Q&A
Housing assistance and transportation issues for youth in foster care
0:46:25
ยท
124 sec
Council Member Brewer inquires about housing assistance for youth aging out of foster care and transportation issues, particularly school busing. Commissioner Dannhauser provides information on both topics.
- In 2023, 269 youth were connected to housing through vouchers, NYCHA, or supportive housing; this increased to 320 in 2024
- ACS currently has access to 50 HPD Section 8 vouchers for youth
- Transportation issues persist, especially in September when school starts
- ACS has implemented a reimbursement policy for agencies to cover transportation gaps, with about $800,000 reimbursed so far
Gale A. Brewer
0:46:25
Okay.
0:46:26
Alright.
0:46:26
Just quickly, two other questions.
0:46:27
One is, how many young people aging out secured housing using a rental assistance voucher?
0:46:33
And then the other question is more of those goddamn buses.
0:46:36
I've had so many hearings, and I think we all have, on getting young people from care into the schools.
Jess Dannhauser
0:46:43
Yes.
Gale A. Brewer
0:46:43
It it just goes on and on in temporary housing.
0:46:45
So I just those are my second question.
0:46:47
Go ahead.
0:46:47
So
Jess Dannhauser
0:46:48
On housing, '23, there were 269 youth who were connected to housing that includes either through a voucher, NYCHA, or supportive housing.
0:46:57
Twenty four, it increased to 320.
0:47:01
We are currently working working off about a 50 HPD section eight vouchers that we have access to.
0:47:07
Okay.
0:47:08
If when if and when those run out, there are other potential section eight options.
0:47:13
And then, obviously, we can go back to city faps.
0:47:16
But if since we have the section eight, we wanna use it.
Gale A. Brewer
0:47:18
Okay.
0:47:19
And then just busing getting
Jess Dannhauser
0:47:20
Yeah.
0:47:21
So It
Gale A. Brewer
0:47:21
never seems to work no matter how much work we put in.
Jess Dannhauser
0:47:24
Yeah.
0:47:24
So we created this policy with the Department of Education, New York City Public Schools because of that that gap period where agencies can get reimbursed for transportation, chaperoning, etcetera.
0:47:37
We got the numbers yesterday.
0:47:39
About $800,000 has been reimbursed to the agencies, but what we noticed is not every agency is taking full advantage of it.
0:47:47
And so we are gonna double down and retrain the agencies on this policy that we put out last year because there does seem to need to be sort of a gap filling measure because the bus lines are not routes are not sort of available within a couple weeks sometimes.
0:48:03
So September
Gale A. Brewer
0:48:04
is awful.
0:48:04
No it just I don't know.
0:48:06
It all falls apart in September and then gets a little bit better.
Jess Dannhauser
0:48:08
And we have for for children at the children's center, it is a very robust operation early every morning.
0:48:16
We have our own drivers and
Gale A. Brewer
0:48:18
But that's great.
0:48:20
Regular foster care, night shift family trying to get everybody to school.
0:48:24
So I'm just saying if we could help more with the buses
Jess Dannhauser
0:48:26
Thank you.
Gale A. Brewer
0:48:26
I would appreciate it.
0:48:27
Alright.
0:48:28
Thank you, madam chair.