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REMARKS
Public perception of street homelessness and effectiveness of current solutions
3:21:21
ยท
5 min
Council Member Restler and Commissioner Park discuss public perception of street homelessness and the effectiveness of current solutions. Key points include:
- Constituents express anger over the visible increase in street homelessness and mental illness
- The need for more effective and compassionate solutions to address the issue
- The challenge of connecting individuals to services and long-term solutions
- The importance of communicating success stories and progress made in helping individuals transition from homelessness to housing
- The ongoing need to brainstorm and identify ways to help people get the assistance they need
Lincoln Restler
3:21:21
So I really appreciate everything you just said.
3:21:26
And I'm on a parochial level.
3:21:28
I'm proud that we opened 150 bed safe haven in Greenpoint at 83 Apollo Street.
3:21:34
I think it's the largest safe haven in Brooklyn, although maybe the one at Kingsborough is slightly bigger.
3:21:38
But just about the largest safe haven in Brooklyn.
3:21:40
We opened the largest supportive housing development in Brooklyn at 90 Sand Street in the heart of our district.
3:21:44
And we want to help continue to identify sites in our community for those solutions and I hope every council member joins me in that effort.
3:21:54
But if my if I were to tell you what I hear from my constituents every day, they are angry that there are more street homeless New Yorkers suffering with mental illness on our blocks, on our commercial corridors, in our subway stations than ever.
3:22:10
And they don't feel like the solutions that we are investing in are making a tangible difference in our neighborhoods.
3:22:20
And they want compassionate solutions.
3:22:22
They want effective solutions.
3:22:24
And of course hospital stays are the most expensive, and of course inherently temporary.
3:22:30
But how we help those people upon exit from the hospital when their substance use condition or whatever it may be wears off or where they no longer meet the criteria for hospitalization is really important.
3:22:42
And I don't think that we're doing a good enough job of connecting those people at that important interval to the low barrier transitional housing solutions that help.
3:22:53
And I think that from what I can see from the breaking ground safe haven on Apollo Street, the housing placement numbers have been impressive.
3:23:06
And already, I mean that site's open less than a year and you've got good data to show that you're moving people into permanent housing, which of course is the goal.
3:23:13
But this is a central issue in the mayoral campaign that you're hearing every candidate talk about in frankly increasingly more draconian terms because I don't think the solutions that we've been advancing are demonstrating enough results for New Yorkers day to day experience.
3:23:32
And so for me it comes back to when people are leaving that hospital or do we have safe haven capacity as a low barrier solution?
3:23:43
And the answer is today we don't really because as you answered to council member Brewer's questions, we're at capacity.
3:23:48
Hopefully, with this 18% increase in capacity over the next couple of years, it makes a difference and we have more capacity.
3:23:54
But based on what it feels like the demand is versus the the capacity that we have and the capacity we have planned, we're just not meeting the moment.
3:24:02
And I get that you don't you're not in a position where you can say there should be 10,000 beds because that's gonna put you in trouble, but I do think we need to have an honest conversation about what the capacity of those low barrier beds needs to be so we can start to actually address these solutions more effectively at scale.
Molly Wasow Park
3:24:19
I appreciate that councilmember, and I'm always happy to engage with you and with others on a range of solutions.
3:24:27
But I do just want to take a step back.
3:24:29
I understand the concerns of New Yorkers in general, the anxiety, and the perception issues that are out there that there are more and more people.
3:24:42
I I think what people don't ever see is the instances where people are coming inside to shelter in many instances or to safe havens.
3:24:53
They don't see the permanent housing placement.
3:24:55
So I think both things can be true that we are making progress because we absolutely are and that people's perceptions feel like we aren't.
3:25:07
So I think in addition to the problem solving around what can we do differently, I think there's also the how do we understand and how do we convey and communicate the instances people's lives have been changed, somebody who was the person on the subway is now the person in housing who has been able to connect to whatever form of treatment or stabilization or maybe just the stabilization that comes with having a safe place to live.
3:25:40
Those are happening every day.
3:25:42
So we can talk about whether or not we want to do more and whether the scale is right.
3:25:47
But the success stories are out there, absolutely.
Lincoln Restler
3:25:50
And we want to help promote them.
3:25:53
I'm happy to work with you on that.
3:25:56
I just think that of course it's not what people see and we maybe need to do more to share information about it, but I could tell you a story from every other week in my district of a person who is deeply struggling on the streets or in the subways and who we continue to engage but fail to actually connect to services or help and long term solutions that is I think eroding confidence among too many of our colleagues.
3:26:24
And I just want to help identify ways to actually get those people the help they need and long term solutions.
Molly Wasow Park
3:26:29
We're happy to brainstorm with you.
Stephen Grimaldi
3:26:31
Thank you.
Diana Ayala
3:26:32
Thank you, Councilmember Ressler.
3:26:34
And with that, this portion of the hearing is concluded.
3:26:39
Thank you all so much for being here today.
Molly Wasow Park
3:26:41
Thank you.