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Council Member Ayala discusses challenges of shelter siting and community impact
1:02:12
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3 min
Council Member Diana Ayala addresses the challenges of shelter siting in New York City, highlighting the need for a balanced approach that considers community impact and fair distribution of resources. She emphasizes the importance of avoiding oversaturation of shelters in specific areas and calls for a more nuanced analysis of community needs when making siting decisions.
- Ayala points out the problem of landlords seeking profits by offering properties to DHS for shelters
- She advocates for a "community-based analysis" to assess existing programs and avoid creating pockets of poverty
- The council member stresses the need for additional resources in communities with a high concentration of shelters to mitigate unintended consequences
Diana Ayala
1:02:12
I just want to add to that.
1:02:13
I think that part of the problem is that at least from what I've witnessed is that our community landlords are going to DHS and saying, hey, we have these properties because they feel like they can profit better.
1:02:27
They're gonna they they feel like it's in a short check, which is a problem.
1:02:30
It's problematic.
1:02:31
But council member Villais is correct in that when we have so many and now we have, you know, more, people that may have specific social service needs, we may have that may, you know, contribute to more garbage to, you know, variety, maybe more children in schools, maybe, you know and and the community still is operating with the same public dollars that they were, right, before the census count continued to climb.
1:02:57
So I I think it's a fair, you know, point to make.
Molly Wasow Park
1:03:01
Certainly.
1:03:01
And we we are committed to spreading citing out on our contracted shelters.
1:03:07
We have a number in the pipeline that will address the remaining districts that do not have shelters, so that is something that we have said all along that we are committed actively working on it.
1:03:20
I want to just note that every shelter that we contract for does have wraparound social services, always have case workers, housing specialists, and then other services that vary depending on the population.
1:03:33
Some have childcare, some have an employment focus, some have a health care focus, as I say, variety.
1:03:40
But happy to talk about specific sites.
Diana Ayala
1:03:43
I've always said this.
1:03:44
I've thrown this in the air hoping that it will catch one day.
1:03:47
But I think a more a community based analysis of like what programs already exist in a community, like a smaller environmental impact statement if you will, to determine alright we have 20 locations for homeless men in a 10 block radius.
1:04:12
Maybe it's not a good idea to add another one because now you're adding more and more density and creating pockets of poverty.
1:04:20
Even when we're talking about on the supportive housing end, we've been having that conversation as well about how do you ensure that you're not just putting a specific we're not just targeting a specific population and then over saturating in that way.
1:04:36
Like you have to blend people in.
1:04:37
I have a shelter across the street.
1:04:39
It used to be a shelter.
1:04:40
It was thankfully under the de Blasio administration turned into permanent housing.
1:04:44
But when it was there, I didn't know that those families were there.
1:04:48
Like most of the time we don't know.
1:04:49
Right?
1:04:50
And I am not opposed to having families, you know, living in shelter in my community because these are people that belong in somebody's community.
1:04:57
Like these are people.
1:04:58
Right?
1:04:58
At the end of the day, they're people.
1:05:00
But there are challenges with some of the settings.
1:05:02
Some you know depending on if you have folks that are you know that have serious mental health and substance use disorder require more more detailed kind of you know social service interaction and that they're you know, it's difficult, right, because people are transient and they're coming and they're going.
1:05:20
So it does, you know, beg the question like what are we doing to ensure that those communities that have more than their fair share are also the recipients of, you know, some, you know, resources, that help to mitigate any of the unintended consequences.
1:05:35
So I think that I think that both things can happen.
1:05:37
Right?
1:05:37
I don't think they're mutually exclusive.
1:05:39
With that, because I don't wanna lose, quorum, council member Caban.