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Q&A
Council Member Ayala questions Commissioner Park about shelter funding in the budget
1:01:37
·
115 sec
Council Member Diana I. Ayala inquires about the additional funding for non-asylum seekers shelter costs in the fiscal year 2025 budget and the lack of similar funding for fiscal year 2026. Commissioner Molly Wasow Park explains the challenges in projecting shelter costs and the process of adjusting the budget in real-time with OMB.
- The executive plan includes an additional $99.8 million of city funding for FY 2025 shelter costs, but no additional funding for FY 2026 or out years.
- Commissioner Park highlights the variability in shelter spending due to changes in utilization and hotel usage.
- The Department of Social Services works closely with OMB to align the budget as needs arise, with daily contact to make necessary adjustments.
Diana I. Ayala
1:01:37
In our in our fiscal twenty twenty six budget response, the council called on the administration to align the baseline budget for non asylum seekers shelter costs with the fiscal year twenty twenty five funding level.
1:01:49
At the time we estimated that that would require an additional 537,100,000.0.
1:01:54
The executive plan includes an additional 99,800,000.0 of city funding for fiscal year twenty five for those costs but no additional funding was added for fiscal year twenty six or the out years.
1:02:06
Why was additional funding needed in fiscal year twenty five and how was that funding amount determined?
Molly Wasow Park
1:02:14
So projecting shelter costs can be very challenging given the changes in utilization, different trends that we see, the extent to which we're using hotels versus contracted shelters.
1:02:28
So we do work very closely with OMB to make essentially real time changes to the budget as needed.
1:02:33
So there were some additional funds needed for FY '25 which as you noted were added during the executive plan and we will continue to adjust the budget for FY '26 working closely with OMB.
Diana I. Ayala
1:02:46
Do you know which population this funding supports?
1:02:50
No, this was general across the board needs.
1:02:54
Okay.
1:02:55
Why was the funding added for fiscal twenty five only in the executive plan?
1:02:59
Do you anticipate additional funding will be provided for '26?
Molly Wasow Park
1:03:03
We will work closely with OMB to align the budget to as needs appear.
1:03:09
As I say, there's some substantial variation in the shelter spending depending on census and depending A particular driver of costs is our hotel utilization.
1:03:21
We have been able to close some hotels recently, so that may help us to some degree with managing the budget, but we work we are in daily contact with OMB and we'll adjust it as needed.