PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Reverend Dr. Terry Troia, President of Project Hospitality, on Reimbursement Issues for Homeless Services Providers
3:01:27
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150 sec
Reverend Dr. Terry Troia, President of Project Hospitality, testified about the severe financial challenges faced by her organization due to delayed reimbursements from the Department of Homeless Services (DHS). She highlighted the unsustainable nature of their current situation, having to take out large loans to cover operational costs.
- Project Hospitality provides various homeless services on Staten Island, including a drop-in center, family shelter, and safe haven.
- The organization is currently owed $5.4 million for 2023 and 2024, after recently receiving $5.9 million in back payments for 2022.
- They have had to take out $7 million in credit to make payroll, resulting in $100,000 in interest charges this year alone.
Reverend Dr. Terry Troia
3:01:27
Hi.
3:01:27
Oh, right.
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Sorry.
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Thank you, Councilwoman, Brewer and all the council people here this this day.
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My name is Terry Troyer.
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I'm a local Staten Island pastor and president of Project Hospitality.
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We're founded in 1982 by local houses of worship on Staten Island to serve homeless people and to welcome them into our sanctuaries.
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We opened the doors back in 1984, way before there was a DHS where there was a dime from the city to help homeless people on Staten Island.
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And, I'm still there.
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We provide so many services, a continuum of care
Julie Won
3:01:59
in our borough, and we're
Reverend Dr. Terry Troia
3:02:00
very proud of the work that we do and the work that we do in concert in partnership with DHS.
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Today we provide a 24 hour drop in center family shelter for 43 homeless families, 30 bed safe haven for chronic street homeless people, and 3 city sanctuary shelters for the arriving asylum seekers.
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But in the last 3 years, we have encountered a problem getting reimbursement of our DHS contract expenses.
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In the last 2 years, we have taken out 3 3 loans and it's been it's been very difficult for us to sustain lines of credit and and leverage that with collateral from the agency.
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On May 2nd, I met with Deputy Mayor Isom about our cash flow problems.
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He connected us with the DSS CFO, Vincent Pula, who has been just marvelous towards us.
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We actually met with him this morning again by phone.
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2 months after we met, we got, all of our bills paid for 2022 from the DHS contracts.
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We were owed in July 5,900,000 that has been paid by the city.
3:03:02
We are now owed 5,400,000 for 2023 and 2024.
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We've had to take out $7,000,000 in credit to make payroll, over the last several months.
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We have had to leverage all of our agency assets which are not much.
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And we're gonna account for a $100,000 in interest this year on our line of credit and that's the sum total of the money that we have raised so far in the last 6 months.
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People don't give us money to pay interest on lines of credit.
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They give us money to open up food pantries and soup kitchens.
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And we urge the city to review the reimbursement process in order to find a way to pay non profit service providers in a more expedient manner.
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We can't sustain the loans, we can't sustain the interests.
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We are not sustainable.
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We are sinking fast as a viable not for profit on Staten Island and the waters over our heads.
3:03:50
Oh, thank
Gale A. Brewer
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you all.
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I mentioned that earlier when I was asking questions.
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So thank you all.
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We will be in touch.
Reverend Dr. Terry Troia
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We Thank you.
Gale A. Brewer
3:03:56
This is a lot of follow-up.
