TESTIMONY
Will Watts, Deputy Executive Director for Advocacy at the Coalition for the Homeless, on barriers to accessing and unsafe conditions in NYC homeless shelters
2:16:35
·
137 sec
Watts testifies about the challenges homeless families face in accessing and residing in NYC shelters.
- Many families are found ineligible for shelter, with eligibility rates hovering around 40% for families with children.
- One mother had to wait 5 months after entering a conditional shelter placement to be deemed eligible.
- Another mother lived in a shelter unit with rats and lack of heat, jeopardizing her infant son's health.
- The mother had to advocate extensively to get transferred to a safer unit.
Will Watts
2:16:35
The QWD speaker, Ayala, and other members, of course, the council for the opportunity to speak with you today.
2:16:40
My name is Will Watts, and I'm here on behalf of the coalition for the homeless and our council, legal aid society.
2:16:46
With shelter eligibility rates constantly hovering around 40% for families with children, The ability to access shelter continues to be one of our top concerns.
2:16:56
Take for instance, Lisa, and her 2 children who entered a conditional placement in September.
2:17:01
Now 3 months later, she still had not heard anything from Pat about her shelter eligibility or her eligibility for vouchers like city fabs.
2:17:10
So exasperated.
2:17:11
She contacted contacted our office, and we learned that even though she had fled her abuser and shared that fact with path at intake, she had not been contacted or evaluated by the Nova office.
2:17:22
In fact, upon filing, for a fair hearing, she learned that the city was alleging that she had not cooperated with Nova.
2:17:31
So we advocated for her, and finally, 5 months after entering her conditional placement, she was found eligible for shelter and able to move forward with her housing surge.
2:17:42
But overcoming the hurdle of getting into shelter is just part of the challenge for families to children.
2:17:48
Take for instance Jane, who several months ago, was living in a shelter with her two month old son who had just been discharged from the the NICU with liver and kidney issues.
2:17:58
Jane was concerned of that her unit was not safe.
2:18:02
You see, there were rats and Jane feared they might enter her son's crib and hurt him or otherwise jeopardize his fragile health.
2:18:10
Compounding this was the lack of heat which was particularly problematic because her son's medication made him more vulnerable to the cold.
2:18:17
Jane raised these issues with the shelter several times, and her caseworker had even seen the rats in her unit.
2:18:23
Yet, the situation remained unchanged.
2:18:26
Until she contacted us, and we successfully advocated for her to be transferred, and it only took 5 days for her to get the transfer once we were involved.
2:18:35
So while we're generally we generally support the bills introduced today with a few caveats that'll be set forth in our written comments, we remain concerned that too many families experience barriers to shelter or unsafe living conditions.
2:18:48
No one should be subjected to this, least of all, of course, our children.
