Q&A
Capacity issues in runaway and homeless youth shelters and DYCD's plans to address them
2:13:37
·
8 min
Council Member Stevens pressed DYCD representatives about capacity issues in runaway and homeless youth shelters and crisis services, citing a significant increase in youth unable to secure beds. DYCD representatives discussed their efforts to manage resources and make referrals to other services when beds are unavailable.
- 1,127 youth were unable to secure beds between January and June of the current year
- DYCD representatives emphasized using available resources and making connections to other eligible services
- Council Member Stevens expressed frustration with the lack of a clear plan to increase bed capacity
Althea Stevens
2:13:37
The MRR shows that drop in sensors, crisis, service providers, tills for both youth and homeless young adults have increased and providers are nearly or have reached capacity.
2:13:47
Furthermore, according to DYC, a local 79's report, 1127 youth were unable to secure a bet between January June of this year.
2:13:56
A shop increase from the prior 6 months.
2:13:58
As a number of unaccompanied migrant youth continues to increase, what is the measures does the CDC plan to implement to ensure that we are not turning children away doing to lack of beds?
Dr. Amy Wilkerson
2:14:11
At DYCD, we try to make the best use of all the resources that we have available to us.
2:14:18
If a youth is seeking a bed in a DYCD program and one is not available, we would try to make sure that that young person is connected to whatever available resource they're eligible for.
Althea Stevens
2:14:32
So could you give an example?
2:14:33
Because this is one of the things I've been yelling about for the last 3 years.
2:14:36
So welcome to the party.
Dr. Amy Wilkerson
2:14:37
Mhmm.
Althea Stevens
2:14:38
Susan knows this.
2:14:39
I've been talking about getting more bids.
2:14:41
And so what what what does that look like?
2:14:43
Because, you know, this report, I know I'm at I have conversations with you guys all flat about this, but this report obviously is chilling that we're turning any young person away let alone almost 1100 young people.
2:14:55
And so if they're not being referred to that, what does it look like?
2:14:58
What is the process?
2:14:59
So what are those other services that they would be receiving?
Dr. Amy Wilkerson
2:15:04
If if they're eligible to go into DHS, then they would be connected to DHS.
2:15:10
If they're a migrant and they can go to a hurricane, we would make that connection as well.
2:15:18
If they're sometimes miners that need to be connected with ACS resources.
2:15:25
So for each case, we would assess based on their age, their need, their circumstance, what other resources are they eligible for, and we would connect them to those.
Althea Stevens
2:15:37
I mean, because, you know, it it gets very cringey when I start to hear.
2:15:41
We're referring young people to DHS because one of the reasons we have separate systems because we don't want them to go there, because they don't have they're not getting the supports that they need.
2:15:50
And so Just, you know, I think I'll access every hearing.
2:15:53
So do you guys believe we need more beds at this point?
2:15:56
I know I access all the time, and I never get a short answer.
2:15:58
But at this point, from this report, do you, does NYPD believe that we need more beds for young people?
2:16:04
No.
2:16:05
Yes.
2:16:05
Maybe.
2:16:05
No.
2:16:06
Gonna ask.
Dr. Amy Wilkerson
2:16:07
I think that we would continue to work.
2:16:10
Do you
UNKNOWN
2:16:10
What the
Althea Stevens
2:16:11
what the lack of resources you have?
2:16:13
Alright.
2:16:13
The lack of resources that you got got it.
2:16:15
I'm gonna go on a record of saying, of course, we need more beds, and we're gonna continue to fight for it because turning away this amount of young people, even if we're referring them to other things, does not make sense because we know that we have this this carve out for specific reasons because they need a level of care that other folks aren't able to provide.
2:16:34
So And so, like, what's the contingency plan as these numbers continue to rise?
2:16:39
Right?
2:16:39
So when we're thinking about we we had this report we're looking at it.
2:16:44
So how are you using this information to now change whatever policies other than saying that we're going to you know, refer them other places.
2:16:52
Are there are you guys making other plans?
2:16:54
Are, you know, are we going to our favorite person into the government, Jack, and asking for more money for additional beds?
2:17:00
What are some plans that we're putting in place to to use this data to kind of help us push forward with the conversation.
Susan Haskell
2:17:10
I think that's a fair question.
2:17:12
We're going to continue to monitor to these trends.
Alexa Avilés
2:17:14
Mhmm.
Susan Haskell
2:17:15
This period this last reporting period is the first time we saw numbers like this.
Althea Stevens
2:17:20
Mhmm.
Susan Haskell
2:17:21
And I do wanna say it doesn't mean that every young person who shows up in this report didn't ultimately get a bad kinda reporting on people who there wasn't a bed available at the time that they presented.
2:17:33
So it may be somebody got a bed a little further down the line, and we do our best to remove any duplication, but there there still could be some duplication here.
2:17:42
So Long story short, we're gonna continue to monitor in the previous period at the end of 2023.
2:17:49
It was the first time really Yeah.
2:17:51
Ever, we saw that we weren't generally able to place especially sixteen to twenty year olds in bed.
2:18:00
So, you know, we it would be great if these numbers decline, but if they you know, whatever numbers we do see, to Amy's point, we're going to continue to make sure that they are referred to a service and that nobody has just flat out turned away without a resource.
Althea Stevens
2:18:18
Absolutely.
2:18:18
And and I think this is more about, like, making sure that you guys have that information so that we can use that information to guide where we need to put resources because I think that for the last 2 years, we knew this was this was coming and and somewhat happening already.
2:18:31
But now these numbers, we have the information where we're like, we can't deny that this isn't happening anymore.
2:18:35
I think we were able to kinda say, okay.
2:18:38
Well, it's it's happening.
2:18:39
We see the trends, especially with A lot of us young people in the silence.
2:18:42
He was coming into the city.
2:18:44
We were kind of ignored in the process.
2:18:46
Like, let's not forget that.
2:18:47
Even around young people being a part of this conversation.
2:18:50
So thank you to the chair for even helping to bring this to LA where a lot of the conversations that we had, multiple hearings on, the silence them seekers.
2:18:57
And, you know, you guys have 30 seconds to find out and ask questions.
2:19:00
No one asks questions about you.
2:19:01
And so I think that it's time for us to make sure that in this process that we are getting our fair share of the resources in this process to ensure that the young people are getting the things that they need.
2:19:10
So I'm gonna continue to beat this drum because you can't do the work if you don't have the resources.
2:19:15
And so we can refer out as much as we want, but that's not gonna work because we don't have the resources to do a work that we know we do well.
2:19:24
How does do you guys say you track the number of migrant youth and RHIs?
2:19:29
Because I don't even think you guys track this.
2:19:31
Correct?
Dr. Amy Wilkerson
2:19:31
We don't we don't track the number of
Althea Stevens
2:19:33
And do you guys think that this is something that you should look to start tracking, especially with And not in a sense of tracking, but I think some of this data is kinda needed at this point because we see there's been such a sharp increase in the numbers, especially with young people turning away and thinking about they need specific resources in a different type of resources.
2:19:52
So Do you think this is something that we can start thinking about or maybe working together or start to develop?
2:19:56
Because I know I hate to put more work on providers because this would be more work on providers.
2:20:00
But do we think that this is something we should start to look into so that we can then also equip providers with the adequate resources to serve this specific population?
Dr. Amy Wilkerson
2:20:11
I mean, DYCV is working closely with our providers.
2:20:15
And although we're not tracking specifically that information, our providers are working one on one with youth and young adults that come into the system and assessing their needs and communicating back to us what those needs are, for us to assist them with getting the supports that they need to carry out their responsibilities appropriately.
2:20:37
And I think that we would continue to do that moving forward.
Althea Stevens
2:20:43
Okay.
2:20:44
I mean and and I think speaking to the providers, they kinda do this unintentionally already.
2:20:48
But, you know, just for me, it's always thinking about how do we maximize it.
2:20:52
I don't know.
2:20:52
We we should be a data driven, you know, city, but sometimes we're not.
2:20:57
And so I think this is something we should definitely even just be thinking about even if it's for a short period of time.
2:21:03
As we are seeing the numbers that are coming in because then that helps us especially on the council side to be able to say, well, this is what's happening.
2:21:10
This is the increase and not just have anecdotes.
2:21:13
And so definitely want to talk and think about further of how this could possibly happen.
2:21:20
How are resources being allocated to adjust the capacity issues in most impacted areas such as Manhattan drop in centers and shelters?
Susan Haskell
2:21:35
I think we 1st of all, we have a very, like, a good communication between our programs and providers.
2:21:44
So we're convening them regularly.
2:21:46
There's a lot of conversation.
2:21:47
They work together on their own.
2:21:48
We work to support their coordination.
2:21:51
So if a young person, for example, was, like, presenting in the Bronx and was looking for a resource that wasn't available, we would we definitely have a mechanism for communicating that beds are available over here, for example, or that a resource is available over there.
2:22:07
So I think staying in close coordination communication about that, I think I don't really have, like, specific data about the trends in Manhattan right now, but I do feel that that has, like, diffused to some degree.
2:22:21
Yes.
2:22:21
There's still demands in Manhattan, but we're kinda looking comprehensively across a system about what's available?