TESTIMONY
Maya Jasinska, Manager of Policy and Advocacy at Women in Need, Inc. (Win) on improving the NYC PATH intake process for homeless families with children
2:14:12
·
137 sec
Jasinska calls for reforms to make the intake process for homeless families at NYC's Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing (PATH) offices more humane and less traumatic.
- She represents Win, the city's largest provider of shelter and supportive housing for homeless families with children
- Jasinska says the current PATH intake process is confusing, grueling, and dehumanizing for families
- She seeks policy solutions to simplify proving eligibility for shelter and reduce erroneous denials
- Jasinska proposes opening more borough-based PATH offices, hiring navigators, reducing wait times, and trauma-informed training for staff
- She also calls for measures to improve shelter conditions like on-site public assistance specialists and mental health services
Maya Jasinska
2:14:12
Good afternoon, Sherry Allen.
2:14:14
And thank you to the committee and to you for the opportunity to testify.
2:14:19
Name is Maya Jacinda, and I'm the manager of Pausey and African CFW, the city's largest provider of shelter and supportive housing to families of children.
Diana I. Ayala
2:14:27
Can hear you, but is your mic on?
2:14:28
It is.
2:14:31
Can you hear me?
2:14:32
There you go.
2:14:32
Yeah.
Maya Jasinska
2:14:32
Okay.
2:14:34
We operate 6 16 shelters and nearly 500 units of supportive housing across the 5 boroughs.
2:14:40
And last night, just under 7 thou and people called Winn Home, including over 3600 children.
2:14:46
Improving the intake experience that path is a top policy priority for Wynn Families according to a recent client survey.
2:14:54
Wynn Families report that the process of applying for shelter at Path is confusing and grueling and that workers are insensitive and dehumanizing towards families.
2:15:02
And there's more like actual client quotes in my written testimony.
2:15:08
Worse far too many families are found ineligible for shelter the first time they apply unnecessarily forcing them to miss days of school and work as one wind parent told us, you can't keep a job if you keep on going back forth to path.
2:15:21
Mhmm.
2:15:22
Experiencing homelessness is inherently traumatic and entering the shelter system should not compound whatever trauma a family has already suffered.
2:15:29
We seek policy solutions that simplify the process for a family to prove they need shelter and reduce erroneous denials.
2:15:36
For example, Council should preclude DHS from acquiring the presence of of children at intake and reduce the housing history requirement from 2 years to 1 year.
2:15:45
Council should also pass legislation to make the experience of being a pathless confusing and more humane, such as opening intake sites and more boroughs.
2:15:53
Hiring Navigators who clarify path procedures, training path employees and trauma informed care, and creating appointments to reduce wait times at path, which would also help with what Katherine testified to.
2:16:07
Finally, counsel can pass measures to improve the shelter experience for families with children such as requiring public assistance eligibility specialists at shelters and fully funding and implementing local law 35.
2:16:18
That families and shelter have the mental health services they need.
2:16:22
Council should not neglect the opportunity to transform path into a tool for advancing the city wide goal of ending family homelessness.
2:16:29
Thank you.
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Catherine Trapani, Assistant Vice President for Public Policy at Volunteers of America, on the Challenges Faced by Families in the NYC Shelter System
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Will Watts, Deputy Executive Director for Advocacy at the Coalition for the Homeless, on barriers to accessing and unsafe conditions in NYC homeless shelters
