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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Tierra Labrada, Policy Director of Supportive Housing Network of New York
3:26:31
·
152 sec
Tierra Labrada, Policy Director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York, testified in strong support of Intro 1100, which aims to redefine chronic homelessness criteria for supportive housing eligibility. She argued that the current system excludes many formerly incarcerated individuals from accessing supportive housing, leading to increased homelessness and higher costs for the city.
- Labrada emphasized that jail time should not disqualify individuals from being considered chronically homeless, as it is not a home.
- She highlighted the cost-effectiveness of supportive housing ($41,500-$55,000 per year) compared to incarceration at Rikers Island ($400,000 per year).
- Labrada criticized the current eligibility criteria for supportive housing as overly complex and exclusionary, calling for simplified and more accessible criteria.
Tierra Labrada
3:26:31
Wow, Lily.
3:26:32
I don't know if I can follow that either.
3:26:33
You and miss Helen.
3:26:34
I don't know.
3:26:35
I don't know what to do.
3:26:35
What am I even doing here?
3:26:37
Hi, chair nurse and members of the committee.
3:26:39
My name is Tara Laradham, the policy director for the Supportive Housing Network of New York.
3:26:42
We are a membership organization representing the nonprofit that develop and operate supportive housing across the city.
3:26:47
Sometimes I like to go off script, but I am going to actually, like, really read my testimony here.
3:26:52
One, we'd like to thank you and the committee for your commitment to addressing injustices to current and formerly incarcerated New Yorkers through your judicial investments, closing Rikers, and the legislation being heard today.
3:27:04
I am also here in strong support of Intro eleven hundred.
3:27:06
New York City has the power to redefine what counts as chronic homelessness in our own programs, and we are choosing not to.
3:27:13
That choice has real human consequences.
3:27:16
As Lily just spat it off all of the data, every year, thousands of New Yorkers leave incarceration with nowhere to go, and many are homeless before they are jailed, but because they were held for over ninety days, their homelessness status disqualifying them from supportive housing.
3:27:29
That is an arbitrary number, by the way, ninety days, set by the federal government.
3:27:35
That's not just a technicality.
3:27:37
That's an act of exclusion, and we're paying for it twice.
3:27:39
First, in the cost of incarceration and again when people are forced into shelters to prove their homelessness.
3:27:45
And let's be clear, jail is not a home.
3:27:48
As you've heard all day, the cost for incarcerating someone on Rikers is about $400,000 That's a costly and traumatic institution, and you've also heard firsthand from Ms.
3:27:58
Helen how stabilizing supportive housing is stabilizing and cost effective.
3:28:03
Under NYC Fifteen Fifteen, the investment, because it is an investment, in a single adult is $17,500 for services and somewhere about $2,000 a month for rent.
3:28:14
That's just about $41,500 or, you know, up to $55,000 if you also heard.
3:28:24
And I know I'm running out of time.
3:28:25
And let's also be clear.
3:28:26
I just want to mention that the proposal and RFP addendum that was introduced by our HRE today is still very exclusionary and will force people into homelessness instead of capturing their vulnerability pre release.
3:28:38
Supportive housing currently has 46 different eligibility criteria, now 47 according to HRA, across 19 different programs overseen by eight different government agencies.
3:28:47
It's already too hard to access, and instead of pretzling ourselves into all of these different eligibility criteria, we need to actually be flattening eligibility and making it easier to access.
3:28:58
We also cannot use scarcity as a justification for not allowing people into supportive housing.
3:29:02
We need to invest.
3:29:03
Okay, thank you.