PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Robin Altman, Supervisor of Asylum Seeker Services at Catholic Charities Community Services
4:19:16
·
5 min
Robin Altman from Catholic Charities Community Services testifies about the negative impacts of the 30/60 day shelter stay limits on asylum seekers, particularly focusing on the effects on children and families. She highlights the instability, trauma, and challenges faced by asylum seekers due to frequent shelter moves and poor communication.
- Describes the detrimental effects of frequent shelter moves on children's mental health, education, and family stability
- Highlights communication issues in shelters, including inconsistent language support and misinformation about asylum applications
- Recommends eliminating the 30/60 day shelter rules, increasing legal services funding, improving case management, and expanding housing voucher programs for asylum seekers
Robin Altman
4:19:16
Good afternoon, chairperson Ayala, chairperson Aviles, and committee members.
4:19:20
I am Robin Altman, supervisor for asylum seeker services in the refugee resettlement department at Catholic Charities Community Services of the archdiocese of New York.
4:19:30
I appreciate this opportunity to testify.
4:19:33
As has been noted by compelling testimony today, these policies have had a profoundly negative impact on asylum seekers' lives and run counter to city goals of immigrant immigration and self sufficiency.
4:19:46
Asylum seeking families and shelters experience significant instability, and some move up to 6 times a year.
4:19:53
The children in these families have already experienced the trauma of fleeing their home countries.
4:19:58
They made the treacherous journey to New York City often on foot in search of safety and stability, but have instead faced continued transient in our shelter system.
4:20:07
Clinical interventions for children stress the importance of physical and emotional stability.
4:20:12
However, the threat of eviction every 60 days, even the threat of eviction, makes children unable to feel safe in their own beds.
4:20:19
They may experience physical pain, anxiety, night terrors, and bed wetting.
4:20:24
This applies to children of all ages.
4:20:27
They could be forced to switch schools multiple times a year, decimating fragile community and social support networks.
4:20:33
They may face significant obstacles in school that follow them their entire careers.
4:20:38
Parents face an impossible choice, to spend inordinate hours escorting their children to and from a familiar school or spend their days learning English, looking for jobs, and searching for housing.
4:20:49
This impossible choice between their children's long term academic success and their family's long term stability is devastating and counterproductive.
4:20:58
Asylum seeking adults are eager to work and access a stable housing for themselves and their families.
4:21:03
They are desperate to find stability and respite from the monthly or bimonthly cycles of moving.
4:21:08
If they leave shelter under these circumstances, they often wind up in basements without heat or windows or apartments with radder insect infestations.
4:21:17
These families often end up reentering the shelter system worse off and with less money.
4:21:21
It would be far better for the families and more efficient for the city if they could stay in one shelter until appropriate housing could be found rather than existing in conditions so inhospitable that waking up to feel to rats feels preferable to living in city run shelters.
4:21:36
Our clients report significant problems in the communication they receive in shelters.
4:21:41
Shelter limit rules are inconsistently communicated in someone's preferred language.
4:21:46
One client was told by shelter staff that he had to leave, but understood that he could reapply for a new shelter the same day at a reticketing center.
4:21:54
However, at the reticketing center, he was told that all shelters were at capacity, and they had nowhere to put him.
4:22:01
He went back to his previous shelter, but was not allowed to return as his bed had already been reallocated.
4:22:06
He spent the next 3 nights sleeping on a church pew until a placement could be found.
4:22:13
Poor communication has also put pressure on shelter residents to apply for asylum.
4:22:18
Residents report being told by shelter staff, not by legal counsel, that they are required to apply for asylum to remain in their shelter.
4:22:26
Legal providers have encouraged many people who feel pressured by or I'm sorry.
4:22:31
Legal providers have encountered many people who feel pressured by shelter workers to apply for asylum to remain housed despite not having strong claims.
4:22:39
The influx of people seeking asylum has put a high strain on New York City's already overloaded immigration legal providers and on the asylum courts.
4:22:48
One glaring discrepancy that has been mentioned earlier today, in the push for asylum applications as a result of these rules is that asylum seekers who are evicted from their shelters are unable to access their mail, missing critical communication about their asylum cases.
4:23:03
They have no way to track mail that has been sent to a previous shelter address and miss critical hearing notices and documents needed for work authorization.
4:23:11
We urge New York City to eliminate the 30 and 60 shelter rules.
4:23:16
Further, we urge the city to increase the list of exceptions to 60 day shelter rules beyond the k through 6 provision that we heard earlier today from the administration.
4:23:28
We recommend increasing funding for legal services in shelters, implementing supportive case management distinct from exit planning, ensure that communication with residents is provided in linguistically and culturally appropriate manner, provide training and increased training of shelter staff to ensure that they explicitly offer information regarding expectations, conditions, and extension policies in residents' preferred languages.
4:23:53
We also urge the city to expand the housing voucher program to include provisions specifically for asylum seekers who are typically ineligible due to the program's prerequisite of receiving cash assistance for which they are not eligible.
4:24:06
Please refer to our submitted written testimony for further recommendations, and please know that we are available to answer any further questions.
4:24:13
Thank you very much for your commitment to providing safe and sustainable housing to asylum seekers in New York City.
