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Q&A
Effectiveness and funding of street outreach programs for the unsheltered homeless population
2:21:43
ยท
5 min
Council Member Ayala inquires about the effectiveness and funding of street outreach programs for the unsheltered homeless population. Commissioner Park defends the program's success and outlines plans for expansion.
- About 3,000 people moved from unsheltered homelessness to permanent housing
- New funding primarily for increasing low-barrier beds (safe havens and stabilization beds)
- Expansion from 4,000 to 4,900 low-barrier beds planned
- Coordination with state partners on outreach efforts and mental health support
- Governor's budget includes funding to expand the welcome center model
Diana Ayala
2:21:43
Regarding street outreach, outreach and other programs geared towards cities' unsheltered homeless population has been a significant focus of DHS in recent years.
2:21:53
When the mayor first announced the subway safety plan, 171,300,000.0 was baselined for the program in fiscal year twenty three's executive plan.
2:22:02
After the mayor's recent SOC announcement that that these efforts would be expanded, the preliminary plan included additional funding for DHS's street homeless programs, 71,600,000.0 in fiscal year twenty five, one hundred and sixteen million in fiscal year twenty six, one hundred and twenty three million in year twenty seven, one hundred and twenty two point eight million in fiscal year twenty eight, and 121,700,000.0 in fiscal year twenty nine.
2:22:31
Despite additional funding, added three fiscal years ago, street homeless and public trans, transit safety concerns persist.
2:22:38
The subway safety plan seems to have, had limited success.
2:22:42
How is the city changing its approach, and will the new funding be used differently?
Molly Wasow Park
2:22:47
Thank you councilmember.
2:22:49
Let me start by pushing back a little bit on the idea that the plan thus far hasn't had a lot of success.
2:22:57
I actually think that we've been able to connect thousands of people both to shelter, our low barrier beds as well as traditional shelter, and even more importantly to permanent housing.
2:23:07
Permanent housing is the goal for everybody including those who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
2:23:13
And it's about 3,000 people in this administration who were experiencing unsheltered homelessness but who are now in permanent housing.
2:23:23
I think one of the challenges is that there remains an inflow of people to the street.
2:23:31
People are being discharged from psychiatric care or from prison and they're being discharged directly to DHS.
2:23:39
So part of the solution In addition to the work that we are continuing to do to meet the needs of people who are on the street today, I think there is work to do, and this is really cross system work, which is incredibly important but also incredibly challenging to do to make sure we are reducing that upstream flow of people onto the streets.
2:24:00
But to answer the specific question about how the funds will be used, some of that is specifically for outreach needs and to address some of the ongoing needs that we've had for outreach, but the bulk of it is to increase the number of low barrier beds that we have, so safe havens and stabilization beds.
2:24:18
We are currently at about 4,000 going up to about 4,900.
2:24:22
These are sites that are typically a little bit smaller, a little bit lower density, somewhat more flexible rules, and that are targeted specifically to those experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
2:24:33
And we found that those have a very strong success rate in meeting the needs of people who have been living on the street.
Diana Ayala
2:24:45
How much specifically will go towards mental health services for street homeless individuals?
Molly Wasow Park
2:24:51
We don't have it broken out that way.
2:24:54
Mental health services are frequently incorporated in the scope of services that are provided at a low barrier site, but there isn't a particular line item in the budget that is for mental health services.
Diana Ayala
2:25:10
Is the city expecting any additional support from the state that will impact DHS's street homeless programs and the implementation of the city subway safety plan?
Molly Wasow Park
2:25:18
So we work really closely with state partners and they are quite involved in the overall universe of services that we provide even if it's not flowing directly through our budget.
2:25:30
So the state has been investing in their SOS teams.
2:25:34
They are also doing outreach and outreach with a particular clinical bent.
2:25:38
We find that to be very helpful.
2:25:43
So that has been very useful.
2:25:46
There's other programming.
2:25:48
They support much of the shelter based act teams.
2:25:53
These are mobile mental health teams that can provide support to those who are in shelter and then after they leave shelter, so that's another important state resource where we coordinate closely.
2:26:06
The governor's budget included some funds that we think could be very important, funds to expand the welcome center model that we have which functions essentially as assessment for those experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
2:26:24
But the basic idea is that if you engage with an outreach worker on the subway platform at 02:00 in the morning, it's very difficult for anybody to make a good decision for what a long term placement might look like.
2:26:36
So the Welcome Center is an opportunity to come inside, get a bed, a shower, a meal, sleep, and then the DHS staff and provider staff can work to determine what the next move is.
2:26:51
It's something that we have one in The Bronx and one in Brooklyn.
2:26:54
It has worked very well.
2:26:56
So the governor's budget includes funding to expand that.
2:26:59
Whether or not it will make it all the way through the budget process is still to be determined.