.

Right?

So it used to be that you had to physically go into a center and taking a big chunk of time out of your day, getting on the subway, if you have kids finding childcare, bringing them with you for some people that were stigma associated with that.

Now you can apply from your own home online at whatever time is convenient for you, and I think lowering access, lowering those barriers has also contributed to the increase in applications.

Currently, how many individuals are enrolled in and using rental assistance vouchers?

There are about 38,000 households currently receiving city FEPs.

38,000.

And I know that you mentioned in the beginning of your testimony, that there were a 1000 individuals that were placed in permanent housing last year.

Do you know how many of that of those that 1000

So just to clarify, the 1000 are people who were individuals who are experiencing un sheltered homelessness.

So it's subset of of the old because supportive housing's very interesting to me.

Actually, about half of them went to supportive housing, but close to half used city flats.

So, you know, that was Okay.

That was surprising to me, but it's it's absolutely an option for everybody.

Right?

Okay.

Absolutely.

How many additional individuals have been deemed eligible to receive shopping letters, but it's still residing in shelter while they searched for an apartment or a weight approval.

There are more than 10,000 households that currently have a shopping letter.

But are in shelter and who are searching for housing.

Okay.

And the shopping letter is good for, like, 10 months?

Actually, this is 3 months.

Sorry.

We'll get back to you on that one probably before the end of the hearing.

Yeah.

It would be nice to know how many because I booked Are they is is an individual able to extend it?

Yes.

Absolutely.

So if the the household is remain continuing its eligibility, right, to a family of children, for example, public assistance working 15 hours a week.

If they their shopping letter expires, it will automatically renew.

Okay.

It would be nice to know if you could get me the numbers of the number of times that they have been renewed.

For how many clients, and how many people currently on staff at HRA administer the rental assistance voucher program, and how many of these positions of vacant.

So there's there's a broad universe of people who touch the city perhaps process.

Starts at DHS actually for people who are in shelter that they DHS has a team of approximately a 100, and we will circle back with exact headcount numbers on each of these areas.

But DHS has a team of people that work with shelter providers, review packages, HRA has a team of people, then there's everybody who cuts checks.

But supported by our IT department, supported by finance.

It's a there's a significant infrastructure that works on rental assistance.

We will try and do a breakdown of all of those different areas and and get back to you with that.

In regards to the the budget, because I think that this comes up every single budget cycle, regarding the CityFabs program is the underfunded amounts that are presented as part of the preliminary and you know, even sometimes the executive budget.

It seems like the administration usually overestimates the cost of pro of certain programs to allow some level of flexibility, but when it relates to the city theft program, it's usually always underfunded, and then the adjustments are made later.

Do you do we know why that's the case?

So,

rental assistance spending is very dynamic because it's a function both of the caseload and how many people were we enroll and then also so that rent levels right as FMR goes up, which has gone up quite substantially over the last several years and then also trends in income because tenants paying 30% of their income and rent.

So with that 3 variable equation, it can be a somewhat difficult number to project multiple years out.

We'll work year by year with OMB to make sure that we are putting the funding in the budget.

There was a significant add this year and the budget for FY 24, as I believe, 744,000,000 for CityFabs, which is a record.

Okay.

Regarding the I'm just looking here to make sure.

Okay.

The adopted budget of 2024 included a baseline reduction of $36,200,000 for the HSAs shelter service providers.

Savings were to be generated from a 2.5 percent net reduction of sheltered contracts and were permitted to reinvest half of that.

Or 2.5% towards staff retention costs.

At that time, DHL stated that shelter providers were not spending down all of the personnel service costs allowed in their contracts, and therefore, the reduction would not affect providers.

Providers though have stated that the only reason that they could not spend the entirety of their contract was because of restrictions placed on what they could spend the funding on.

Where is DHS in the process of implementing this change?

Thank you, Consumeb.

So just to clarify, this is a peg from the FY 24 cycle.

So from last year, Like all the other agencies, we had to take a peg to address the city's financial position last year And because as was noted, the overwhelming majority of our budget is passed through to not for profit contractors, we really have limited option and we couldn't entirely hold or not for profit providers harmless.

In the past, when we had had to take cuts and we had imposed particular types of reductions on providers.

What we heard back from them was they know their budget and operations.

Better than we ever can and that it makes more sense for them to have some flexibility in doing so.

So the agencies cut peg for last year was 4%.

We passed through 2.5% to the not for profits and then given them the additional flexibility on top of that to do some personnel realignment so that so that they were able to make some decisions that help them.

I I think to the point that you speak to, we heard that some of the reasons that they had vacancies, right, was because salaries were low.

So what we're saying is, you know, yes, we need to take some of that as savings, but some of that can also go to increasing particular salaries.

Lines.

And we thought that flexibility and individual contract management made sense for the providers.

We have worked with every provider to come up with with a series of changes that made sense for them.

I think the bulk of them are are in place at this point.

Okay.

So we're hearing from the providers that the cut has been quite painful.

And I'm I'm assuming that because of the conversations that are ongoing, has that changed?

Cut are unfortunately always painful in our virtually always painful in our area.

I think there's every once in a while, we can find something where we're actually improving service delivery and saving money, but it's hard.

We're providing essential services and serving vulnerable clients.

I did not wanna make that change.

We it was something that we had to do in order to to meet targets but we continue to work with individual providers to address particular concerns.

There was at the same time the work force enhancement funds that were added so that certainly didn't make providers whole, and they we understand that the intent there was to to grow, but it did provide a partial offset.

Haven't have the anticipated cuts?

Has it have they caused the reduction of any of service or the elimination of any positions as CBOs?

So I can't speak to individual, not for profit, individual shelter, how they have whether or not they have reduced any headcount positions.

Nobody was laid off, but we did think that there were some I do believe there were some vacancy consolidations that was spread out across our many hundreds of shelters, so I can't can't actually speak to the details.

But I feel very confident that our providers are continuing to provide exceptional service.

I think One of the measures that I take most seriously is the number of clients that we are connecting to permanent housing.

We saw a 17% increase last year and we're on track to exceed that this year.

I mean, I think that the the the what makes this more difficult and, you know, complicated is the fact that we're also not paying our contracts on time.

And so any percentage that we're taking away from a budget is already at a deficit.

You know, in the beginning of the fiscal year is problematic.

And I think that that's, you know, an argument that holds true.

And considering that the the actual baseline reduction is only 36,200,000, I mean, I I don't That doesn't you know, in the scheme of things when I was little, I thought that was a lot of money.

I know now better, and and I know that we can find it.

And I've seen plenty of of new programs that have been announced in the last month that equal to, you know, far more than that that are new and necessary.

But I guess in times when, you know, we're struggling, we shouldn't probably be adding a whole bunch of new programs and services so that we can keep the ones that we have intact.

But that's just me.

Regarding the nonprofits, because one of the things that we passed a number of bills, a couple of years ago regarding the security guards.

Do you know if if the nonprofits are using CitiMoney to fund security guards, at transitional housing and how are the non you know, how are they ensuring that the security and safety of the staff are and much less the residents is intact.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

All of our shelter contracts includes 247 security.

So there there's always on-site security that can be provided in a variety of different ways.

In many cases, it's subcontracted out, but as some of our providers high security guards directly and they're part of the organization's direct payroll.

We provide extensive training to not for profits in accordance with the laws that were passed.

So we really spend a lot of time on making sure that security guards have access to the appropriate training.

And then I think as was noted earlier, we are funding the prevailing wage requirements as well on a year over year basis.

Okay.

I know that I have another question on security, but I don't I'll I'll come to it.

I'll get to it.

I'll get to it.

And how do we know that they didn't complete it?

Because they didn't you know, they were trying to get through.

They didn't understand the application.

Like, how do how do how are you gauging, right, that it says somebody started the process too soon or Yep.

Not that they had some sort of complexity completing the application.

Good good question.

We're doing a few things to make sure that that is not an issue.

First of all, we monitor wait times on the phone very, very closely.

For cash wait times these days are typically between an hour and hour and a half with, as I mentioned, a callback function for Snap.

It's about half an hour.

Give or take.

The and we know that we are completing more than we are completing more than 10,000 interviews every week, so people are able to get through and people are able to to get through that process.

That being said, denial rates are a concern of ours as well so that we are we had our office of accountability do a review.

We are continually looking at the cases that are denied to make sure that there is nothing systemic going on, making sure that there's no training need.

Thus far, we really haven't seen anything that would suggest that there's it denials happening.

And lastly, we're really investing in CBOs that are out in the community and working, providing some hands on support with clients so that if they do need more, help getting through the process that they have that resource.

Okay.

And what what what have you heard about this whole situation with the phone because I think that since I've been in the council, this has been, like, a constant, the complaints from applicants that they cannot get through on the phone.

I mean, it just keeps coming up, but overhearing.

So I don't know that it's been resolved.

I say, it is something that we monitor our wait times incredibly carefully.

And we will move staff around so that they are if the wait line wait times do seem to be creeping up.

We will move people off of processing and move them to the phones so that we are making sure that wait times are staying balanced.

Consistently on the cash side an hour to an hour a half.

That's not a short wait time, but it is shorter than when people were going in person.

And as I say, we do have that callback function.

I would encourage you if you have specific people who are saying that they can't get through.

If you could share names with us offline, that would be really helpful.

You know, sometimes reverse engineering can help identify if there's an issue, but administrative friction you wanna add.

Commissioner, I think you did get it.

And I would just say, you know, every morning the team looks at where the needs are and they will move things around.

So if there is a high phone call volume.

They'll move more staff there to keep the wait times within the hour and an hour a half, but it's definitely something that we look at consistently.

And look at to find any trends that might be there where we need to dig a little bit deeper.

But I would emphasize for both you and others in the community if there's specifics where individuals are having challenges with the phone.

It is good for us to know that so that we can also look on our side to see if there is some type of issue we just weren't aware.

Care of.

Okay.

Well, since I have you, the there were some there were some similar complaints regarding the system that is used to complete applications.

I forget the name of it Gail maybe remembers because she remembers everything.

But we had a hearing where we heard from some of the staff that they had you you transitioned during the pandemic to a new system that was then I guess, put on hold during the pandemic and then reinstated once folks were back in the office.

But there were glitches with the system.

So if a person was doing an application, it may have frozen, you know, they couldn't fix it, and so they had to move on to another another applicant, and they didn't know what happened to the applicant they have been working with.

Like, there was no way of determining, like, you know, who picked it up at what point.

What changes have been made to that system since technology is, like, one of the the the the models that you're using to help but they'd be processing of applications.

Yeah.

So this is the S Pass and the Angie systems that

were

yes.

And those are specifically the systems that we use to process the snap only applications, not the cache assistance applications.

We rolled out We rerolled out Angie and Espace in March of 2022, and we have since upgraded that was version 1.0 of Angie.

And Angie has since been rolled out to 2 version 2.0.

And that addresses, I think, a lot of the issues that staff are having.

There are always some bugs as we roll out new systems.

We do listen to staff concerns and complaints and do iterate on those systems A couple of things.

1 was there was an ask to speak directly to the staff about their experience with the systems.

And we worked in partnership with the mayor's office of efficiency on workgroups with the frontline staff that use these systems to talk through what are the pain points both in the systems and the processes.

We came up with a list of corrective actions.

So that we and we are in the process of implementing those to improve both the process and the systems.

Okay.

I'm gonna try to run through these really quickly because I know that I have we have a bunch of questions from some other members, and I don't wanna hold them here.

Longer than I have to.

But regarding the funding swaps, the preliminary budget plan includes an additional $500,000,000 of Citi funding in each fiscal and and age for schools 2627 to support asylum seekers response efforts.

In addition, the plan also includes a swap of city funds for state funding.

With no net change to DHL budget.

$220,000,000 in fiscal year 24,000,000 in 25.

How were the amounts added in fiscal year 2620 7 determined?

And as of the preliminary plan, all of the asylum response funding in fiscal year 26.

Well, actually, let me just go back to the first question because I don't want to complete it too.

How will the amounts added?

So I will start and I will pass off to to chief Levine.

There's a lot of uncertainty in the asylum space.

Here.

Right?

There's I think the one thing that we can say has been constant over the last two and a half years is the pace of change.

Right?

That is the pace of people coming in, the breakdown between families with children and single adults, particular needs.

We've had to adapt a number of times.

So I would say there is a fairly high level of production going on here, and that we will need to continue to iterate and adapt the asylum secret budget, as we know more about how how things are actually playing out on the ground.

But, Trifelene,

Thank you, commissioner.

State funds were added excuse me, in anticipation of the state reimbursement that we have been achieving in our budget.

And we added the $500,000,000 in each of the out years in anticipation of city costs that would continue through that period.

Okay.

So as of the preliminary plan, all of the city's asylum response funding in fiscal year 2620 and it's budgeted through DHS.

Do you expect that DHS will assume full responsibility for response efforts by that point time, or will some of this funding may transfer to other agencies.

The 1st few months of the asylum secret crisis DHS was really very much the the lead, and it was a tremendous challenge for the agency.

Right?

We have responsibilities as just every agency, right, that go well beyond the asylum seekers.

So at this point, the asylum seeker operation is a whole of government response, and I do anticipate that to continue.

I am and funding will be aligned as appropriate.

Okay.

And given that the state and the city budget were released simultaneously this January, the funding swap made in the preliminary plan was made assuming that the level of state support the city would receive.

If the state budget is enacted as proposed, what changes does the h DHS anticipate it will need to make in the executive plan to accurately reflect the amount of state funding in the HSS budget.

We're going to have to work with OMB to determine what's happening with the state budget, what's happening not only with our budget, with but with all of the other agencies that are serving asylum seekers, how the pace of claim is going, anything that's happening with the federal government.

So with the number of variables going right now, I feel like it's too early to answer that question, but happy to start call back as we know more.

Okay.

And and regarding the contract that provide us the DHS is working with for asylum response nonprofit.

Are they are they nonprofit organizations?

Virtually, all of our shelters, there are or will be operated by not for profit organizations.

We have grown much faster than the not for profit sector can staff up.

And so we are very grateful to have National Guard who are staffing still some of our sites.

I think roughly 50 of our asylum sites are still largely staffed by the National Guard.

But our model is to transition to not for profit providers over time.

It includes many of our traditional not for profit providers and many new organizations that have stepped up to work with us in this moment.

And how

many have run by the National Guard?

It's approximately 50.

We can circle back with you.

50 number.

Yeah.

Okay.

Any for profit organizations?

I believe there are 1 or 2 sites that are operated by for profit organizations we can circle back with you on the specifics.

All of them have responded through RFP.

Everything that we are doing in this space is competitively procured.

Okay.

And can you provide an estimate of how much of DHS budgeted asylum seeker funding relates to contracts with for profit providers?

So many of it's

I don't have that number with me, but we can circle back.

Okay.

And does DHS permit provide us to subcontract with 4 profit organizations?

So it's very standard within our shelter model that not for profits will subcontract with for profit vendors for things like food and secure early, sometimes maintenance and that is true within both our traditional and our asylum portfolios.

Do you have any idea if this security funding is gonna be baseline this year.

We are in ongoing conversations with Dolby about about the security funding.

It's local law.

It's been local law for years.

It's not going away.

Okay.

I see.

We would like to discuss the population of asylum seekers currently in the HS facilities.

How many asylum seekers households and individuals currently into the HS shelter system?

It's just over 30,000 individuals.

The vast majority of those are families children.

Okay.

Okay.

How many emergency hotel hotel shortness of CHS opens the house of item seekers.

Hold on.

Let me pull that up.

We have 163 sites in total that are DHS asylum sites, not all of those are hotels, however.

First.

So I'm let me majority of those are hotels, but there are a handful of others.

So let me pull that exact number.

Or in the interest of time, I can circle back with you.

Okay.

Okay.

Has DHS closed any emergency shelters since the influx began?

There are certain sites that we yes, we have closed be generally because of real estate issues, either the the site owner has pulled back or we have decided that for whatever reason, the site owner isn't meeting their obligations either for quality or rate So but we have, generally speaking, over the last 2 years, seen us growing to at best steady state census for asylum seekers, so we have not been reducing our overall footprint for asylum.

Okay.

This drops to just 25,800,000 in fiscal year 2025 and then 20,900,000 in fiscal year 2627.

That's a pretty essential reduction.

How will this program continue its current operations without additional funding added in fiscal year 25 and beyond, especially given both the increased need in the city and the higher cost of food.

We're really committed to the CFC program, absolutely recognized the vital role that it plays in communities, and we're working very closely with OMB on the out of your funding.

To add additional resources,

we're courting to make sure that we're able to move forward with the program at the appropriate level.

Yes.

Is there currently a wait list?

So the way the program works is that we make allocations to individual food pantries and community kitchens.

And they for an annual basis, they then place orders for groceries through our centralized vendor.

So there isn't a wait list for funds because we've allocated out the year's funds for providers.

I suppose it's possible that individual food pantries or community kitchens would maintain a wait list, but that wouldn't be something we're directly involved in.

Alright.

But if the CSC providers need more food, then they have been allotted for what is the process and the time frame for them to get approval to order more food.

I'm gonna ask good.

First deputy commissioner Barry to speak yet.

So we are now monitoring and providing food pantries with monthly reports on their allocations.

So that they can see how far along that they are in their allocation process, whether they're spending over or under their allocations.

We do reach out to those providers that are either under or overspending to understand sometimes there are reasons for that.

There may be other funding.

They receive later in the year, so they're using up their CFC front allocation until that is available.

So that is one way that we're monitoring it.

The other thing we do is as the fiscal year comes to a close, we're looking at what the allocations are that are left.

If there are pantries that are under spending and they confirm that they will underspend for the year, We take those funds and we reallocate them to pantries that are in need of funding, and that happens towards the end of the fiscal year, so it'll happen in about May June.

Are there food pantries that are underspending?

I mean, I I don't know.

I think in my district, I've seen a significant increase.

And we've actually been very purposeful here in the council and ensuring that we didn't touch any of our food network funding because we understand that the need has increased especially in communities that have seen an influx of asylum seekers because they just don't like the food that is that is being served to them at the shelters, or don't find it, you know, to be enough, to sustain them.

So I yeah.

Yeah.

It's it's not typical to see a lot of underspending unless there is a they are holding on to their CFCs but their CFC allocation because they had another allocation that they needed to spend sooner.

Whether from private donors or state allocation Yeah.

Other, but it is something we look at.

Yeah.

I I just I don't I don't I don't I don't see, and I know that, you know, listen.

These are the decisions that are made, but I I I I don't see how we would ever just could could ever justify a, you know, budget such a significant budget cut to such an important program that is ensuring.

I mean, I'll tell you that the lines in my district are so long.

They're so so long.

And I you know, I just assumed that after, you know, things stabilized, after the the beginning of the pandemic that the lines would you know, become smaller and they've only grown.

So that's that's that's pretty, you know, consistent with what we're hearing from you as well today regarding the increased, you know, number of applications for both cache and snap applications.

Right?

Is it there's a a huge demand for these services.

And that's why, you know, it's very difficult to comprehend why there would even be a discussion about cutting, you know, those.

I think the only way to really help eradicate poverty is is through workforce development and ensuring the folks have the infrastructure to, you know, again, become and and and stay self sufficient and unless we're equally applying funding to those, you know, to to meet that that need as well, then we're gonna continue to be on an upward trend.

And if that's the case and we're not committing the dollars to workforce development or other viable options, and I think that there has to be a bigger conversation about why we shouldn't be cutting these safety net programs that are keeping people fed.

You know?

This is a that's a really, really big deal.

The in the preliminary plan, there was also baseline savings of 3,200,000 Starting in fiscal year 26th from the We Care program efficiencies.

We Care is a program that serves cash assistance clients with a medical and mental health barrier to employment.

The program provides individuals vocational rehabilitation services to help engage them in work related activities.

They lead to employment.

How was the funding amount derived?

And how will the savings be generated?

Thank you.

So the the savings generated for week care, which will start in FY 26, will align with a new contracting cycle that we will be doing.

And as part of that cycle, we are looking at ways in which we can achieve greater operational efficiencies through the use of technology that better mirror the current job market, looking at ways in which we have flexible delivery models, using hybrid models that will be able to achieve some savings around things such as space, but doesn't actually compromise the programmatic priorities of We Care.

So programmatically, we will still stay focused on employment and connection to employment for those with certain barriers.

As well as vocational education and training for those who maybe need a little bit more training before they can join the workforce, as well as wellness supports for those who maybe have a short term medical or mental health issue that's untreated that needs to be addressed first before looking at employment and then for those who have long term barriers to employment connecting them to federal benefits such as SSI.

So the savings that we identified are really focused on operational savings through the utilization of technology and some other programs streamlining, including partnerships.

But doesn't is not anticipated to make any programmatic impacts in regards to the priorities of the program.

It's just better leveraging what we can now utilize in the post COVID world.

Some assuming that because of that answer that, you know, the way you responded to that question, the funding cut is is not gonna impact operations for the program?

Correct.

It won't impact programmatic operations for the program.

There may be some other savings may be found through the utilization of maybe less space because utilizing a hybrid model.

Right?

You'll be doing many things, will be a balance of in person.

As well as, you know, online or in partnership with partners who maybe can utilize their space.

So we were looking at savings along those lines.

But still providing the same level of programmatic offerings to our clients.

Okay.

And are these services currently being provided by contracted providers?

Yes.

They're currently being provided by existing week care providers whose contracts will go through June 30th, 2025.

Okay.

So they have they been notified?

Yes.

They are contractors are aware that a new funding cycle will be coming and that an RFP will be forthcoming.

Okay.

And is the funding cut from HRE's budget the full cost of the current operations for these programs?

I would turn the funding support.

It's in our budget, but I think it is a mix of both

But just to clarify, the WICARE budget is on the order of magnitude of about $58,000,000 a year.

And so this reduction is a relatively small care of that.

And it because it is only applicable once the new contracts go into effect, none of the existing contractors are losing money from their budget at this time.

Okay.

Is Atari advocating for this cuts to be restored in the executive?

We are always trying to own be about our budget as a whole.

Certainly, as I said, given the very narrow window of discretionary spent city tax levy in our budget.

The places where where we had to look to make cuts were narrow, and and we had to make some difficult decisions.

Okay.

Are they automatic?

I don't really

So for somebody whose eligibility has just been maintained, so they were sort of base eligibility criteria on public assistance working you know, more than 10 hours a week, that will be an automatic renewal.

If it was under one of the exception categories, that will require the agency to take some action assuming they still maintain those exception categories.

Okay.

Because according to the policy bulletin of 2021 dash 0 or 9.

Shopping letters are not automatically renewed.

Is there a subsequent overriding policy bulletin?

So it's not automatically renewed if your circumstances have changed.

Right?

So the fact that you had a had a shopping letter yesterday doesn't automatically mean you have a shopping letter today.

But if you're if you would have qualified for a new shopping letter because you are still meeting all the eligibility criteria, that is then it will be renewed for you.

You don't you as a client, don't need to take option.

So I I think it's maybe we're using the word automatic differently.

Mhmm.

But in it, we are gonna relook at the eligibility criteria, but assuming you meet them, it does happen.

Okay.

Alright.

I'm gonna leave it there.

I just wanted to know that I did see as part of the the the pegs.

2 of my jobs plus sites have been identified for cuts, Bronx Works in the South Bronx and urban outbound in East Harlem.

I am, you know, obviously, very concerned about that.

Again, you know, I have some of the highest rates of poverty and some of the highest rates of gun violence, and these programs have been really great at capturing groups of folks that normally wouldn't.

Nowhere to go to find employment, and they they go way and above you know, they they're not just finding you an apartment, but they're also following up.

And they are, you know, ensuring that you have transportation and that you're filling all your applications.

Properly.

There's a lot of hand holding that goes with the services that they provide.

But I I I'm curious were those the only 2 that were identified for closure?

Or because I I I saw that weren't that money.

So thank you, deputy speaker and certainly understand where you're coming from and have heard the feedback.

Those are the only 2 jobs plus programs that are funded directly by HRA.

The others are through YMI.

So we did in this spirit of unfortunate and very hard choices given our limited discretionary tax levy did make cuts there.

We are pivoting to focus on all of our burrow based employment models because we it is a way to make sure that we are continuing to connect people to employment services because, like, absolutely agree with you that workforce development is critical.

It's a way that we can continue to do it while also meeting our financial obligations.

People who are participating will be able to get access to metro cars so that won't be a responsibility for them, and we are working on an outreach and notification strategy for for clients.

What what do you mean by employment broad based employment model?

We have a number of other contracts for employment services.

Most of them are oriented rather than at a specific you know, Nitrogen Development the way that Jobs Plus is there have a broader geographic range and we're really we're focusing on those because it does allow us to provide services more efficiently.

Again, not a decision that we wanted to reach, but given that 90% of our budget has of the budget is spent on entitlements are the areas that we had to look.

We're very, very limited.

So if I if I live in East Harlem or the South Bronx, where am I traveling to to obtain this level of service,

we can certainly circle back with a list of the closest sites.

I mean, I just I I'm I'm this is one that I, you know, plan to, like, make a big deal about because of the, you know, the the the need in my in my community.

I have a really good working relationship with both of these organizations and I know how hard they work in our communities to make sure that they're working with, you know, some of the the folks that are, you know, likelier to to get into trouble if they were not engaged in in workforce opportunities.

But it's it's, you know, It's an opportune it's often the case that the neediest of people, like, we have to travel, you know, outside of our communities to receive these services.

We were supposed to get a workforce development site at that was actually promised through the rezoning of East Harlem and were recently told that that was taken away, but that our constituents could go into Harlem workforce and utilize their their resources.

The idea of asking for that as part of a commitment was because there was a there was a need there was a a a huge demand for that that level of service to be provided locally within the community.

So to lose that and to now have to hear that both jobs plus programs will be, you know, leaving as well.

We'll be closing.

We're gonna lose that resource.

It's really quite frankly annoying and heartbreaking because I know how how difficult it is.

Like, I don't think that the city really understands.

Like, how much stress, you know, it is.

It seems like it seems very simplistic to grab a metro card and just get on a train or get on a bus and go you know, from from place to place.

But it's it's it becomes troublesome.

It's it's it's, you know, it's hard.

And these services should be in the communities that need them.

If you have a high you know, the same thing as you have a high rate of evictions, those eviction services, right, prevention eviction services should be in that community.

If there is a huge demand for food, you have, you know, a larger demand, a for applications for food, snack benefits in a specific community, then you should be purposely integrating yourself into that community.

So I I don't support those cuts, and I will not be supporting those cuts.

And I'm hoping to see full restoration because I know that you know, these these programs and services are essential to both the South Banks and East Harlem, and I cannot you know, just allow that to disappear.

So with that, thank you.

How many emergency hotel shelters have been closed since the influx began.

I will need to circle back on an exact number.

I it is a handful of hotels that have been closed, you know, in the order of magnitude of a half dozen.

And the reasons we have closed them is because there was some issue with that particular site, right, that in some cases, the owner decided that they no longer wanted to work with us or we found that there were physical violations, other kinds of things that meant that we didn't think it was appropriate to continue using the site.

In those cases, we found other placements for clients.

So we are not downsizing our footprint at this time to serve asylum seekers because we have ongoing need.

Of our total asylum sites.

There are we have a 162 total, all but 7 are hotels.