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Council member raises concerns about resource allocation and policy impacts
1:10:17
·
126 sec
Council Member Cabán expresses concerns about the new policy, questioning the allocation of resources for its implementation and potential negative impacts on shelter residents. She highlights the broader context of policies that may lead to forceful removal of people from streets and issues with shelter providers not connecting residents to housing opportunities.
- Concerns about allocating resources to a policy that may affect very few people
- Questions about the impact on an already underfunded and under-capacity system
- Highlights data showing some shelters have zero or very low approval rates for supportive housing applications
- Asks about sanctions for shelter providers who fail to provide adequate services
Tiffany Cabán
1:10:17
Okay.
1:10:18
And and and I'm sorry.
1:10:19
I don't mean to cut either of you off.
1:10:20
I just am conscious of my time and also my quorum.
1:10:24
I I can only participate while while there's quorum.
1:10:27
So I I there are a couple of things that really concern me, about this.
1:10:33
One, if you're saying that you anticipate this being maybe nobody, a very, very small, number of people, then I would love to know, you know, how many staff at DHS are being allocated to implement this policy and all the intended processes that you're talking about because we're talking about an overall system that's already under capacity, underfunded, and then allocating these resources to to push people out of housing.
1:10:59
And then putting it in the larger context, right, of saying, well, you know, the ripple effect of that is that we are, in a city and state and federal environment where people who are then pushed out onto the streets are are open to other policies that are then removing them, from the streets in in violent and and forceful ways.
1:11:20
And and then, like, you know, just saying, okay.
1:11:22
When you're doing that review about whose fault is it?
1:11:26
Why isn't this happening?
1:11:27
You know, there's data that's that was made available under local law '3 of 2022 that a 15 DHS and and DHS contracted shelters that had zero applications approved for supportive housing or a number so low that it couldn't be reported for concern of identifying a specific individual, right, to protect, their, their privacy.
1:11:47
It it really begs a question of, you know, here's this, and I know you're saying it's accountability for all sides, but it seems like a a shelter resident could be penalized when, for lots of different reasons, shelter providers aren't connecting people with housing opportunities.
1:12:05
And, again, I wanna be very mindful of the fact that understaffed, not enough resources, all of these, these different things.
1:12:13
So I I guess I'm I'm seeing the penalty for the shelter residents.
1:12:17
What are the sanctions for the shelter providers who fail to provide housing and and case management services under this pilot?
Molly Wasow Park
1:12:24
Right.