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Q&A
Concerns about cuts to housing assistance for runaway and homeless youth (RHY)
0:28:57
ยท
4 min
Council Member Stevens raises urgent concerns about potential cuts to Section 8 and NYCHA housing access for runaway and homeless youth (RHY). The DYCD leadership team responds to these concerns and discusses the current situation.
- Providers have reported potential cuts to housing assistance for RHY youth
- DYCD acknowledges they've flagged potential challenges in seeking housing assistance
- There's uncertainty about the exact impact of potential federal funding cuts
- Council Member Stevens emphasizes the need for preparedness, especially given the vulnerability of the RHY population
- DYCD states they are in ongoing conversations with OMB about the potential impacts
Althea V. Stevens
0:28:57
But and so even and while we're talking about the federal government, know that I've been getting frantic calls and text messages around the Section eight and NYCHA being access being cut to RHY young people and so like this is why that is federal and this is why we need to prepare.
0:29:16
So could we talk about how you're even preparing for that piece that is affecting participants and this is gonna affect the program.
0:29:23
And also how are you working with other agencies to ensure that young people can get access to things like city faps now that this is going to be a huge issue.
Keith Howard
0:29:33
Well all of those conversations are happening with OMB because one of the things that in conversations with OMB is to understand exactly what the impact was would be and understanding that we have to continue attention to what's happening up in Washington DC.
Althea V. Stevens
0:29:56
I know but this is according to the providers that they had a call with with DYCD and they were told that this is happening.
0:30:02
So how are we because like even saying we're in conversation with OMB, like how are we preparing
Psycho
0:30:06
for this?
Althea V. Stevens
0:30:06
This is gonna something this is in real time going to be affecting our young people if they don't have access because we already did not have adequate access to the city vouchers which if we would have implemented council's bill that wouldn't be the case.
Keith Howard
0:30:20
And again if we're in conversations with O and B and internally we are looking at the impact and we do not want to minimize the conversation that is happening especially on the ground with our partners in the nonprofit world.
0:30:36
I have gotten calls as well.
0:30:39
It's it's kind of hard to to say this is going to happen when we haven't seen any evidence of it happening other than
Althea V. Stevens
0:30:47
So you guys didn't have call Other than
Keith Howard
0:30:48
confusion that happened a month or so ago when emails or whatever went out, but there has not been any impact to our knowledge of any of our programs as Navita Bailey stated.
Althea V. Stevens
0:31:04
So I'm confused because that's not what I'm hearing because it I'm hearing that you DYCD had a call with providers that this was happening, that this this was being cut and to say that it hasn't impacted them yet.
0:31:18
Okay.
0:31:18
The call was I I believe it was relatively this week.
0:31:21
So how are we preparing for what we said is happening because this is going to affect them?
Nevita Bailey
0:31:26
So chair Stevens, I'm gonna defer to deputy commissioner Haskell who can expand more on what is happening underground for the archway providers.
Althea V. Stevens
0:31:33
Alright.
0:31:33
Thank you.
Susan Haskell
0:31:35
Hi chair Stevens.
0:31:37
I mean you raise a good point.
0:31:39
I think what commissioner and our CFO are saying is this is a developing situation with federal funding.
0:31:46
It's not clear Navita mentioned uncertainty.
0:31:50
It's not clear exactly what the impact is gonna be.
0:31:53
We are aware there could be impact to federal fundings like Section eight, Housing Choice Vouchers for NYCHA and all the support housing opportunities that we seek out for young people in runaway homeless services.
0:32:06
We did flag for RHY providers this week that there could be challenges seeking support for housing assistance.
0:32:17
But at this time there's no impact to runaway and homeless services specifically and we will continue to seek out all stable housing opportunities for runaway and homeless who are you know in our programs.
Althea V. Stevens
0:32:29
Okay, this is why I get frustrated because planning for something that you told providers and having saying like okay we don't have the answers now but let's move forward to think about a plan.
0:32:42
That is all I'm asking.
0:32:44
I'm not asking what's the impact.
0:32:45
Obviously there's no impact because we said it happened this week, but there is gonna be an impact and so how are we planning for this cut?
0:32:54
I mean it's gonna happen so what does the plan look like?
0:32:57
Or you can say we haven't started planning yet but we are working on the plan but I think that to say like there's no impact and try to emphasize on that to me it is going to be impact.
0:33:06
It happened this week and so we can could acknowledge that there is going to be an impact.
Susan Haskell
0:33:12
Our communication with providers was flagging the potential for impact.
0:33:17
We still We don't really know what the impact is gonna be at this point.
0:33:22
We know there's a potential impact to federal funding on vouchers, but we really don't have certainty on what that's gonna be.
0:33:29
So we're flagging for them.
0:33:31
I believe we can share that there'll be a pause right now on housing choice vouchers, but that's not there's no cut necessarily that we're communicating.
0:33:40
We are still figuring out the full impact of the federal funding situation.
Keith Howard
0:33:45
So are
Althea V. Stevens
0:33:45
you guys looking to work with OMB to talk about the city FEPS voucher?