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Q&A
Process for requesting reasonable accommodations and staffing issues in shelters
0:36:18
·
3 min
The discussion covers the process for shelter residents to request reasonable accommodations for special meals and touches on staffing issues in shelters.
- Officials explain that the process for requesting special meals should be posted along with menus in shelters.
- Reasonable accommodation forms are available, and interpretation services are provided for non-English speakers.
- Council Member Won raises concerns about the lack of caseworkers in shelters and the significant staff deficit at DHS, HRA, and DSS.
- Officials assert that all shelters have lines for caseworkers, but Won disputes this claim based on her observations.
Jill Berry
0:36:18
Thank you, chair.
0:36:19
So all shelters are required to post the process for requesting special meals along with their menu, along with information about how to submit complaints about food.
0:36:32
Shelters are also required to assist clients in requesting specialized meals.
0:36:38
Specialized meals such as halal, kosher, and vegetarian that are fairly readily available should be provided as soon as delivery.
0:36:50
Those can be provided provisionally without the need for the client to already have their documentation in place.
0:36:58
And so tip especially for halal, kosher, and vegetarian, those should be available as soon as the next, meal delivery after the client requests them.
Julie Won
0:37:10
Who is the client requesting it to?
Jill Berry
0:37:13
They are requesting it from the shelter staff themselves.
Julie Won
0:37:16
Verbally, on a piece of paper?
Jill Berry
0:37:18
The process for each shelter has to be listed along with the menu that is posted in the shelter.
Julie Won
0:37:25
So is there a standardized process for all the day chest shelters on how you get a special accommodation or is it however they feel like?
Jill Berry
0:37:32
No reasonable accommodations is a very standardized process.
Cindy Teta
0:37:35
Yes, so if a client has Hi good morning.
0:37:39
If a client has a reasonable accommodation for a diet specific to their overall health or religious observances, they are to complete a reasonable accommodation form and submit it to the social services team at the shelter.
0:37:53
They in turn will reach out to the vendor to get the meal that the client requires.
Julie Won
0:38:01
Can you send us an example of what that process will look like as a follow-up so that we can physically see it?
0:38:07
Because I'm also wondering how is that language accessible?
0:38:10
Are you translating it to Arabic, French?
Cindy Teta
0:38:14
So we do have we do have interpretation services for all of the clients that we engage with and our reasonable accommodation form I know specifically is in a few languages.
Julie Won
0:38:26
Okay and every single shelter site has it in multiple languages visibly on how you can access the accommodation?
Cindy Teta
0:38:34
They should have that posted so that the clients know how to access it as well as during client engagements with their case workers following up on what their immediate needs are, those issues are also discussed and then the caseworker or the social services director can assist them with completing that.
Julie Won
0:38:51
The majority of my sites have no caseworkers on in any of the shelters and they never have.
0:38:59
And I just want to point out that I believe that there is 50% staff deficit at DHS, HRA, and DSS, so I don't know how that would be possible.
Cindy Teta
0:39:12
All of our shelters have lines for caseworkers.
0:39:15
If there is a vacancy at a specific shelter, there's other team members there that could assist them.