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Q&A
Council Member Ayala questions Commissioner Park on DHS budget and shelter census
1:03:33
·
5 min
Council Member Diana I. Ayala engages in a Q&A session with DSS Commissioner Molly Wasow Park regarding the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) budget and shelter census. They discuss the projected costs for non-asylum seekers, changes in shelter population, and reasons for shelter entry.
- The DHS budget for non-asylum seekers in FY26 is projected to be $2 billion, which is $500 million less than FY25.
- Non-asylum seeker shelter census has increased since the start of FY25, but is still about 3,000 people below pre-pandemic levels.
- Primary reasons for shelter entry include domestic violence and family discord, with formal evictions accounting for only about 4% of entries.
Diana I. Ayala
1:03:33
As of the executive plan, the budget for non asylum seekers shelter costs is approximately 2,000,000,000 in fiscal year twenty six and the out years which is over half a billion less than the 2,620,000,000.00 budgeted in fiscal year twenty five.
1:03:47
Does DHS realistically expect that non asylum seekers shelter costs will be over half a billion less next fiscal year and if not what is the projected cost and when will additional funding be added to the budget?
Molly Wasow Park
1:04:00
Thank you councilmember.
1:04:01
As I noted, it's something that we really look at you know week by week, day by day with OMB and to the extent that we need to add funds, that is something that we do.
1:04:14
We at OMB recognize that shelter is a mandated expense and we will adjust as we need to going forward.
Diana I. Ayala
1:04:23
While the sheltering of asylum seekers has dominated the public conversation over the past couple of years, the city has seen a steady increase in non asylum seeker shelter census.
1:04:33
How much has this non asylum seekers DHS shelter census increased since the start of fiscal year twenty five, and how does this vary across populations?
Molly Wasow Park
1:04:45
Unless any of my colleagues have that exact number, we may need to get back to you, but I can certainly put some context on the non asylum shelter census.
1:04:55
So at its peak in I think it was 2019 we were at about 61,000 individuals.
1:05:05
And we were able to manage that down somewhat so that we before the pandemic started we were maybe 59, something like that.
1:05:17
Much to my surprise the shelter census plummeted during the pandemic largely because families with children intake fell very sharply.
1:05:27
I will freely admit it is exactly the opposite of what I thought was going to happen.
1:05:31
I expected that when people were in a moment of stress and doubled up situations at home twenty four hours that they would come into the shelter system more, but I think the combination of people banding together during an emergency and even more importantly the federal income support that made it financially viable for people to stay in their homes really dropped intake.
1:05:51
So at the start of the administration the census was about 45,000 people, as I say really driven by that drop in intake during the pandemic.
1:06:03
We have climbed up since then.
1:06:05
We are still about 3,000 people below where we were at the start of the pandemic, so at about 56,000 give or take non asylum seekers in the DHS system.
1:06:18
So yes it is up, but I think it is some of the increases sort of a resumption to where we were before as opposed to an increase.
1:06:32
We have been very aggressively trying to connect people to subsidized exits.
1:06:38
In calendar year 'twenty four we moved about 16,500 households, so more than that on people from shelter into subsidized exits.
1:06:49
That was a 38% increase from where we were the previous year.
1:06:53
So we are really, really focused on helping people connect back to permanent housing, but what I think we're also seeing is that there is high need in the community.
1:07:03
So intake remains strong across all populations.
1:07:08
And so because of that although we have really had these terrific exit numbers, what we've done is slow the rate of growth as opposed to actually reduce the shelter census as much as I would like, but we're not done yet.
1:07:23
We're gonna keep trying.
Diana Ramos
1:07:24
Do you keep track of how many people that are
Diana I. Ayala
1:07:26
coming into the system are coming in because they've been evicted?
Molly Wasow Park
1:07:31
Yeah, we do look at reasons for homelessness.
1:07:34
The data are better on the families with children side than they are for single adults.
1:07:41
People coming in as a result of formal eviction is relatively low.
1:07:45
It's about 10%.
1:07:47
That's actually a pre asylum number because the asylum numbers sort of inflate the denominator.
1:07:54
So right now it's only about four percent.
1:08:00
The two primary drivers for shelter entry on the families with children's side are domestic violence and relatively what we call discord and what that typically looks like is relatively young people who have been living with family and a baby or a second baby just adds one too many people to the household, that puts a lot of strain on them and they enter the shelter system.
1:08:30
But in many of those cases the head of household that is coming to the shelter system has never had a lease of their own.