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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Naima Dahir, Advocate from Arab American Family Support Center
2:55:56
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3 min
Naima Dahir from the Arab American Family Support Center testified about the challenges faced by immigrant communities in accessing public benefits and social services. She highlighted the organization's work in providing culturally competent support and the bureaucratic barriers their clients encounter when applying for assistance.
- Detailed the AAFSC's role in helping clients enroll in various public benefit programs and the obstacles they face, including language barriers and long wait times.
- Emphasized the impact of recent federal policies on Muslim, Arab, Black, and South Asian communities, increasing reliance on trusted organizations like AAFSC.
- Expressed concern about funding shortfalls and urged the city council to address these challenges, supporting the introduction of new bills to improve the system.
Naima Dahir
2:55:56
Good afternoon chair Ayala and members of the committee on general welfare.
2:56:01
My name is Naima Dahir and I'm here with the Arab American Family Support Center.
2:56:06
The Arab American Family Support Center provides culturally and linguistically competent trauma informed multigenerational social services to the growing Arab Middle Eastern, North African, Muslim, and South Asian communities.
2:56:17
At AAFSC, we ensure that immigrants and communities of color receive support and services in culturally competent settings where our teams under their background and speak their languages, removing one of the biggest barriers to care.
2:56:31
We provide wraparound services including domestic violence case management, housing navigation, legal services, and food distribution, ensuring that community members would receive holistic support.
2:56:42
Our communities, health and well-being team has had thousands of clients annually in enrolling in public benefits such as the SNAP, cash assistance, one time emergency grants, heating and energy benefits, and health insurance, and New York City cares for individuals who do who do not qualify through New York State programs.
2:57:01
We conduct proactive outreach including pre screening events and application assistance to ensure clients access the resources and supports they need to apply.
2:57:09
Our clients face numerous bureaucratic barriers when applying for public benefits.
2:57:14
Clients struggle to track their application status, often receive unclear instructions about documents, they are not provided receipts confirming their submission, making it difficult to track progress.
2:57:26
Many face obstacles such as long wait times ranging from hours on the phones to entire days in person, language barriers and the need to reapply multiple times due to incomplete or lost paperwork.
2:57:39
At h sorry.
2:57:40
At HRA offices, our clients endure long lines and language barriers due to limited language access.
2:57:46
Clients attempting to schedule interviews or follow-up on their applications face further roadblocks and at times they are unable to get proper assistance to schedule interviews.
2:57:56
They run out of time to complete their application process.
2:58:00
I will quickly summarize the rest so I can get through this.
2:58:04
Under this current challenging backdrop, recent federal administration policies that also place our communities in immediate jeopardy, these policies disproportionately impact our Muslim, Arab, black, black, South Asian communities that we serve, and we're noticing that our communities are relying on us as trusted organizations even more right now more than ever.
2:58:26
At this moment, we
Diana Ayala
2:58:27
are
Naima Dahir
2:58:27
enhancing our outreach to ensure that our clients apply despite fear and other barriers.
2:58:33
These inefficiencies of the system take away valuable time away from our organizations who are already stretched in.
2:58:42
Funding freezes and delays are creating unprecedented certainty.
2:58:46
Our organization faces 1,100,000.0 shortfall amidst growing need.
2:58:51
So we really urge the city council to help alleviate these challenges.
2:58:55
We support the introduction of these bills, and thank you so much for allowing me to testify today.