PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Kristin Miller, Executive Director of Homeless Services United
2:55:39
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3 min
Kristin Miller, Executive Director of Homeless Services United, testified about the challenges faced by nonprofit shelter providers, including financial strain due to delayed payments from the city and difficulties in providing quality food with limited budgets.
- Miller highlighted the extensive oversight and audits that nonprofit providers undergo, while also calling for clearer reporting guidelines from the city.
- She emphasized the urgent need for the city to process budget actions more quickly, with some organizations owed up to $50 million by DSS.
- Miller expressed concerns about the proposed food bill (Intro 979), noting that current budgets of $5.12 per day per individual make it nearly impossible to provide quality meals.
Kristin Miller
2:55:39
Good afternoon.
2:55:39
My name is Kristen Miller, and I'm executive director of Homeless Services United, HSU, which represents about 50 non shelter and homeless service providers across New York City.
2:55:50
We thank you all for your ongoing support of, people experiencing homelessness and those nonprofits that provide services to them.
2:55:59
Today, the council is looking at DOI's report examining the risk of corruption in organizations contracted with DHS.
2:56:08
As we've been talking about, this examination began over 4 years ago.
2:56:12
Our members strive to operate top notch programs that operate in full compliance with the multitude of oversight required of them.
2:56:20
We talked about it today.
2:56:22
This includes annual audits, random audits, financial filings with the city, state, federal government reporting to all funders whether public or private and, of course, the IRS.
2:56:32
Audits serve an important purpose, to root out nefarious activities.
2:56:36
In fact, the DOI report did find some bad actors which were not members of ours and are no longer doing business with the city in most cases.
2:56:44
And that's how it should be.
2:56:45
However, this a 101 page report went on to engage hypotheticals pointing out possible areas of risk for corruption, not corrupt activities and areas in which the city must provide clear reporting guidelines.
2:57:00
My members welcome succinct policies and procedures so that they are easily able to comply with the oversight required of them.
2:57:07
The alarming issue, however, is the amount of money owed to nonprofits often due to the inability of DSS to provide to process budget actions in a consistent and timely manner.
UNKNOWN
2:57:18
I last testified to the council about this in June where I reported
Kristin Miller
2:57:18
members owed as much as organization.
2:57:23
Not in total, but some organizations are owed organization.
2:57:33
Not in total, but some organizations are owed $50,000,000 by DSS.
2:57:39
I'm calling on the council today, if I may finish.
2:57:42
Thank you.
2:57:43
To demand that the city provide resources to DSS so that mountains of budget actions can quickly be processed and approved.
2:57:51
Until the city puts resources into this paperwork needed, to process the paperwork needed for approvals, we will never dig our way out of this.
2:58:01
Just want to comment, in my testimony, I go into detail about the the food, Bill 979.
2:58:09
The one thing I'll just note is that we, of course, want to provide quality food, but our budgets provide between $5.12 per day per individual.
2:58:21
Going with local businesses would be wonderful.
2:58:23
What local business is going to provide a day's worth of food for $5?
2:58:28
Food and prices, as we all know, have gone through the roof.
2:58:31
Our budgets have not increased.
2:58:34
Nearly impossible to provide quality food on $5 a day.
2:58:40
In conclusion, I just want to say that the nonprofit sector that serves our homeless residents is in crisis.
2:58:47
And without substantive and immediate intervention, many of our agencies will be forced to make some extremely difficult decisions
