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Q&A
Council member Stevens questions Safe Horizon representative about voucher program changes
6:13:47
ยท
137 sec
Council Member Stevens engages in a Q&A session with Sebastian Vante from Safe Horizon about recent changes to the voucher program for youth housing. Stevens expresses concern about conflicting information received from DYCD earlier in the hearing.
- Vante clarifies that providers were given a short notice to refer clients through the NYCHA portal for HCV vouchers before it closes.
- The discussion highlights the urgent need for alternative housing resources for young people, such as city FEPS vouchers.
- Stevens emphasizes the importance of this clarification, noting discrepancies between what was said in the hearing and what providers were told.
Althea V. Stevens
6:13:47
you.
6:13:47
And you did not do the 20 off off five seconds.
6:13:51
Now I'm just playing.
6:13:52
Guys, I'm sorry.
6:13:53
I'm tired.
6:13:53
So I get a little silly at the end, but I'm happy you brought up the voucher thing because as you heard today in the questioning with DYCD, they made it seem like I was making it up around the meeting that they had with providers around losing the vouchers and NYCHA access.
6:14:10
And so if you don't mind sharing, you can tell us a little bit more details about what was expressed to you because I felt like what was expressed to me was different than what they said today in the hearing.
6:14:20
So I just would love some clarity, very succinctly too.
Sebastien Vante
6:14:23
I'll try to be quick, but there's a standing meeting that we always have with DYCD around housing related to vouchers.
6:14:30
And in that meeting that we had yesterday, it was told to us that initially, it was told to us that we had until 04:30 that day to refer folks through the NYCHA portal for HCV.
6:14:44
Know, we really pushed back, and they gave us an extension until today, 5PM.
6:14:49
But it was such a last minute thing and right now, why a lot of my colleagues are not here today is because we're
Althea V. Stevens
6:14:55
Trying to get
Daniel Guillen
6:14:56
young people we're doing out people in.
Sebastien Vante
6:14:57
We're trying to get young folks in because we don't know how long the portal will be closed or what are other options, which is why we're really urging the city council to really lean on getting us access to the city of VEPS vouchers because EHV seems to be running gonna be running out January 2026.
6:15:17
You know, there's not many rapid rehousing programs that have vacancies.
Rita C. Joseph
6:15:21
Mhmm.
Sebastien Vante
6:15:21
So, like, what other resources do our young people have to connect to housing?
6:15:26
So we're really concerned about that.
6:15:29
We're doing our best.
6:15:30
We're we're we're
Althea V. Stevens
6:15:30
But we're all concerned about it.
6:15:32
And again, I'm happy you brought it up because again, what you're saying, what I heard, and what was said here are all very different because it was said that that was not happening and that they were just alerting you guys and not that it was actually happened.
6:15:46
So thank you for being able to clarify that for us on the record because I am very concerned about this because I got a bunch of frantic text messages and calls yesterday after that meeting because of what you guys were told and so let's continue to have conversations because this is something that we do need to find a solution for.
6:16:04
So thank you.