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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Dr. Terry Troia, Executive Director of Project Hospitality, on Federal Funding Cuts Impact
1:57:17
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3 min
Dr. Terry Troia, representing Project Hospitality, Staten Island Hunger Task Force, and Supportive Housing Network of New York, testifies about the devastating impact of federal funding cuts on hunger, homelessness, and healthcare access in New York City, particularly in Staten Island.
- Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will result in increased hunger and lack of healthcare access, especially for disabled populations.
- Freezing of Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is devastating food pantry networks.
- FEMA funding cuts threaten homeless stabilization beds and street outreach programs, while HUD cuts may close 115 supportive apartments for homeless Staten Islanders.
Dr. Terry Troia
1:57:17
Hi.
1:57:17
I'm Terri Troya, I work with hungry and homeless people in Staten Island.
1:57:20
I'm also representing today the Staten Island Hunger Task Force and the Supportive Housing Network of New York.
1:57:26
The cuts to Medicaid and SNAP are the most devastating federal actions that our city faces, and that will result in massive hunger and lack of access to health care for people who depend on Medicaid, especially our disabled populations, and will increase illness untreated illness and unnecessary death for many, many New Yorkers.
1:57:47
As well, the cuts to Section eight and other HUD vouchers will lead to massive homelessness in our city.
1:57:52
Let's talk hunger first.
1:57:54
The federal government has frozen the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, EFSP, which provides funds to purchase emergency food, and TFAP, the Emergency Food Assistance Program, from the federal farm bill legislation, which provides buying power of basic foodstuffs for food pantries in New York City.
1:58:11
Buying power of foodstuffs like beans, pasta, rice, canned vegetables.
1:58:15
Nothing fancy like meat and milk.
1:58:17
These cuts are now devastating the city's emergency food pantry networks, including Project Hospitality, which provides 4,000,000, or 50% of the 8,000,000 emergency meals provided by pantries on Staten Island.
1:58:33
Now let's talk about homelessness.
1:58:35
FEMA funds stabilization beds for homeless people in the City Of New York, including on Staten Island.
1:58:42
FEMA funds homeless street outreach for all of the city's, five boroughs, including Staten Island, where we have two people twenty four hours a day that respond to 311 calls across Staten Island, including our South Shore, in order to address the needs of homeless people living in encampments on our streets.
1:58:59
SAMHSA cuts will affect us on Staten Island by eliminating a mental health one psychiatrist and one social worker program that we've had since 1992 that does mental health screening of all homeless people that come to our drop in center or through our outreach programs on Staten Island before they're placed in church based shelters.
1:59:18
We are still the only borough in the city of New York that has respite beds in churches, because we don't have we don't really have homeless beds for Staten Islanders.
1:59:27
HUD cuts in the continuum of care domain will threaten the closure of 115 supportive apartments for homeless Staten Islanders.
1:59:36
We were already ordered to close on March 14 '3 apartments by March 31, and we did it, and we moved people.
1:59:43
But where are we going to put the other 112 people who are disabled and formerly homeless Staten Islanders in our borough in the next months when we're told to close the rest of the units.
1:59:53
What neighborhoods will they settle in, and where will they set up their encampments?
1:59:57
Nobody asks these questions.
1:59:59
We are also dealing with federal cuts by creating and decimating hunger in our safety net.
2:00:07
We are creating federal cuts now that in in a time when we have the highest rent in New York City housing history and at the time when we have the highest number of homeless people on the streets of New York, including in the borough of Staten Island.
2:00:21
This is not humane.
2:00:24
It is not helpful.
2:00:26
It is not right, and we are putting the lives of the most vulnerable people in our city at risk for death.
2:00:32
The elimination of these federal dollars will result in profound human suffering, and we need to stop it.
Lincoln Restler
2:00:38
Thank you.