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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Christopher Hanway, Executive Director of Jacob A. Reiss Neighborhood Settlement, on Late Payments to Human Service Providers
4:13:28
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143 sec
Christopher Hanway, Executive Director of Jacob A. Reiss Neighborhood Settlement, testifies about the ongoing crisis of late contract payments from New York City agencies, particularly DYCD and DFTA. He emphasizes the severe impact on his organization's operations and the broader implications for the nonprofit sector.
- Reiss Neighborhood Settlement is currently owed over $600,000 in overdue payments, with almost half for services provided in the previous fiscal year.
- The late payments consume significant time and energy from staff, diverting resources from program development and community engagement.
- Hanway criticizes the reliance on "advances," noting that these are not true advances but delayed payments that still need to be recouped.
Christopher Hanway
4:13:28
Good afternoon, chair Juan, chair Stevens, and no other community committee members right now.
4:13:34
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to testify today.
4:13:37
My name is Christopher Hanway, and I'm the executive director of Jacob A.
4:13:40
Reiss Neighborhood Settlement, a 136 old community based organization that provides holistic, multigenerational services to the residents of public housing in Western Queens.
4:13:50
We are proud to be represented by council member and contracts chair Juan in the council, and we are very grateful for the work that she, chair Stevens, and others here today continue to do to alleviate the situation around late contract registration and payment in our city.
4:14:05
Yet the problem persists and appears to be getting worse because the executive branch over several administrations simply is not taking this crisis seriously enough.
4:14:14
Resettlement is currently owed over 600,000 in overdue payments from our two primary government funders, DYCD and DFTA, and almost half of these funds are for services provided in the previous year, FY '20 '4.
4:14:28
While this might seem like a small amount compared to some of our larger colleagues, it is important to note that about a month ago that amount was almost $1,000,000, and keep in mind that the amount in question is a significant percentage of our overall budget of $8,000,000.
4:14:43
Combine that with the almost quarter of a million dollars owed to us by our New York State partners and the crisis has compounded further.
4:14:50
In addition to affecting how we work with community, I'd like to highlight some of the lesser known dilemmas that this situation puts us in.
4:14:58
First is the human capital that is expended by myself, our contracts manager, our fiscal team, and our program leaders in trying to collect these funds through emails, phone calls, conversations, outreach to our elected officials for assistance, etcetera.
4:15:12
This consumes time and energy that we should be devoting to strategic program development, evaluation and improvement of programs, deepening ties with community, and in my case, private funds.
4:15:24
Second is the reliance on quote unquote advances.
4:15:27
We have spent countless hours employing funders for addition two minutes already?
4:15:31
For additional sir for additional advances.
4:15:34
And as many have said, the advances are not advances because this is money we should have had long ago, and those advances have to be recouped just as just as much as the initial advances.
4:15:46
So I'll stop there, but there's more in my submitted testimony.
4:15:49
I clearly read way too slowly.
4:15:50
Thank you very much.