PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Reverend Dr. Terry Troia, President of Project Hospitality, on CityFHEPS and Homelessness in Staten Island
2:18:48
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Reverend Dr. Terry Troia, President of Project Hospitality, testified about the importance of the CityFHEPS voucher program and the challenges faced by homeless individuals in Staten Island. She expressed gratitude for the program while highlighting areas for improvement in its administration and accessibility.
- Emphasized the need for expediting the CityFHEPS process to move people from the streets to homes more quickly
- Requested additional resources for the overwhelmed CAMBA Staten Island Homebase office
- Advocated for placing Staten Island homeless individuals in shelters within their borough to maintain community connections
Reverend Dr. Terry Troia
2:18:48
Good afternoon, Deputy Speaker Ayala.
2:18:51
I am here representing Project Hospitality.
2:18:53
We are a Staten Island based organization that's been serving homeless people on Staten Island since 1984, 40 years.
2:19:00
I've been there since the beginning.
2:19:02
I am here, first of all, to say that we are grateful for the FEPPS voucher program.
2:19:06
It's a lifeline to move homeless people from a chair in our drop in center to permanent housing or from our family shelter into permanent housing.
2:19:14
It's, very important for us.
2:19:16
We have a serious serious growing homeless problem on Staten Island.
2:19:19
We always have.
2:19:20
We've always had the least amount of services and our people are stuck on the streets and and people die on our streets.
2:19:26
We urge the, expediting process and, that that can be made possible to allow a person to move from street to home through FEPs.
2:19:35
We also want to note with great gratitude the work of CAMBA, Staten Island home based office, and to share that it is really important to know that that home base office is absolutely overwhelmed.
2:19:47
It takes months to get an appointment.
2:19:50
You no one answers the phone.
2:19:52
And you I have to go down in person often to advocate on behalf of someone.
2:19:56
They are overwhelmed and we really need an additional home based office or an extended or expanded office.
2:20:03
We need the FEPS program to work quickly to streamline their process, to expedite the, apartment inspections, and to help reduce the crisis of homelessness on Staten Island by such an expedited service.
2:20:16
This will get our most vulnerable families and single street people into safe, stable housing as soon as humanly possible.
2:20:23
And finally, I just wanna share that, Staten Island greatly needs to be considered for placing Staten Islanders back in shelter on Staten Island now that we have for the first time in our borough's history a city shelter on Staten Island for homeless single people.
2:20:42
It is so critical that people can draw on the resources of their communities, their neighborhoods, and their families who may also be on Staten Island, and to and to recircle them back.
2:20:51
There are many homeless people who've never been on a subway before or off the island, if you can imagine that.
2:20:57
And if we can get them sent back to Staten Island once they get processed to 30th Street, they can get into a more familiar setting in in the neighborhoods from which they came and use those strengths to move quickly out of shelter into stable housing.
2:21:11
Thank you so much for considering our request from the borough of Staten Island.
Diana Ayala
2:21:14
Thank you so much, and thank you for coming.