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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Nathalie Interiano, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Care for the Homeless
5:34:27
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Nathalie Interiano from Care for the Homeless testified about the organization's services for homeless individuals and the challenges they face with city contract payments. She highlighted the need for improved payment processes, increased staffing in city agencies, and enhancements to homeless services.
- Care for the Homeless is owed $5 million in city contracts, which is impacting their ability to operate and expand programs.
- The organization urged for increased staffing at DHS, DSS, and MOCS to address payment delays and improve supportive services.
- Recommendations were made for improving street outreach, expanding housing options, and streamlining the CityFHEPS voucher process.
Nathalie Interiano
5:34:27
There you go.
5:34:28
Good afternoon.
5:34:29
My name is Natalie Antriano.
5:34:30
I'm the director of policy and advocacy at Care for the Homeless.
5:34:32
I'd like to thank the members of the committee for the opportunity to testify today.
5:34:36
Care for the Homeless has forty years of experience providing mental and behavioral health care services exclusively to people experiencing homelessness in New York City.
5:34:43
We operate 23 FQHCs in all five boroughs.
5:34:46
We also provide shelter services to operate and operate two shelters for single adult women, two shelters for single adult men, one safe haven, and there's one more safe haven that's gonna be opening up in the next few months.
5:34:56
All of our shelters have on-site health centers for the residents in the community.
5:35:00
In point in time, we serve about 860 residents in our shelters.
5:35:04
We're currently contracted with DHS to perform the previously mentioned residential services.
5:35:09
As of today, March 17, Care for the Homes is owed $5,000,000 in city contracts dating back to f y twenty two.
5:35:15
The amount owed is about 10% of our total residential services budget for the year.
5:35:19
This backlog is payment is significant ongoing issue that we've been dealing with for several years.
5:35:24
The fiscal year twenty six budget must take decisive action to rectify payment issues for shelter providers.
5:35:29
We're relieved by some of actions the city took to address overdue payments, like the recent backlog initiative.
5:35:34
While these efforts do provide some temporary relief, we have years of catch up that prohibits us from being reimbursed for services that have already been performed.
5:35:41
The lack of stability when it comes to payments towards organizations like ours at risk, it makes it very difficult to pay event pay staff, pay vendors, and to run our programs and to expand our programs.
5:35:50
Alongside the procedure procedural issues, short staffing with city agencies has contributed to delays in payment and also to supportive services.
5:35:58
Both DHS and HRA have decreased significantly, in staffing since 02/2019, and they've not been able to recruit and retain staff at a rate that meets the demand, that we're currently meeting at the moment.
5:36:08
We urge the council to ensure that fiscal year twenty six budget includes sufficient staff stuff, fan funding to restore and expand headcount at DHS, DSS, and MOCs to eliminate these pervasive issues.
5:36:20
We also urge the city council to work with direct service providers to make street outreach more effective tool to address homelessness.
5:36:26
Our written testimony will include some detailed recommendations that we need enhanced collaboration and data integration, expansions in housing and shelter options, improvements in supportive housing, and a better coordinated mental health emergency response system.
5:36:38
Lastly, we urge city council to reduce barriers in voucher administration to expedite placement in permanent housing, including streamlining and process and processes for qualifying for utilizing the city thefts voucher.
5:36:49
Our rent testimony will also include some more details about that.
5:36:51
Thank you so much for your time.
Diana Ayala
5:36:53
Thank you.