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Q&A
Council Member Ayala questions Commissioner Park on city FHEPS funding and program efficiency
1:31:43
·
3 min
Council Member Diana I. Ayala inquires about the funding and administrative barriers of the city FHEPS (Family Homelessness & Eviction Prevention Supplement) program. Commissioner Molly Wasow Park responds by detailing the Department of Social Services' efforts to improve the program's efficiency and effectiveness, including operational improvements and increased exits from shelters to subsidized housing.
- Park highlights a 38% increase in households exiting shelters to subsidized placements
- The agency implemented a four-prong work plan to streamline city FHEPS operations
- Automation of administrative processes has significantly reduced processing times from one week to 24 hours
Diana I. Ayala
1:31:43
And as part of the fiscal year fiscal twenty six preliminary budget response, the council called on the administration to add 25,000,000 to address city feps administrative barriers and to provide funding to address the chronic under budgeting of the city feps baseline.
1:31:57
However the additional funding was included in the executive plan for either proposal.
1:32:02
The call to address the under budgeting of the baseline has been raised in the past and continues to be a concern to the council given the actual spending last year and this year we are, are we well above the budget in fiscal year fiscal year '26 and beyond or is HRA advocating for an increase to the baseline budget?
Molly Wasow Park
1:32:20
So certainly our FY twenty five spending is greater than the FY twenty six baseline.
1:32:24
We're working very closely with OMB and we'll realign as needed.
1:32:29
With respect to the operational, I do think we have taken very significant steps internally to make sure that we are operating possible.
1:32:43
And the numbers really bear us out.
1:32:45
I talked about the really significant increase in growth in the program, the increase in the number of people exiting shelter with city feps, and I think that is very much due to the fact that we have really as an agency come together to focus on city FEPs operations.
1:33:01
We have a four prong work plan that we meet on regularly that is very much for exiting households out of shelter.
1:33:09
We focus on getting vouchers into people's hands, making sure that anybody who is possibly eligible for a voucher has access to one.
1:33:16
We think about housing supply.
1:33:18
It's not traditionally the role of the social service agency to think about housing supply, but in a city with a 1.4% vacancy rate, if we don't, people aren't moving, so we do that.
1:33:28
The third work stream is making sure that our providers have all the tools that they need to operate as efficiently as possible.
1:33:37
So that has been training.
1:33:39
It has been creating new materials.
1:33:42
We have now what we call our concierge team where we are sending DHS staff out to some of the shelters that seem to be struggling and really embedding them in the shelter for four weeks at a time to try and help them improve their move out numbers, and then making sure that our processes are as streamlined internally as possible.
1:34:02
So to give an example there, one of the things that we do before somebody moves out with city feps is we check all the administrative records.
1:34:10
Does the building have violations?
1:34:12
Is it owned by the person who claims to own it?
1:34:14
Things like that.
1:34:15
And our staff used to do all of that manually.
1:34:18
Literally they'd go on the HPD website and then the DOB website, and it took a really long time.
1:34:24
We've now automated pieces of that and it has gone from a process that took a week to a process that takes twenty four hours.
1:34:33
So there are dozens and dozens of projects that lead up to that, but I think the bottom line is, as I mentioned earlier, a 38% increase in the number of households exiting shelter to subsidize placement because we have been looking across agency at everything that we need to do.
1:34:53
So appreciate the council's advocacy for agency resources, but I also think we are very much making progress there.
Diana I. Ayala
1:35:02
I appreciate that.
1:35:04
I'm gonna allow for my colleagues to ask questions, know, just take into consideration that they have other places to be, and then I will come back around.