TESTIMONY
Catherine Trapani, Assistant Vice President for Public Policy at Volunteers of America, on the Challenges Faced by Families in the NYC Shelter System
2:10:14
·
3 min
Catherine Trapani from Volunteers of America discusses the arduous process families face to establish eligibility and access services in the NYC shelter system.
- Around 20% of families in their shelters are in conditional status at any given time
- Families often have to reapply multiple times to establish eligibility
- Some remain in conditional status for up to 6 months before being allowed to start permanency planning
- This diverts shelter staff from assisting with permanency to just establishing eligibility
- Families are warehoused, going back and forth in a vicious cycle for months trying to prove eligibility
- She cautions against allowing children to not be present during intake due to a case where a mother could not pick up her children from school
Catherine Trapani
2:10:14
Thank you, Cherryella, for the opportunity to testify today.
2:10:18
My name is Catherine Chapani, and I'm the and vice president for public policy at volunteers of America.
2:10:23
We operate 5 family shelters in the traditional g DHS's done that serve, I think, 430 families and an additional 244 families in the specialized DHS Sanctuary system.
2:10:37
I have submitted written testimony that's much more detailed, but I wanna talk a little bit about family intake.
2:10:44
About 20% of the families in our DHS shelters are unconditional status at any given time.
2:10:50
We find the intake process to be very arduous.
2:10:53
It was interesting that they said it was faster.
2:10:56
Our experience is that Our families have to read by multiple times.
2:11:01
We've had some people in conditional status for up
UNKNOWN
2:11:03
to 6
Catherine Trapani
2:11:03
months, diverting our shelter staff that's supposed to be helping them with permanency to simply establish their eligibility before they're even allowed to begin the the path to permanency.
2:11:15
So as you're aware, you're not eligible for city maps or any of their rental assistance until you're found eligible.
2:11:21
So we have people that are warehouse going back and forth to pass on this vicious circle for months on end trying to establish their eligibility.
2:11:28
So I wanna really thank the counsel for your attention to the the crisis hit intake and all of the bills that you've introduced to make it a much more client center process.
2:11:38
One word of caution about your bill that would allow children not to be present with the household at path.
2:11:46
We have a parent that was in our care who set her children to school.
2:11:49
She had no working phone because she's very low income.
2:11:52
When she reapplied to to Path, The process took so many hours that she was unable to pick her shelter from school.
2:12:00
Our shelter staff knew this mom, and we picked her kids up for her.
2:12:03
And desperately tried to reach her at the Path Center to make sure everything was okay.
2:12:07
We called all four numbers that Path had relentlessly for hours.
2:12:11
Couldn't reach her.
2:12:12
She couldn't reach us.
2:12:14
The shift changed.
2:12:15
We fed her kids dinner.
2:12:16
We took them upstairs.
2:12:17
It was after midnight.
2:12:18
We finally had to were mandatory reporters.
2:12:21
And had to to call ACS And Children Services because there was nothing we can do, and they removed the children for that night.
2:12:28
And when she got off the bus, hour later at 1 o'clock in the morning to return to her conditional placement with us.
2:12:33
Her kids were already gone.
2:12:35
So I would strongly encourage I know them over time, but so please prioritize the other reforms to get that that intake system tight and efficient before you know, incur I I could not, in good conscience, tell a parent to separate from their children unless they had Iron clad childcare.
2:12:50
Yeah.
2:12:51
Just because of that.
2:12:52
Well,
UNKNOWN
2:12:52
I don't
Diana I. Ayala
2:12:53
think that
UNKNOWN
2:13:00
Excuse me.
2:13:01
I'll tell them your micro phone is on.
2:13:03
If you could just please mute yourself.
Diana I. Ayala
2:13:10
Yeah.
2:13:11
I think that the intent of the bill is to kinda give parents an option so that they're not they don't feel like they are forced to bring in their children and if they have you know, a family member that can it can stay with the children.
2:13:24
While they're going through that process, then it's a better alternative than dragging children into the site.
2:13:29
But I I I get that thing.
Catherine Trapani
2:13:30
Yeah.
2:13:31
So more detail is in my testimony.
2:13:32
I realize them over time, but one other note on the other bill that's regarding services intro 440, that will require eligibility specialist.
2:13:40
They just wanna caution the counsel on trying to legislate program budgets outside of the budget.
2:13:45
Process because what we often find is that it's an unfunded mandate.
2:13:48
And so if we were forced to implement this without new dollars, we would just wind up pulling a case manager off to to satisfied this department.
2:13:55
It's actually a net reduction in holistic services.
2:13:59
So that would just sort of be an issue.
2:14:00
But more details in my written, I'm always happy to talk to members of your staff, and I really appreciate
Diana I. Ayala
2:14:05
your help.
