Um preliminary budget hearing for the committee on general welfare. Please signs all cell phone electronic devices. Moving forward, no one is to approach the day. There are no food or beverage in the chambers. If you wish to participate in today's hearing, please fill out an appearance card with the sergeant-at-arms. Any other questions, reach out to us. Thank you for joining me for the fiscal 2027 preliminary budget hearing for the General Welfare Committee. We'll hear from two agencies, the Human Resources Administration, HRA, and the Department of Homeless Services, DHS, testifying under the umbrella of the Department of Social Services, DSS. The city's proposed fiscal 2027 preliminary budget totals 127 billion, of which 19.26 billion or 15.2% 2% funds DSS, making the second largest agency budget after DOE. This encompasses 14.62 billion for HA and $4.63 billion for DHS. DSS serves some of the most vulnerable populations in the city, and these services are more vital now than ever. There were notable changes made in the preliminary plan for both agencies. HR saw $2.63 63 billion in new needs which are largely cityf funed added in fiscal 2027. The majority of that funding is going towards fully funding the baseline for city feeps and cash assistance which the council has long pushed for. I was very happy to see the preliminary plan increased baseline funding for community food connections H's food pantry support program to $74.5 million in fiscal 2027 and the outy years. DHS has 90 had 90 $9 935.8 million in city funded new needs in fiscal 2027 including baseline funding increases for shelters and street homeless outreach. Street homeless individuals are amongst the most vulnerable New Yorkers and the procarity of their situation only grows as climate change makes extreme weather more common. I look forward to working with the administration on effectively addressing the needs of this population while maintaining a balanced budget. I'm particularly concerned about DHS's high vacancy rate, which was 27% as of January. DHS cannot adequately perform its responsibilities without the social workers and administrators required to operate its shelters and intake sites or those doing outreach on the streets of New York in Arctic temperatures. It must prioritize hiring vacant positions and reducing its attrition rate. I'm also concerned that the recent mandate for agencies to reduce half their vacancies will impact DHS's ability to maintain its current level of services at a time when they're more needed than ever. I'm concerned that the recent mandate for agencies to reduce half their vacancies will impact DHS's ability to maintain its current level of services. savings mandate coupled with the current federal funding threats places DSS in a more vulnerable position. Under prior administration, savings mandates have included exceptions made for frontline workers and other essential staff that support shelter and benefits assistance programs, which make up much of DSS's staffing. I'm also concerned about the areas where the budget does not adequately support the essential programs administered by HA and the necessary level of staffing required to provide clients with services in a timely manner. While HA has made headway on their backlog of SNAP and cash assistance applications, denial rates have increased, which is troubling. We have still been hearing that it is very difficult to get through to HR by phone and that clients are experiencing very long wait times at HRA centers. HR1, the major federal spending bill passed by Congress last year, reduces federal support for administrative and benefit costs of SNAP. New York State may choose to pass on a portion of these costs to the city, directly impacting HA's expense budget. While the preliminary plan adds 183 SNAP eligibility specialist positions with an aim to improve the city's SNAP payment error rate, there is a growing concern over staff retention and lack of institutional knowledge with both which both have a direct impact on agency operations, client service, and benefits processing time. The changes to SNAP from HR1 not only impact the city's expense budget, but also would impose a greater burden on individuals and families in need in a city where one in five New Yorkers are receiving SNAP benefits. While the budget maintains the essential benefits programs administered by HA and the shelter programs administered by DHS, we need to think more deeply about where we can most effectively allocate our limited city resources, especially during these uniquely challenging times. DHS's shelter census continues to grow. At the end of February, there were over 85,000 individuals in DHS shelters, nearly a third of them asylum seekers. While shelter exists, while shelter exits to permanent housing did increase in fiscal 2025, so did the shelter census and the process for subsidized housing placements must be accelerated in order to significantly decrease the number of people living in our city's shelter system. Programs such as city feeps are more important than ever and the best way to move long-term shelter residents into stable permanent housing. However, this program suffers from numerous process bottlenecks on top of the difficulty of finding affordable housing in a very expensive city. In today's hearing, we would look forward to discussing adjustments made in the preliminary plan, staffing for benefits administration and shelters, SNAP cost risks and cost shifts as a result of HR1, and the metrics included in the fiscal 2026 preliminary mayor's management report. It is the council's job to carefully review the budgets and operations of city agencies to ensure that we are good stewards of public dollars and that we are providing our city's most vulnerable residents with the services they need. This is a job I take very seriously. Before I welcome the commissioner, I would like to acknowledge my colleagues who are here today, council members, Sanchez, and Morano. Finally, I would like to thank the general welfare committee staff for their work on preparing this hearing. Farha Raman, financial analyst. Elizabeth Childers Garcia, financial analyst. Julia Heramis, assistant director. Amena Kilawan, assistant deputy director. Panina Rosenberg, senior policy analyst. Justin Campos, policy analyst. and my chief of staff, Andrew Wright. And now, Commissioner Dalton, our council, will swear you in. >> Now, in accordance with the rules of the council, I will administer the affirmation to the witnesses from the mayoral administration. Would you all please raise your right hand? Commissioner Dalton, do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in your testimony before this committee and to respond honestly to council member questions? >> H administrator Scott French. I do. >> DHS interim administrator Christine Fellini, >> DSS Chief Program Performance and Financial Officer Richard Johns. >> I do. >> And DSS Chief Strategy Officer Chris Gonzalez. Thank you. You may begin when ready. >> Good morning. I want to thank Chairperson Hudson and the members of the general welfare committee for holding today's hearing and for the opportunity to testify about the Department of Social Services fiscal year 2027 preliminary budget. My name is Aaron Dalton, Commissioner of New York City's Department of Social Services. DSS is made up of both the Human Resources Administration, HA, and the Department of Homeless Services, DHS. So accordingly, I'm joined by my colleagues HR H administrator Scott French, DHS interim administrator Christine Fellini, as well as DSS Chief Program Performance and Financial Officer Richard John's and DSS Chief Strategy Officer Chris Gonzalez. Collectively, we represent the approximately 14,000 hardworking staff who dedicate their lives to supporting New Yorkers living at or below the poverty line. Before I get begin, I would like to share my excitement and gratitude in assuming the position of as commissioner of DSS. In my former post as the director of Alageney County, Pennsylvania, that's Pittsburgh, Department of Human Services, I was focused on strengthening families and communities through a broad network of community- based programs that prevent harm and address critical needs in housing and homelessness in senior services, child welfare, behavioral health, and developmental supports. I look forward to working in partners partnership with Speaker Menon, Chair Hudson, and the rest of the city council to deliver the vital benefits and services to the city's most vulnerable populations. Today, I will provide an overview of the FY27 preliminary budgets for and for both agencies and highlight the programs and services supported by those resources. DSS is the largest local government social services agency in the country comprised of the human resources administration HR and the department of homeless services DHS. The consolidated management structure and shared vision of DA DSS together provide an integrated continuum of client services to over three million New Yorkers every day. Our efforts to create a financial path to financial and social sustainability for low-income New Yorkers are rooted in the following three pillars. First, streamlining access to social services, second addressing homelessness and housing instability, and third creating economic stability. We will refer back to these three pillars throughout our testimony. I will begin by providing an overview of the HA DHS FY27 preliminary budgets. HRA is is dedicated to fighting poverty and income inequality, providing essential benefits including cash assistance, nutrition, nutrition and food programs, public health insurance, employment and transportation services, as well as access to housing, homeless prevention, and emergency assistance. HA helps more than three million New Yorkers annually through the administration of more than 15 major public benefits programs with a budgeted headcount of approximately 12,500. The FY26 budget for HR is 14.22 billion including 11.3 billion in city funds. The majority over 70% HR city funds budget is earmarked for benefits that the city administers on behalf of New York state. Almost 98% of HA city funded budget includes budget provides direct benefits and support to actual New Yorkers including first cash assistance benefits for which benefit levels and eligibility rules are set by state law and regulation. Second Medicaid which includes home care, managed care, mental health, substance use services and hospital care and is also administered by the state. Though the city pays a portion of Medicaid costs out of the city funds representing 56% of the city funded budget and H sends these funds directly to the state to be used alongside other state and federal funds to pay medical providers and managed care plans. And third, the remainder of the budget, 16% goes to public assistance, 17% to rental assistance and homelessness prevention, 2% for administration, 3% for legal services, 2% for HIV AIDS administration or HASSA, and 1% for employment services, community food connections, domestic violence services. HR also administers the SNAP supplemental nutrition assistance program for 1.7 million clients. These fedally funded benefits, which are about five billion a year, do not flow through our budget, but they represent another critical benefit that HA is mandated to provide. H also administers another over 50 billion in state and federal funds supporting NYC Medicaid clients, which are not part of the city budget. Also note that the DSS budget for administration covers shared services for both HR and DHS. Now, I will provide an overview of the DHS budget. DHS is committed to providing safe temporary shelter, connecting New Yorkers experiencing homelessness to permanent housing, and addressing unsheltered homelessness. DHS has an FY26 budget of 4.4 billion, of which 3.5 billion is city funds. The agency has an headcount of approximately 2200 and with its notfor-profit partners, is the largest municipal organization to addressing homelessness in the United States. Almost 97% of the DHS budget supports shelter for families and individuals and services for the unsheltered, including outreach and low barrier beds. The DHS budget is broken out as follows. In FY26, 1.3 billion for adult shelter, 1.27 billion for family shelter, 456 million for street street outreach services, and the remaining 4% is for general administration. In the FY27 preliminary budget, this administration is continuing to make investments in our critical programs with over 3.1 billion added in baseline funding, including for the city FAPS rental assistance program, cash assistance, DHS shelters, food assistance programs, affordable housing services, additional additional services to support New Yorkers experiencing street homelessness, and support for our nonprofit partners. As I've highlighted in my testimony, DSS, H and DHS budgets are significantly relying on federal dollars. And importantly, the three million people we serve rely on those those benefits from the federal government. Enacted in July of 2025, the federal budget reconciliation bill na known as HR1 significantly changed both SNAP and Medicaid in ways that will directly affect New York City residents who rely on these programs to make meet basic needs. The law expands work requirements for SNAP and Medicaid, increases administrative reporting requirements, and reduces federal funding while shifting more costs to the states. As a result, many eligible individuals will lose access to food assistance or healthcare coverage due to stricter eligibility rules or paperwork barriers rather than changes in income or need. For a city like New York, where millions rely on SNAP to afford groceries, and depend on Medicaid for healthare, these changes will increase increase food insecurity, lead to loss of health coverage and place additional strain on local safety net providers such as hospitals, community health centers, and food banks. Under HR1, the definition of able-bodied adults without dependence or ABODs in SNAP expanded from ages 18 to 54 to ages 18 to 64 and now applies to adult without a child under age 14 where it had previously been 18. The law also removes several exemptions including for veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and young adults who aged out of foster care. Abods must complete at least 80 hours of training, 80 hours per month of work, job training, or volunteer activities to receive SNAP for more than three months in a three-year period. New York had a statewide waiver from ABOD for the time limits for many years, but that waiver expired February 28th, 2026. The new rules took effect March 1st, 2026 when ABODs in New York City began needing to meet the 80hour monthly work requirement. The three-month time limit clock began March 2026, meaning individuals who do not meet the requirement could start losing SNAP benefits in June 2026 after their three allowable months. Since the passes of H since the passage of HR1, HR has embarked on an aggressive outreach campaign to raise awareness of the impending impact of these new rules on SNAP recipients in New York City. Along with repeated direct outreach to the almost 120,000 identified clients, we have conducted dozens of information seminars and trainings to community organizations and partners including elected officials. We have also ampli amplified awareness through a variety of public media outlet outlets to ensure clients have ample opportunity to connect with us to mitigate any impacts of the new eligibility criteria on SNAP recipients. If you or anyone you know is a SNAP recipient and is not yet engaged with HRA, please encourage them to connect with us immediately through access HRA. Turning to cash assistance in the preliminary budget, FY26 budget for cash assistance is 2.76 billion to support a case load of 595,000 recipients through June 2025. H issued emergency rep payments to cover 52,000 households in FY25 along with SNAP and cash assistance. H continues to support New Yorkers with other key benefits including but certainly certainly not limited to Medicaid fairs and HEAP. With regard to Medicaid, I cannot stress enough the the automatic Medicaid extensions have ended. Clients must reertify in order to keep their health insurance. We are working to ensure that everyone who remains eligible for Medicaid receives ongoing benefits. Please continue to remind all of your eligible constituents to renew. In collaboration with council, we expanded Fairfair's eligibility to 50% of the federal p poverty level in 2025. There are currently 389,400 New Yorkers enrolled in the Fairfires program. Please continue to encourage New Yorkers to submit for benefits as soon as possible. With regard to HEAP, DSS continues its collaboration with the state to provide heating and cooling benefits to New Yorkers. In 2025, over 900,000 New York City households received HEAP, heating, and/or cooling benefits. Keeping keeping New Yorkers in their homes, moving families and individuals out of shelter, and helping these households remain stably housed are all primary goals for the agency. And now I want to talk about our progress in these areas. First, I would like to provide a quick update on our DHS shelter population. As of March 6th, the overall DHS census was 85,471 people. Of the 85,000, approximately 55,000 are families made up with children and their adult parents and caregivers. And children make up 35% or more than a third of all the people in shelter. The remaining population are made up of adult men, about 18,000, single women, about 7,000, and adult families 4,900. In New York City, 97% of people experiencing homelessness are sheltered. But that 3% is an area of particular focus. DHS continues to aggressively expand low barrier bed capacity, which are shelter types targeted to those experiencing unshel sheltered homelessness like safe havens and stabilization beds. As of as of March 2026, DHS had a total of 4290 for 4,290 low barrier beds online, 300 of which may May Mayor Mandani accelerated to be available during the recent cold snap. We expect an additional 350 safe haven beds to come online before the end of the year. In conjunction with these low barrier bed contributions, on February 18th, Mayor Mamdani announced a revised unhoused encampment response policy that shifts primary responsibility for encampment engagement for those experiencing unsheltered homelessness from NYPD to the Department of Homeless Services. Under the new protocol, DHS is now the lead agency responsible for issuing notices, conducting outreach, and offering placements with DSNY conducting cleanups, and NYPD present only as needed for safety support. The policy emphasizes daily outreach during the notice period with DHS teams returning consistently to offer shelter placements, safe haven beds, and connections to services. The administration has committed approximately $30 million in baseline funding for DHS outreach expansion and 11.9 million for NYC health and hospitals to support increased street medicine and behavioral health engagement. This includes 66 additional DHS staff which will be primarily outreach workers, expanded street outreach and wellness units, show units, and an additional bridge to home site for individuals with serial serious mental illness. DSS remains committed to connecting New Yorkers to permanent housing and keeping them stably housed. DSS has seen record increases in the number of permanent housing placements. In calendar year 2025, nearly 17,000 households comprised of nearly 36,000 New Yorkers were able to obtain permanent housing or stay in their homes using City FEPS vouchers, reflecting a 17% increase year-over-year. Through our homebased homeless prevention services, more than 20,000 households or 52,000 New Yorkers remained in their homes and more than 13,000 households or 33,000 New Yorkers received afterare from home base to keep them stably housed. Now for the excuse me, now for the third pillar, creating economic stability. We recognize that more and more New Yorkers rely on our city's resources to make ends meet. In addition to the public benefits, rental assistance, and other essential resources we offer to help get people back on their feet, HRA, career services, and other supports enable New Yorkers to secure steady income and live sustainable lives. A good paying job is a key component to a stable, economically independent life, and HR offers a wide array of career services programs to help low-income New Yorkers find and obtain a career that works for them. In FY25, the AY's career services program continued to raise the bar, helping nearly 22,000 low-income New Yorkers obtain employment. That's an increase of over 170% compared to FY24 and the most placement since the onset of the CO 19 pandemic. Additionally, 10,500 public benefits recipients were connected to employment through H's business link hired NYC program. A 28% increase over the prior fisc fiscal year and a new record for the program. The pink program, which advances training, education, and job placements, enrolled about 2400 individuals in construction and industrial training with 1330 completion so far. We also have placed over a thousand individuals to jobs of which 900 were unionized positions. Going forward, we continued to invest in our career services program. The pathways for access to careers and employment or PACE contracts began October 25 using the centralized no wrong door program model with locations throughout the burrows. These programs first streamlize and minimize travel burdens, maximize access to all employment, support and services, and foster strong client relationships. Second, establish an in- demand occupation and sector focused approach that connects clients to skilled professions that offer family sustaining wages. And third, utilize labor market data to assist clients in gaining marketable skills for success and advancement in their careers. Um and lastly, streamline process for vendors offering a hybrid approach to engaging clients. I will close by underscoring our ongoing commitment to break down government silos and improve access to services. The challenge that the challenges that DH DSS, H DHS work to confront, bridge across agencies and further bridge across jurisdictional boundaries. Overcoming these kinds of challenges goes to the heart of creating the kind of caring, compassionate communities we seek to live in. We appreciate the opportunity to testify today and we welcome any questions you may have. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Commissioner. And I would like to officially welcome you um to your role. We're excited to have you and look forward to your leadership. I'd also like to uh state for the record that we've been joined by Council Member Mey. Um okay, so we'll we'll get right into it. On January 29th of this year, the mayor issued an executive order requiring every agency to appoint a chief savings officer. The order required the CSOS to identify city funds savings of 1 and a.5% in fiscal 2026 and 2 and a half% in fiscal 2027 at all mayoral agencies. Under prior administrations, there have been exceptions made for frontline workers and other essential staff that support shelter and benefits assistance programs, which make up much of DSS's staffing. Are any programs or aspects of HA or DHS's budgets exempt from this requirement? And if so, which ones? >> I I will be relying on my colleagues here as a just a note to note the second second week on the on the ground in the job. So, I'd love to turn that over to Chief Johns. Yes, thank you. Um, yes, the, um, calculations for the targets does exclude critical and essential also mandated programs. So, um, you know, we're still working out the exact targets, but for the most part, I shouldn't say that in in its entirety and as the mayor announced as part of the initiative, no services will be cut. >> Okay. No services will be cut. Could you share which programs and services specifically that may be or you're saying? >> Yeah, I mean all of them >> it would include things like cash assistance, SNAP, um you know the city's contributions for Medicaid um uh and uh all of those like sorts of mandated programs. Okay. Um I don't have the exact information with in front of me, but we'll certainly, you know, we expect to submit this in the 20th. We will be on time. We will meet the targets and we'll be able to share at that time. >> Great. Thank you. The agencies were also instructed to provide a plan to eliminate half of all existing vacancies. As part of this mandate, agencies were required to determine which positions would be retained and which removed from the baseline budget prior to the release of the executive plan. Currently, while HR and DHS have the highest vacancy rates seen since 2023 at 13 and a half% for HRA and 27% for DHS, there's still a need for increased staffing for direct client services, especially related to the administration of benefit programs. Will H or DHS be required to eliminate any of its vacancies, and if so, how many and for which types of positions? >> Yes. Um, I'll go ahead and take that one as well. Thank you for that question. Um like the savings proposals um not all positions will be subject to the 50% reduction. Um we are again you know working very closely and we really uh value our partnership with the office of management and budget to ensure here again that um we're minimizing impacts and ensuring that New Yorkers um don't lose access to vital services. Um so we um yes we will be reducing some number of our vacancies. It will be 50% of those eligible positions again which we're working out. Um though >> you said sorry you said it will be 50% of eligible positions. >> Yes it it yeah that it will be but again it's not going to be all city funded positions. Um we are working very closely with OM to determine which positions will be um impacted. Again the the positions that um are in mandated programs uh will largely be exempt. Do you know which programs? >> Um, you know, again, that that I don't have with me and I don't think we've fully decided which uh programs will be exempt, but things like C, you know, where you see city funded positions and things like SNAP or cash assistance or Medicaid, you know, entitlement programs, those positions should largely be exempt. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, let's move to HR1 SNAP cost shifts. So HR1 reduced federal support for states SNAP costs from 50% to 25% starting in October 2026. We know the state anticipates this will result in an additional $24 million in annual expenditure statewide. OTDA has indicated that the state will cover $36 million of this cost and shift the burden for the remaining 168 million to localities with 111 million shifted to the city. Have you had any conversations with the state partners about the state fully covering this funding in the enacted fiscal 2027 state budget rather than shifting the burden to the city and localities? >> Uh so we are in ongoing conversations with you know the state around what would be the plan regarding the administrative cough shift. Um I don't think anything has been sort of finalized at that point. uh but we are staying very much focused on also uh where there are are cost shifts especially around like the snap payment error rate that is coming internally we have put into place many things to actually bring that rate down uh so that we can minimize actually any impacts that may come to the the state andor be passed on to the city >> okay so I know you're still working it out but would the $111 million be an additional amount that needs to be added to H's existing budget if the state does not decide to pick it up in the final budget. >> Yeah. Um I'll take that one. Um yes, it would be additional money. Um one thing to keep in mind is that the $111 million that OTDA had announced is in a grant year. Um so the SNAP administration in um DSS's budget is is found within both the revenue for SNAP administration and for employment and training. So, um, assuming that the city does, um, have to fund the remaining 25%, we would see a need of about $90 million, um, in our budget. I would just add there there could be other agencies that are receiving SNAP admin um, that information I wouldn't have with me. >> Okay. And then starting October 2027 under HR1, there will be a new cost shift to states that could be up to 15% of benefit costs. The rate will depend on the state's error processing rate. In an emergency briefing on SNAP federal regulations, HR indicated that it is anticipating there would be a 1.2 billion additional cost to New York State, which would result in an estimated $75 million in additional cost for the city if the state chose to pass the new benefit cost to the city. Historically, SNAP funding for benefit payments to individuals who reside in the city are dispersed by the state do not directly flow through the city's budget and have not required any city contribution. Have you had any conversations with the state partners on this about the possibility of the state covering the additional costs? >> Similarly to the administrative rate, we're in ongoing conversations. the state has said that they, you know, would not be able to cover the costs if, you know, based on the payment error rate fully. And so there would be an expectation that those would, some of those would actually have to be passed to New York City and other localities around the state. Um, which is why we're really focused on making sure we can bring that payment error rate down over this current federal fiscal year. Um, and get us to a place where we are not seeing a 15% cost shift happen. And what has HA been doing to address the high payment error rate? >> Sure. So, we've been doing a a few things we've been working on. Um, first and foremost, you know, we have been focusing a lot on training. Uh, as you mentioned in your opening statement, right, over the last several years, we brought on a lot of new staff. uh we have been funded by OM to bring on new trainers who will actually be in uh the benefit act access centers and other centers so that they can do more real time remediation with staff who may be making some errors that we would like to fix. Um so that is already ongoing and rolling out. We've made some additional changes as well to our existing systems where we've been able to put in additional flags to workers to ensure that they are following all of the steps they need to and most importantly checking calculations as that's where we're seeing most of our payment error rates are related to you know calculations around earned income which can be complicated uh depending on you know the benefits that that someone is working on. And then we're working on some other additional technological uh uh work that we think may also create some additional, you know, flags and be able to identify specifically where there may be some mismatch um in calculations before someone actually processes a case. >> And um are the 183 SNAP eligibility specialist positions included in the preliminary plan adequate to address this concern? Uh yes, we believe those positions are adequate to address that concern to ensure we have staff to you know work on the payment error rate as well as the roll out of the ABOD uh uh work requirements that is ongoing. >> Great. Thank you. And um speaking of those employment requirements, I have some more questions regarding that specifically on March 1st. Uh, and I'd like to note that we've been joined by council member Brewer. Um, on March 1st, 2026, the new employment requirements for ABODs on SNAP went into effect. Since November of 2025, HA has been assessing SNAP applications and reertifications based on the new criteria. H has also introduced two main CBO partnership pathways for clients to meet their new work requirements with CBOS having the choice to register as a community service partner CSP or a self-enrolled voluntary services provider SEVSP since November. How many total SNAP applicants and reertifications were newly deemed ABOD under the broadened federal criteria? >> Certainly, thank you. Um so uh I think when thinking about this uh what's important to focus on is actually because it's a point in time uh as to the point in time how many SNAP recipients need to comply with ABOD. So uh at this point in time there are approximately 119,000 SNAP recipients who need to comply with ABOD. Um, as part of the roll out of ABOD, we are on we are continuing to reassess individuals at their reertification to determine if actually they would meet the new expanded criteria. It wasn't something that happened all at once. It will happen over the next year starting November 1st. We will have gotten through everyone in the first round by the end of October. Um so currently it's 119,000 and we are really staying very much focused on ensuring that we are uh exempting as many people who are eligible for exemption um and continue to look at ways in which we can streamline the ability for folks to submit documentation so that we can exempt them from this as we know that is the most important thing. We want to get that number down as much as we can and have as many people off the list who need to comply. Do you know how many individuals newly deemed as an ABOD attended their initial PACE appointment for career services support and how many did not? >> So overall um for uh all ABODs because we sort of everyone was getting appointments. So I'm going to split up into two categories. There are SNAP ABODs who are not on cash assistance. We call them NCA SNAPS. Um there's about 36,000 total individuals who are in that bucket of uh people. Um the uh approximately 11% have shown so far. So that is you know um a low rate. We continue to do extensive outreach to individuals. Um we also expected in some place that the the uh show rate because this would all have been pre March 1st when actually things go into effect. So, uh, we expect to see increases over this month, um, and will be conducting additional outreach for those individuals who are on cash assistance and also need to comply with SNAP ABODS. Um, those individuals are being engaged through the cash assistance mandatory engagement process, uh, which is slightly different given cash has some more expansive requirements. Um on average each week we are seeing 55 to 60% of individuals sew up for those appointments. >> And sorry what's that total number of cash cash assistance and SNAP? >> Approximately I believe 82,000. >> Thank you. >> Um >> and you said 55 to >> about 55 to 60% each week are showing up to their appointments. Um and for cash assistance, we have a uh ongoing and expansive engagement process where for individuals who did not show up, we have a process to engage them and follow the cash assistance uh consiliation and sanction process which happens over several weeks. >> Okay, great. Um can you walk us through the CBO partnership pathways and how many CBOS have applied to become partners with HR? >> Sure. So, uh, I'm happy to say and also very thankful to the CBO community that over a hundred CBOS have stepped forward and that number actually increases each week. It is an open enrollment. So, there is no deadline. uh as CBOS learn about it or determine it is something they think they might be able to do, we welcome them to submit the form and then uh based upon the activities the CBOS have um and you know what capacity they have to support they will either be uh put into one of the two pathways you had talked about. One of the pathways has a little bit more um administrative support that is being brought where those organizations will a receive referrals directly from us as well as help track uh compliance and hours and report that into us. Uh on the other pathway that is more of a connection made between the individual and the organization, most likely an organization they're already connected to. They may attend programming or receive other case management services um where they can access volunteer opportunities and then submit to us on a monthly basis, right? Uh compliance with those volunteer hours. >> Great. Thank you. >> Okay. We know that the agency has been warning people who are meeting Abod work requirements, but the agency will not begin to take negative action until June 2026. Does DSS have an estimate on how many SNAP clients may lose SNAP benefits during the first month when the agency will begin to take action for non-compliance? >> Uh, we do not have that estimate at the time. We're going to be tracking closely each month to see how many individuals are actually coming close to the three months. Um, because that will really then give us a sense of how many people may be impacted. We'll also be able to really target our outreach and engagement closely because we'll be able to target specifically the people we know who maybe have had two months of uh non-compliance. So that the third month is really essential. So we're happy to keep the the council updated as we see that the first first um data that we'll have will be in the very beginning of April when we see what happened in the month of March. >> Okay. Thank you. With the reinstitution of work requirements for cash assistance clients, we know H has been projecting an increase in the demand for child care vouchers for those who are on cash assistance. As of the recent PMMR, in the first four months of fiscal 2026, around 596,000 individuals in New York City are on both SNAP and cash assistance. This roughly represents onethird of the total SNAP population. How many HR cash assistance child care vouchers have been issued this month? Um I will have to get back to you on the monthly. I can say um as of right now there are 30,000 households currently receiving child care vouchers through HRA um as part of uh compliance with cash assistance mandatory engagement. >> Okay. So um maybe you'll have to get back to me on this one as well then. How many of the vouchers were issued to clients on both SNAP and cash assistance? >> I'll have to get back to you on that. I will just clarify the uh requirement for child care on the HRA side is connected specifically to cash assistance requirements. Uh there is not uh mandated um child care uh required on SNAP. Uh for individuals on ABOD, uh they would be exempted having children under the age of 14. And on the cash side, child care is required for individuals under who have a child under the age of 14 in the household. >> Okay. Um we know H has been rolling out the resumption of work requirements and phases over time. How much growth have you seen uh since and cash assistance uh childare vouchers since this be began and how does it compare to the level of vouchers seen prior to the pandemic? >> Um I'll get back to you on the level of growth. It is lower than pre- pandemic because we have been slowly rolling out mandatory engagement and we hadn't um actually had mandatory engagement in place for many years during the uh pandemic. Um we only rolled out mandatory engagement again last April of 2025 and we've been taking it in a very methodical methodical way, but we can get back to you on uh the trends that you asked about. >> Okay, that would be great. And does H anticipate needing more staffing to handle the administration for the projected increase in demand for cash assistance childcare vouchers? >> Uh, no. At this point, we believe we have appropriate staffing to support that. >> Okay, great. Um, I'm going to pause here and turn it over to some of my colleagues. Um, starting with Council Member Morano. >> Thank you, Chair. Uh, Commissioner Dalton, thank you for your testimony. Uh, congratulations on your new role and good luck. You, in your testimony, outlined billions in spending and tens of thousands of placements. The shelter census, as you pointed out, is still over 85,000 people. At what point do we say the current model isn't reducing homelessness and just managing it? And is there anything we as policy makers could be doing to more effectively get people out of the I don't know the shelter pipeline? >> I'll start um and then turn it over to my colleagues who will probably have a more informed answer, but I think it's it's a great question and something I want to understand better. With so many additional exits from the shelter system and perhaps fewer um new entrance from asileles, I would expect to start to see declines in the shelter population. It's something, you know, in my first uh few weeks I want to take a really good look at. I think um I think what we we want to do is be moving people uh into shelter who need it, of course, um and then moving them on to permanent housing as quickly as possible. And so I think it's worth a really a really good look. But um um if the administrator Fellini wanted to add anything um please feel free. >> Thank you, Commissioner. Um I would echo your sentiments that we're looking to um ensure that we're meeting the needs of those who are coming in and moving them to permanent housing as quickly as possible. >> Commissioner, you you stated that roughly 98% of spending goes to direct benefits. Does that include shelter costs, administrative overhead embedded in contracts, and hotel placements? I'm wondering if you can clearly define what counts as a direct benefit to a taxpayer. I I will I will turn that over um because I certainly don't know the details of the contracts to nonprofits in particular or to to hotels, but I think um you do see a very low administrative rate in um HA and DHS. I think the numbers I cited were 4% and 3%. So those um being low administrative rates with a vast vast majority of those dollars going directly to New Yorkers. But let me let me colleague. >> Yeah. So the um the direct benefits there would include things like public assistance or Medicaid um SNAP um and the entitlement programs that um the DSS collectively administers. Um I it would not include um um the shelter costs that you'd noted. One final question if I may. Um you're expanding low barrier beds and shelter capacity. What specific steps are you taking to reduce demand so communities aren't continuously asked to absor absorb new facilities? I especially ask because in my district in Staten Island, there are plans for a new facility there. >> Again, I'll I'll start and then turn it over. Um I think it's a great opportunity to talk about our homebased program which helps to prevent homelessness and I'll I'll let my colleagues do that. I think that program has has been effective. Um, and I think just like you said, we want to be moving people as quickly as we can and to into permanent housing. And so, um, the other thing I would just say is all of the other benefits that DSSH offer are the kinds of things that prevent homelessness in the first place, right? Um, we want to be able to provide every dollar that is that New Yorkers are eligible to receive. And with those dollars, they don't have to make, you know, choices between healthare, child care, and housing. And so making sure we really maximize and do what we can particularly during this time of HR1 to keep dollars in the in the hands of eligible New Yorkers will hopefully also reduce reduce homelessness. But um maybe an opportunity to talk about homebase a little bit. >> Sure, I can I can take the homebased question. Um so yeah, so the homebased program has proven to be very successful in diverting people from shelter. You know, every year it's about 95% of those who engage with homebase uh do not enter shelter. uh last year they served approximately 32,000. Um you know we are definitely looking at uh ways in which some of the activities homebase currently does with um households to bring some of those in back into HR. Right. Homebase has definitely taken on um a lot of work around subsidies and subsidy uh management and some other complex cases that we've created a new unit in HR so that we can handle more complex cases and they can serve more people in the community. Um and so we're finalizing some of those plans so that that will continue to increase home basis capacity to serve people you know in community and divert them from shelter >> and and let me also ask my colleague at DHS to talk about the diversion programs we have there as well. >> Thank you commissioner administrator and council member for the question. Um, our approach at DHS always is to explore all diversion options, right? So, if somebody comes to us, they're in a housing crisis, they're in a emergency situation. So, we first want to understand what that is and what options they have. The first step is not always placement into shelter. It's to explore all options. >> Thanks very much. >> Thank you, council member. Uh, I'd like to um announce that we've been joined by Council Member uh Nurse as well. And turning it over to Council Member Sanchez. Thank you so much, Madame Chair, and good morning. Congratulations, Commissioner, on your appointment. I look forward to to working with you. Um, I want to just ask a few questions about City FEPS. Um, city FEPS is one of the most effective tools that our city has to stabilize families, which is why this council passed and then overrode the previous mayor's veto to expand eligibility of the program. Um, even as those conversations continue uh between the administration, Mayor Mani committed as a candidate to uh uphold to to uh release or I don't know, that's not the right word. Um, but to to let go of that lawsuit. Um, and And I want to, you know, just park that conversation except to say that that is a the the bills that we passed and the expansion that we legislated is very important to this council. Um and and I want to make sure that we are honoring the original intent of that legislation. Um but even uh with that aside, um you know, this this budget uh the mayor has and the the agency has increased funding for the existing program 711 million more in 26, 1.64 64 billion more in 27 um growing to $2.6 billion in 2030 for the city feeps program. Can you help us understand uh what what just break down the the costs of this program for us? What rent levels is the city seeing most commonly used with the voucher? Can you follow up with a chart and and just data that can help us understand what rents we're we're covering? What rent levels we're covering? And uh can you help us un understand the cost drivers? Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you for that question. I can take that. Um, so in the latest uh PMMR, we've reported that the average subsidy for citys is $1,98. Um, this is a newly um released statistic. Um, generally speaking for City FEPS, um, just like any other rental assistance program, the cost drivers for the program are the number of individuals that are entering the program, you know, the number of individuals that are leaving the program and how long they stay within that program. There's also a component that um um is rent as you've noted um and there we follow the payment standard um as set by uh the New York City Housing Authority. >> So what are we seeing? What are we seeing in terms of number of individuals entering, leaving, and uh staying, lengths of stay? I'm sorry, chair. >> Oh, yes, I'm sorry. Um, so um the the the program in total um enrolls about 68,000. Um so what I have here are the new enrollments for uh fiscal year 25, which was about 15,000 new enrolles over that fiscal year. >> And how does that trend um what are we projecting? >> Um that is a pretty consistent number. Um so we are projecting the growth to stay fairly consistent over the um over the period of the plan. >> So 60 68,000 people per year families per year. >> No no I'm sorry. 15,000 new new families per year. >> No. And how long are people staying enrolled? >> Um you know that I don't actually have available but we can get back to you with that number. >> Okay. Thank you. just uh just to say that the council has for many years uh been asking many questions about the the cost drivers and lengths of stay uh rent levels and all of that. Happy to see the new statistic in the PMMR. Uh but we want to be a partner in understanding uh what the cost drivers are and identifying solutions to contain the cost so that we can reach more families. Uh thank you chair. >> Thank you so much Council Member um Council Member Brewer followed by Council Member Nurse. Thank you. Congratulations, Commissioner. We also like Scott French very much. 247 calling him two o'clock in the morning. No problem. Um I have I teach at Hunter College and this morning I was there and somebody had apparently has a idea about putting algorithms. This is about snap algorithms on persons who are caught up in this Trump hell. And so you will be able to contact them more easily on their cell phone. $25 million to be saved. So I am going to send you this proposal. Another professor gave it to me. Is that something that you're aware of? Are you using technology to help people not get caught up in Trump hell? >> Uh yes we are we are using technology though. I'm look very interested in reading that proposal. Um, you know, in regards to communications, right, we are pushing out also, you know, text messages, uh, push notifications. We're going to be rolling out robocalls and other things directly to individuals who need to comply with the ABOD requirements. Um, and always willing and open to look at other utilization of technology to make sure people have the information they need. And we're also making it as simple as possible for them to report to us any information they need to so that we can ensure that they are remaining compliant and keep their SNAP benefits. >> Okay. >> Just one thing to add and administrator French talked about this a little bit in some of his answers, but um I I think it requires sort of a whole of government effort to make sure we're a reaching out to people and b exempting people where we can. most of the people on SNAP who aren't already working um are exempt from working. And so if we can make sure we understand their um eligibility, any um challenges they may have in working, we can exempt them forever and then they don't have to they don't have to go through the ownorous processes designed to get people off of of benefits. >> I know. I mean, you don't know. I've been doing this work since 1978 and since then people don't pay attention to anything. So it's it's hard. They just don't they are in another world. So the more that you can tell them in 10 times I just think this technology might really help. Number two just sweeps. I know um Scott knows I'm working on this a lot of encampment people are difficult. They just like to stay out. So, I'm just wondering how many uh encampments have you obviously I know the mayor had a position not to u move them but I know that you know in some cases you just have to so and I and again some people just don't want to go to an apartment they just want to be out but my question is how many people have you moved were you able to get them shelter um how are you identifying encampments I know they're not supposed to be called encampments but that's what I call them and I just want to know just generally how you're handling them and what the numbers are. >> Sure. I will I will start and then pass to administrator Fellini to provide some of the the details. Um so as you as you know uh this administration has asked the department of homeless services to take the lead in engaging with people staying on the street in community and in encampments. Um and I think that is the right move. These are these are the outreach workers who have built trust over over weeks and years and these are the people who know where the resources are and can help meet those needs. And so as as that work continues with partners, um I think for me it's really important to try to offer people what they want. While I agree there are always some people, a very small number who um will never come inside and and some who won't come inside on that day. if we can meet their needs, if we can u make sure that the their belongings are are kept um if they can't take them with them to the next location uh and if we do um treat people with dignity and respect in that process, I think a lot of folks will accept those offers and so um that was maybe enough time for um the administrator to find the the numbers we've been working on so far. >> Thank you, commissioner and council member. Yes. Um thank you. Since January, we've conducted around 40 cleanings and have made referrals to 85 individuals into the system. I don't know how many have actually come in, but we could look into that. >> You could let me know. Mine got swept March 11th and they're right back this morning. Just FYI. So, that's what I'm dealing with. Just also um on the city feeps, good question from my colleague, but uh after how much time does one have on city feeps and have those deadlines? I think it's five years. um then what happens or maybe you haven't hit that deadline yet in many cases. >> Uh yeah, the the program um is a five-year program, right? Uh as long as individuals keep meeting eligibility and then after five years um we will review on a case-byase basis if the subsidy would continue. >> Okay. And then there's a program that we used to have where basically it was direct to housing, you know, home. And so I I know other places in the country, you probably know, Commissioner, it exists. It was a pilot. I believe it ended. Is that something that is continuing? How much does it cost? And is it effective because to me it might be effective, but it's probably expensive and worth the money in my opinion. >> I just want to know what it is it exists and how much it costs. >> Yep. Um and I'll letting my colleagues get to that to the place in the briefing book where they might be able to give you numbers there too. Um I understand it was a pilot that is continuing actually. So, um, we continue to work with, I think it's volunteers of America to place people directly from >> And how many people have been placed and what's the cost? >> Yeah, >> sure. So, um, I'll get back to you on the exact costs. Um, uh, you know, but people are placed um, uh, utilizing, uh, housing subsidies, city, sometimes some other subsidies. Um but uh we also provide a payment to um support the move straight from the street into housing while we work on whatever is needed for you know whatever applications may be needed whether it's supportive housing or otherwise um I can say uh the current program has 81 units um and since uh over its inception um 151 street homeless individuals have uh housed the pro have utilized the program currently there are 64 for participants in the 81 units. Um, and we have approximately 15 clients currently scheduled to view the current units um, after being engaged by our outreach teams and expressing interest in participating in this. >> So wouldn't is it successful? Is it more successful than any other way of getting people off the street or is it not clear yet? >> Um, I think it is another tool which we are always happy to have. um uh we are exploring the possibility of expanding it to see if there is uh a scale that might be able to be met by the program that's still under discussion. So I'm happy to continue to you know update you on that but we are always happy to have as many tools as we possibly can that may resonate with someone when another tool would not. >> Okay, last question. Coordination with other agencies. I've been to so many hearings I can't remember but I think it was at maybe it was Dcast. Bottom line is when people are taking other kinds of services, in other words, they could then be asked about SNAP or asked about cashes or whatever. Is that something how do you coordinate that internally or if you are in other words people, this is a new day with you know the guy in the white house and everything else. So my question is how are you coordinating with other agencies so people hear about your services? You know could be even tenant assistance etc. My understanding is that's something that's somewhat new in this administration. >> And again, I'll let my colleagues um jump in here, but I I had a um conversation with the commissioner of of health yesterday and one of his main goals >> it was the commissioner of health who said this. >> Yeah. Yeah. Working along >> the guy from Harvard. Yes. >> Yeah. That Yeah. Um working alongside of us is Yes. to take that extra step. If someone is receiving wick, if somebody's in the medical clinic, how do we ask them about their food security, connect them to SNAP? And we can do the same, right? So we could ask if people um >> So you haven't started doing it, but he's doing it now. Is that the idea? How it should be on a massive scale scale in my opinion? >> Agreed. Every city worker who um engages with people should be able to offer those opportunities and I think >> you need training. You need training. So is that happening? >> Yes. So we currently do have you know a lot of partnerships which we can always expand um especially with uh the other agencies within the health and human services portfolio. DHMH, aging, ACS, many others. Um, uh, we are working closely with the mayor's office of tenant protections and others, uh, to make sure that we are all sort of crossraining and providing cross information so that they have access to the information on our programs and vice versa. Um, but obviously very always open to working on something that goes beyond that in scope. >> Okay. NICHA also, I'm just saying I don't think it happened in the past. That's my, you know, personal experience. So, it would be good to know exactly how that training is taking place and if it's really happening and what the outcomes are. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Council Member Nurse. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, and I just want to double down on the um street to home pilot. It's it's in my district. It's very successful actually. Um, and hopefully there's a way for you all to evaluate and formally say officially say that. But from my understanding and every conversation I've had, it's been very successful. I think they're looking for more referrals. Um, so at a more frequent rate and my understanding is there are people who have actually moved into like fully permanent, you know, their permanent home that they want to be in. Um, so a huge advocate for that. I want to talk about um DHS Immigration Customs Enforcement um as it relates to shelters. Um, Gothamus had an article out last at the end of last year. There were about five instances of ICE agents gaining access to DHS DHS shelters in violation of our sanctuary laws. Two incidents where ICE were ICE was permitted to enter a DHS facility without providing a judicial warrant. Two incidents of ICE agents and and NYPD officers entering a DHS facility without staff permission. one incident of a shelter employee providing ICE agents with information about a former shelter resident. So with this, what have you all done to train up your staff? Make sure everyone at the front door knows what what what we should not be doing, what would be violating our city laws? Um are you training people in person? Are you sending people out? Are are you doing it remote? Give us a um update on how we're remedying this situation. Thank you for the question, council member. Um, we have had limited um, encounters with ICE at at DHS shelters. Um, we have taken a multi-pronged approach to make sure that the correct information is out there and that staff on the ground in the middle of the night feel supported by the agency when things do occur. So, um, we've, uh, reissued our, um, uh, facility access policy, um, so that there's formal information about what DHS's, um, directive is about how to handle >> an email, like an all staff email or something. >> Yeah, it's it's shared through the provider community. There's an online database of policies and procedures. We send it as an attachment. We reference it. We make sure people have copies of it. Um, we have also created a flowchart. When a 30-page procedure does not really help, we have a flowchart that people can have at the front desk so they know exactly what the steps are when they are ensuring that non-local law enforcement is properly identifying themselves and demonstrating a judicial warrant. Um, we've also, um, shared a list of our on call attorneys 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so people on the ground feel supported in the moment when things are happening. Um, and we've also, uh, advised staff to not engage in any altercations with um, any um, agents. Um, we are regularly engaging with providers around this after an incident. As a reminder, we have DHS staff that are responsible for ensuring our providers are implementing policies and procedures, regularly following up and every time we hear, we we reiterate and make sure that everybody understands. We've done in-person trainings, we've done Zoom trainings, we've done big meetings. >> Okay. And so, as part of what you're talking about in the past, you all had stated that you implemented a more robust procedure for verifying arrest warrants after one of these incidents happened. Is is this part of that process or is there anything you could tell us about the procedure change? >> Apologies. I'll have to get back to you. >> Okay. Yeah. And and to to for to be specific, it was that you all had um somehow helped people at the front understand how to verify an arrest warrant. So, if there's a a procedure change, please let us know. Um, in one incident, ICE was ICE agents were given access to the resident sign-in book. Um, have you done any follow-up to see what names were were um they were given access to and and and taken any safety measures for those people? >> I am not aware of that. So, we'll we'll look into that. >> Okay. Um, I think that's that's all my questions. Just want to make sure we're we're protecting our folks and not violating our laws. Um and so however we can be supportive of that as well, please let us know. Um if we can help at our district level, we will. Um but we want to make sure folks aren't being kidnapped. So thank you so much. >> Got it. And and if I could, um council member just got advised. Um in to your question about verifying arrest warrants. We've provided samples of the federal warrants and subpoenas so staff know how to identify them as being the the right type that would allow an >> and that stuff's like that's at the front desk like the flowchart and those samples. >> We'll make sure. I believe it's part of the procedure but we'll make sure. >> Yeah, I think that's helpful because in the moment people panic and they don't they forget you know to where to find it and so just a place to reference it would be helpful. Okay. Thank you chair. >> Thank you council member. Uh, I'd like to acknowledge that we've also been joined by council member Ales. Um, so I want to move uh into a different set of questions. Um, I'll be hopping around just just a little bit here, but uh, regarding employees on benefits programs. While the people who work at DHS, HRA, and their contracted CBOS do invaluable work serving our city's most vulnerable, work in the provision in social services is often poorly compensated, leading to many employees relying on the same benefits they help others access. Is this something that you track? And can you share the percentage of DHS, HR, or contracted CBO employees who are receiving benefit public benefits such as cash assistance, SNAP, or housing vouchers? Uh, I think we'll have to get back to you on the city employees. I'm not sure that we have that data, but we can check and come back to you. Um, CBO providers, I'm not sure how that would if that would be possible because we don't have the full list of details of >> Okay. But is this something that you track as far as you're aware? Do you know I know you'll get back to me on the specific number, but do you know that you have employees that are on public assistance? I mean we are aware that there are employees who may be on public assistance right um I am not aware of tracking but I don't want to speak definitively in that in that statement okay um you know we uh but you know we are aware that there are as as you noted you know individuals who potentially are definitely as accessing some of our benefits >> and do we know how many employees are in city shelters >> I don't have that number now but yes we know that number we can get that to you >> okay Great. And how does DSS support its own employees who are currently enrolled in public benefits to assist them towards self-sufficiency? >> Um we we always um internally right there is very much a commitment to developing pathways of development for staff members. I will say over the last you know couple of years and we can get back to you with some more details right we have developed a lot of uh uh trainings and other sort of like engagement andmies including uh an academy for frontline workers which recently occurred over the summer for the first time ever which was a great thing that is really about connecting individuals to a what internal resources are available to help develop someone's career uh what can we connect them to externally that also is around there so we We are happy to follow up with some additional specifics around that. But I will say over the last couple of years, the agency has really focused on building out uh our staff development efforts so that staff have places to go uh to explore what options are there for them to you know build their careers um at HRA and also just to think long term where they may want to be going to. >> That's great. Thank you. And I just want to state for the record um my own advocacy for pay parody across agencies which I've talked about previously as chair of the aging committee where we see social workers and case workers in some agencies making less than the same roles in other agencies which I think is a direct reflection of our values. Um and in that case particularly we don't value older adults and the work that people do around older adults. And so similarly you know this is a space where frontline workers are working with vulnerable populations and they become vulnerable populations themselves. Um and so anything and everything we can do to help support you and your efforts in supporting staff and employees so that they're not also receiving um public benefits I think would be great work. Um, shelter costs, new need. The council has long called on the administration to more accurately budget for the cost of DHS's shelter system, which has been underbudgeted at adoption in recent years. We were glad to see a baseline increase of city funding for shelters included in the preliminary plan, $586.1 million in fiscal 2026, 988.6 million in fiscal 2027, and 1.04 04 billion in fiscal 2028, $1.09 billion in fiscal 2029, and $1.15 billion in fiscal 2030. Additionally, there are net decreases of state and federal funding, and 146 baseline positions were added starting in fiscal 2026. Can you tell me more about how the funding amounts were determined? >> Yes, thank you for that question. I'm happy to take this. So we do coordinate very closely with the office of management and budget on our projections for the census for utilization, length of stay and our DHS program. Um and we um coordinate on um on on that data and how it translates into the budget. So the dollar amounts um in this most uh recent preliminary budget reflect what we believe will be the spending for um through the five-year budget period. I mean, obviously projections will change, but um this is what we think we would spend. >> And um what are DHS's projections for the shelter census in the coming years? >> Um I >> thank you for the question. We work with our partners at the Office of Management and Budget on shelter projections. Um and I do not have those numbers at this time, but we can share them. >> Okay. And why is federal and state funding being decreased? What were the funding sources? >> Um yeah, sorry. So that um the adjustments that you see in the budget related to uh federal and state are mostly just cleaning up um some of the modifications and uh adjustments that have been made at at periods before the beginning of the fiscal year. So um those would have been all u related to say tanniff um and state contributions. Um but the budget currently reflects what we believe will be the um projected spending between city um federal and state funding. >> Okay. And what are the titles and job descriptions for the 146 additional positions? >> Um that piece we'll have to get back to you on. Um I the the information I have here is just the the total. So we we'll get back to you on what the titles are and how that dollar amount will be. >> Okay. And also I would love to know when you plan to have these positions filled by. >> Of course. Okay, we can do that. >> Okay. And um lastly on this topic, why does the amount of city funding increase from year to year? >> Um do do you mean I'm I'm sorry, I'm not sure. You mean the new need itself? >> Yes. for >> Oh, um it's just simply to reflect the fact that city funding had not been appropriately budgeted in the in the out years um in previous budgets. So, the dollar amount is increasing simply just to to match our spending. >> Okay. Um and then street homeless services new need. The preliminary plan included additional city funding to DHS's budget for street homeless services totaling $9.7 million in fiscal 2026. 31.2 2 million in fiscal 27, 29.9 million in fiscal 28, 30.8 million in fiscal 29, and 31.7 million in fiscal 2030. There were also 66 additional baseline positions added. What is this additional funding for, and how was the funding amount determined? >> Um, great. Yes, great question. So, the outdoor structures initiative um had funding for, as you noted, the 66 additional positions. In addition, we have additional funding for things like mobile uh cooling and warming centers, um clinical services. We have a an inc um an increase related to uh revisions that we'll make to our street smart system. And then there are additional uh transportation services. Um we can we can happily get you the breakdown on that. Um and the 66 heads if you'd like. >> Yeah, that would be great. And just confirming are all 66 positions for street outreach workers. >> Um it is um there are um 60 positions for street outreach. Um we have two positions for training um and four positions in our street havens. I'm sorry, our safe havens program. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Um, how many street outreach workers are currently employed um that are agency employees versus contracted employees? >> Looking for that right now. >> Sure. >> And while you're working on that, I would love to know how you determine when it's better to hire staff verse contracted providers. staffing for out street outreach efforts. >> Um for the DHS streets programs, um we have a budgeted headcount in 26 of 190. Um the >> I'm sorry, a budgeted headcount of >> 190. >> Oh, 190. >> Um and the actuals that I have are actually a little old. They're for the end of 25, which was 106 employees. I don't have the number of positions for the contracts. Um, so we'll have to get back to you on that. >> Okay. And um sorry, can you just talk about hiring staff versus contracted providers staffing for street outreach efforts and how you make that decision? >> Sure. Thank you, council member. Um, and I just want to confirm we have about 600 budgeted positions at our um, uh, contracted uh, outreach providers. Okay. >> So, we're constantly evaluating the need um against the staffing and the providers that we have. Um so, depending on what the hope count says, what we're hearing from providers, we're evaluating what programs we need, where we need enhancements, where it's better to contract out versus hiring on site. >> Okay. And um as of the preliminary plan, approximately $450 million is budgeted in each fiscal 2026 and 2027 for street outreach. Spending under the prior administration increased significantly, hitting approximately $370 million in fiscal 2025. Despite the investments over the past several years, unsheltered homelessness persists. How will your administration approach effectively serving this population while balancing the fiscal implications? >> Thank you for the question and I'll I'll start again and then if others want to add um as as I mentioned earlier I think um the work to house people um that are that are unhoused. I mean you know uh very very few New Yorkers are of course outside but those who are we want to do our best work to to bring them inside. I think the the mayor's uh switch to having the Department of Homeless Services lead the way is is the right um is the right role. I think working across our partners in Health and Hospitals um on issues of mental illness and substance use services and and just really trying to wrap our arms around those folks who are staying outside and offer them offer them what they need. And so I think the additional staff will help along with strong coordination, along with the right folks taking the lead and making sure that we are able to make offers that people will accept. Um, again, a challenging issue, but one I look forward to taking on. >> Thank you so much. And I'd like to acknowledge that we've been joined by Council Member Kaban on Zoom. Um, okay. I'd like to move into um SNAP EBT chip cards and state funding. So, theft of SNAP benefits is an epidemic across the United States and one of the major ways criminals steal funds is by card skimming. Usually, using illegal devices to copy personal account information when people swipe their EBT cards. At the March 3rd, 2026 quarterly community partners call, HA stated that in the state's 30-day amendment to the proposed budget, $1.8 8 million in state funding was added statewide with $700,000 earmarked for New York City's implementation of chip technology for EBT cards. Will this funding be added to the executive plan? Sure, I can take that question. Um, so the funding in the state budget is actually for the state to uh cover the cost of the transition to EBT cards with chips. Um the state is the uh does does all of those EBT cards. So the funding in the state budget is actually to do that actual trans trans you know transition uh with a vendor. So I imagine that that funding is meant to uh support a vendor to transition the EBT cards to chip cards so that everything will be far more secure and we won't have as uh many instances of individuals having their benefits skimmed. And um has the state provided guidance on the implementation and timeline of chip technology across the state? >> Uh they have not yet given us a definitive timeline, but I do know that it is something they are uh trying to work on as quickly as possible. >> Are you aware of retailers in the city who currently accept SNAP EBT cards but will not be able to accept payment from the new SNAP chip cards? Um I am not aware of that but we will uh obviously work closely with our colleagues at OTDA to make sure that they are uh providing the right information to individuals in case stores do need to you know look at an a change in technology to be able to take the chip card. >> Okay. And then there are also some concerns about the new chip card that I'm going to um toss over to council member to to get into. Thank you. >> Thank you so much chair. on uh on those particular cards. Um we understand because the chips are um connected to uh financial federal regulations that there are potential um vulnerabilities for immigrant New Yorkers particularly in this context which is something we considered when we developed the IDNYC right which is why the chips were not part of there. Have you um explored deeply those vulnerabilities in this political context and what did you >> So we will we'll bring that back to the oversight OTDA as they are actually the ones who oversee the chip cards and the determination of it. Um uh and we will speak with them about you know what have they looked in and are there security measures that they are considering to ensure that people remain safe which is a main concern for us as well. >> Great. It is a huge issue in our communities. Um, and we want to make sure that people get the benefits that that they depend on so profoundly, but at the same time, they should not be ins snared >> um in indefinite detention and deportation because of their status. Thank you. >> Thank you, council member. Okay. As of December 2024, the state is no longer receiving federal reimbursement for stolen benefits. As part of the state budget, there is a proposal to create a victim's compensation fund for those who have had their benefits stolen through skimming. What is H doing to support skimming victims? And would you support a state compensation fund? >> Certainly. So, um, as you mentioned, the ability to reimburse, you know, SNAP skimming was stopped by the federal government. Um, I can say that, you know, since the beginning of the ability to, uh, replace benefits, HR did, um, work to replace over $50 million in benefits to individuals who submitted claims to us. Uh, we can still take claims from individuals who have had their cash assistance benefits skimmed. So, I encourage anyone who has had any of their cash assistance benefits skimmed to still submit that to us because we are able to reimburse those funds. and we are very much open to working with our state colleagues on identifying other funds that can replace benefits for individuals who had them stolen by somebody. >> Great. Thank you. Um, okay. The closing of Belleview men's shelter and intake site. The administration recently announced that it will be temporarily shutting down the Belleview Men's Shelter and Intake Center by mid-March. Sites on East Third Street in Bowery and Manhattan will assume shelter intake and Belleview's 250 single male residents will be rehoused beginning May 1st at shelters to be determined. Can you tell me more about how this decision was made and the logistics of shutting down Belleview and relocating residents? >> Sure. Um, thank you for the for the question. Um, and as you all know, that location at 30th Street has been the front door to the homeless services for for many years in in New York City. And so I don't think anyone takes lightly that a move would need to happen. Um, as as folks also probably know, um, that building has been in disrepair for for many years. And while the city has attempted to keep up with the maintenance, it has just become a a time when that can't be done peacemeal anymore. and we need to find a safer place for the people we serve and and our employees as well. And so we've been working with partners on that on that transition. Um so as of Sunday, I think March 16th, um we no longer have assessment beds in in 30th Street and that transition went well. Intake and assessment is still happening on site. Um, of course, we will continue to have staff long after the transition who can help to direct people to other resources up to the new sites. Um, we expect that for some time people will continue to see that site as a resource and we will continue to staff it so that people may get to intake an assessment sites uh throughout the city. >> Thank you. And have you identified which shelters will be rehousing Belleview residents? And if so, can you tell me how you chose the new sites and do they have the same support services and accessibility as Belleview? >> Um, I can I can start, but I want to make sure I I'm fully understanding the question. So, there's the issue of intake and assessment, and I can talk about that. And then there is the issue of where people are being sheltered for that short period, and I might um um take some support to make sure I'm answering that correctly. And so I think um yes the the DHS team as well as other teams have assessed a variety of sites um that would meet the needs for intake and assessment. And we believe that the sites that um we have chosen offer comparable and better um intake and assessment accessibility um to the to the folks who we'd be serving there. um and are working with our partners at Project Renewal and others to to make sure that there's continuity of care for the for the clients that they're serving in those spaces as well. Um let me turn to my colleagues and see what I might have missed. And if I have misdated anything, please feel free. >> From what I've heard, I think you've covered most of it, if not >> Yeah, I was just going to confirm that and say that um uh the assessment beds have been uh transitioned to uh sites in Brooklyn. Um but um and you know as the commissioner said those uh you know those have already been transitioned down. So um you know we're fully on the path to uh taking taking on what is going to be a difficult transition obviously away from 30th Street. >> Okay. Thank you. And um how many substance use or mental health treatment beds um did Belleview have and how many individuals are currently housed in these beds? And has DHS identified which shelters will rehouse these individuals and how you'll ensure there isn't a gap in the specialized care they're receiving? >> Thank you for the question. Um, Belleview served as our assessment and and overnight um complement of beds. So, there were no program beds there. So, once somebody was assessed, if if the determination was they needed a substance abuse bed, they were placed in a substance abuse shelter. >> Okay. Separate from the site >> from 30th Street. Correct. >> Okay. Will any of the new need funding added in the preliminary plan for shelter costs go toward housing services of or staffing for the shelters taking in the Belleview residents and will any go towards the intake sites that will be taking over for Belleview? >> Um yes that the the positions that were added will go towards um these efforts. I don't know that we um that I have the information on which ones go where, but we can get back to you with that when we give you the breakout of the 146. >> Okay. Thank you. And do you plan to add additional funding or headcount for these sites in future plans? Thank you. I believe the additional headcount of the 146 should address the need, but I think when we look at the breakdown, um I think we'll find that it's sufficient. >> Okay. Um sufficient by your standards. Well, when we take a very centralized complex program that existed at Belleview for many years and we have to decentralize it, we did need to stand up essentially multiple intake programs. So, that's where the additional headcount is. We believe the 146 should be sufficient to operate intake in the dispersed way that we had to approach it. >> Okay. Thank you. Just give me one second. Let me turn it over to Council Member Brewer for a second. >> Thank you. This may have been worked out, but project renewal was hysterical about the time frame. Has that been worked out where it's not as fast and you have more time at their facilities in uh Lower East Side and they have a clinic there. Um they want to make sure it retains because it's very hard to restart it, etc., etc., etc. Since I swap with phone calls. Yeah. Uh, thank you. And we're very grateful to the partners at Project Renewal. We know this is not something that they've had a lot of warning about and something that they've had to work closely, >> putting it mildly, but yes, >> close closely with us. We uh we also have deadlines of doing intake and assessment as of as of May 1st um in the new sites. And so we're working closely with Project Renewal on programs that can stay in space um and programs that might um be better off perhaps um in a in an additional space. Um so we're working with state partners on the the substance use treatment program um which again I think we've uh we've worked out with them can can stay in that space. So those folks will be stable. Um and then uh to your point, there's an outpatient clinic that we're working um with them on as well as a federally qualified health center and our article 28 site that we see is really integral to the intake and assessment function and look forward to working with them. Um certainly this uh plan is still in flux. There are state partners involved. There are there's project renewal and um I think the important thing to know is that we're all working really hard to make sure that we can where transitions need to be made. um make sure that they're done safely and with care um and and uh support those clients going forward. >> Do you think the federally qualified health center will be okay to stay there or you still working that out because that is very hard to replicate? >> Uh we absolutely want it to stay there and in fact again see it as a really integral part of that intake and assessment function getting people connected to services. Um the the things we're working through are construction issues. How do we um build out the intake and assessment components of that program and and keep the article 28 clinic intact? Those are the kinds of issues we're working through right now. >> All right. Thank you. >> Um and thank you, Council Member Brewer. Um, I was getting to that line of questioning next, but also just want to, you know, state state for the record that um the beds that are there currently at the Third Street site that are operated by um Project Renewal um are really unique and have unique needs and and the people who are uh residents there. And so, you know, we want to make sure that we're doing everything to keep those programs and services whole. And I don't know um and this is I'm actually saying I I do not know um you know whether the move is going to allow those services to stay whole. And I think um as council member Brewer mentioned, the federally qualified health um center is of particular concern um because I don't know if that money can actually be moved into a different um location, physical location. So those are things that we want to make sure you all are talking with project renewal about. Thank you. Okay. Um, DHS vacancy rate. In July 2025, DHS's actual headcount was 1,733, and it has been steadily declining every month since. As of January 2026, DHS has a vacancy rate of 27%, the highest it has been in the last three years. Why has DHS's headcount been declining over the last few months? Okay. Um thank you for that question. Um so when when you look at this period of time, there are a few um things happening that kind of challenge how we look at headcount. Um first, you know, we moved the um housing services division from DHS to HR. So you would see that actual headcount move from one agency to the other. >> And how many was that? Do you know? Oh, I'm sorry. Um, it was 107. >> Thank you. >> And that you said that one from DHS to H, >> correct? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, those do those 107 positions represent the 27% vacancy rate? >> No. So the the 27% vacancy rate is also a lot of that is driven from the new needs that we received in the um uh preliminary budget. So if you were to um you know remove those the vacancy rate is probably closer to 14%. >> Okay. Still high I would argue. Um, and so just going back to the transfer then what is the actual and budgeted head headcount for the housing administration program? Give me one second. I'm sorry. housing services you know I can say well they're looking for that I can say for rental for the rental assistance program right uh the headcount that we have is um 161 but I would uh caution to think that is the only number of people who are actually focused on moving people out of shelter specifically around city feeps um there are many other staff both internal to our agency as well as in partnership with um our providers that actually work along the continuum of moving people out of shelter. So I just would would caution that that is not the only number of people focused on on that work. Um uh and that is really focused specifically on rental assistance. There are additional staff who obviously work in the um affordable and supportive housing side um of our operations that connect people to other types of permanent housing. And we can if we need to get back to you with the total number. >> Yeah, I'm sorry. We will have to get back to you. I'm sorry. >> Okay. What I'm trying to get at is whether or not the budgeted headcount was revised for the preliminary plan to account bless you to account for the transfer of this program. the the transfer um happened in um the had the budgeted headcount had moved prior to um the November budget or moved in the November budget, but the actual headcount moved um later. So you're you're sort of we're seeing a a sort of a disconnect between when the budget headcount was moved only because we had to move them as part of um financial plans and when the actual heads moved which was later in the fall. >> Okay. Um what is DHS doing to fill vacant positions and to reduce the attrition rate amongst staff? >> Um thank you. Yeah, that's a great question. So, um they are our human resources administration has a number of initiatives that they've taken to try to reduce the staff um the vacancies and staff. I mean, on an internal level and at the higher levels, we're working to ensure that all of our positions are posted and that staff have an opportunity um for growth within the organization. Um when we are looking to bring in staff from outside of the organization, we are doing the traditional civil service um hiring pools. Um, we post everything on our jobs website and try to advertise our positions outside of just the city's website. Um, we've done numerous career fairs. We've collaborated with HR's career services divisions, done hiring halls across the city. Um, and um, we've also worked within our office of marketing to create recruitment videos for um, positions that are hard to recruit. >> Okay. And and what would you say is um an acceptable or ideal vacancy rate if if not zero? >> Yeah, I I I would say as close to zero as possible. Um it will never be, you know, zero and it takes time to to recruit uh new staff, but uh I'm I'm certain this agency wants to have everybody on board that that we can. um and also for the benefit of the other staff who are here who are taking on so much work on behalf of people and so um while it's difficult to attract um talent and it's and that of course I suspect this bureaucracy like all are challenging to to work through um I think it's a great opportunity to look at that process streamline it as much as possible um and and and get folks uh in the door so I I would say we would be striving for to to have that be as low as possible. >> Okay. Um Okay. On February 19th, DHS released an action plan for the integration of asylum seekers into the DHS system. The plan laid out the following goals. Close the last emergency asylum shelter, bring single adult shelters into compliance with capacity limits, and comply with regulations requiring families with children to have access to cooking facilities. The plan mentions that within the next six months, DHS will open several new shelters which were delayed by the previous administration. Can you tell me how many shelters are set to open and who the shelter providers are? >> Sure. Uh we'd love to um we're really excited about the the new shelters. Um, while folks are finding the specific information for you, I'll just say I was at uh ribbon cutting for Magnolia Gardens uh last week and it's a beautiful space built uh with the nonprofit and community um working together. Um you know that those are the kinds of spaces we want to be able to move our our families and others into um places with services on site that fit the fabric of the community. It was just a a wonderful opportunity to see those kinds of that kind of shelter open. And um while I'm sure there's always concerns when shelters are cited, um what I saw there that day was so much community excitement for the space. Um there's community rooms that could even be used, I think, by by community members. Um and so just a real celebration. >> I was sorry to miss that that ribbon cutting, but I'll be visiting Magnolia Gardens soon. >> Thanks, Commissioner and Chair for the question. And I was conferring with Chief Gonzalez. We know the sites, we know the addresses. We'll have to get back to you on the uh providers. >> Okay. Um and what about a breakdown of the populations that will be served, the facility types, the burrows, and how many residents these shelters are able to house? >> Yes, I can certainly answer the population will be single men. So, these sites are opening to absorb the clients that are being transferred out of the last remaining Herk site. >> Okay. And after the opening of these additional shelter sites that are already in the pipeline, do you anticipate needing more shelter sites? >> We're constantly evaluating um part of our uh large capacity management plan. And the third item that you mentioned from that 45day plan is to ensure that families are out of hotels that don't have cooking facilities. So that's um a task and in order to move families out of hotels, we need a robust pipeline. So, we're continuing to identify highquality, safe um facilities to um allow us to exit hotels. >> And um do you know how many you might need? Like how many shelter sites? >> I think we'd need to get back to you. The number changes as we go, right? So, when that plan was established, the census was a certain number. We know how many families were in as of the day. It's something we're constantly monitoring. And I mentioned earlier, we work with um our colleagues at OM on the shelter projections to kind of tie what the expected census will be to the beds we're going to need to have available at that time. >> Okay. The action plan states that goals will be met in part by converting some families with children hotel units for use by single men. How many families with children hotel units are there currently and how many could be converted for use by single men? Yeah, we'll have to get back to you on the total number of family hotel units. Um we don't want to give you the the incorrect number. >> Okay. I just want to state for the record that we shared all of these questions with with you all in advance and we're hope we're hoping to have the numbers shared here today. So, it's a lot of followup. >> We'll work on them. >> Um, one thing I I want to go back to very quickly about um Magnolia Gardens, which as you mentioned, Commissioner, is a great new facility. Um, the provider, however, did mention that funding was cut for the pets program. And I think when when folks first started talking about the pets program, it was probably something that was um undervalued um and people didn't realize or understand how important pets can be and and and are to families and especially those experiencing trauma and domestic violence and things of that nature. So, um it seems to be a much more um widespread or robust program across the shelter system. Um, and so, uh, do you know anything about the funding for the pets program specifically at Magnolia Gardens? >> I will need to get back to you about the specific funding there, but >> that one I sprung on you, so I'm I'm going to allow it. >> Um, but I but I certainly agree that we shouldn't ask people to make hard choices about the the the people and the animals that they love. Um, and so as long as we can create a safe environment for everyone staying there, um, we we should we should do that whenever we can. >> Okay, great. Thank you so much. Um, okay. And then going back to the asylum seekers and DHS system, uh, where do you plan to move the approximately 8,100 families with children currently in hotel shelters and how will you minimize disruption to these famil family's lives and to the children's schooling? I know you talked about um you know doing everything we can and and identifying new sites and of course we know everybody knows we have uh a crisis of housing and shelter here in New York City but for the families with children specifically um what's your plan to minimize disruption? >> Okay, thank you for the question um chair. Um first and foremost um outside of any need for an emergency transfer we are looking to ensure that families are not transferred families with with school age children until after the school year whenever possible. Um that's one of our approaches and I just want to um confirm for you the number of family hotel units that we have 11,084. >> 11,084. Thank you so And and just just to build on on that point, I because I've asked about it a little bit as well. So in addition to whenever possible not changing asking younger children to children that are school age to change schools, right? Um >> I know we're providing transportation if people want to stay in homeschools. We we believe in obviously the the education stability and making sure there's continuity there. >> Great. Thank you. And given that asylum seekers often have unique needs different from the general DHS population, how do you plan to serve them after they've been integrated into the DHS while also keeping them safe from immigration and customs enforcement officers? >> Sure. Thank you for the question, chair. Um, throughout the process of of integrating asylum seekers into our general shelter population um everyone is treated the same. So everyone is assessed in the same way. Service plans are delivered in the same way and the specific needs around asylum seekers, whether it's legal or immigration services, get added to the service plan just as they would if child care was needed or employment services were needed. We partner with the mayor's office of immigration affairs to make sure we have the most current um and client forward um facing materials and resources. our providers um just like they would for medical providers or employment programs are responsible for making sure they have a network of uh resources to refer clients in need to. >> Thank you. Uh I'd like to acknowledge that we've been joined by Millennium High School from here in Manhattan. Welcome students from Millennium High School. This is a preliminary budget hearing for the general welfare committee which has oversight over the department of social services which includes the department of h homeless services and uh the human resources administration. So welcome to city hall. Um okay disability and aging accommodations in shelter. As the former chair of the council's committee on aging, I've seen how older New Yorkers have unique needs that I'm concerned about. um and how DHS is meeting the needs of this population in the shelter system. Can you provide an estimate of how many people in shelters are 60 years old or older? >> Thank you for the question. Um we will get you an estimate of the number of people in shelter 60 or older. >> Um okay, you don't have that? >> Not at my fingertips. No. >> Okay. >> Apologies. What specialized support services does DHS provide to this population? >> We have a few sites um that are designed specifically for this um population. Um they tend to be lower density. They tend to be more accessible for those with mobility or chronic uh medical issues. Um, some of the providers that operate these sites also have their own housing programs, supportive housing programs, and we ensure that working we're working with our HA partners and other city agencies for any housing options that are dedicated specifically to um this population. >> And what specialized support services are available to shelter residents with disabilities? So, yeah, excuse me. Um, our office of disability affairs is always available to assist our uh shelter providers with any needs um that they feel um that they need to assist a client in order to meet to make sure that they're they have full access to services that we offer. Um, we have a robust reasonable accommodation process um that allows um uh the people we serve to request accommodations, whether it's a change in policy or procedure or additional time with an application or having um information read to them to make sure that they're fully aware and participating in their service plan. >> And what does um what does the review process for those requests look like? >> Okay. And based on what you're saying, basically the information is presented to the person and then they would, you know, know what their options are or are there cases where people are asking specifically for specific accommodations. >> We've certainly get um those instances as well as it's our responsibility also to pay attention to proactively um see if they're identified, yes, visible and apparent needs. So, for example, if somebody comes in and applies for shelter um and we're looking for a placement, we're going to look for one for somebody in a wheelchair who uses a wheelchair with an elevator. >> Right. >> Some disabilities are invisible. Exactly. But I recognize that for those that are visible, you do your best at intake. >> Right. And for those that are invisible or for things that arise once somebody is placed in shelter, the individual who's in receipt of shelter can apply directly for a reasonable accommodation on their own by submitting a form. The shelter staff is there also to assist them um in completing the form. And it's likely that we're going to need documentation. So shelter staff is also there to help them gather that documentation, make sure it gets to us. >> Okay. Um, would lack of documentation prevent one from receiving a reasonable accommodation? >> It depends. It depends on what the the need is. >> Okay. Can you give me an example of when somebody might be denied a reasonable accommodation for lack of >> lack of documentation? So, if somebody in shelter um submits a reasonable accommodation, they need their own unit and their own bathroom. um we would ask for medical documentation that would indicate that that is in fact a need. Okay. >> And if that documentation was not provided um the reasonable accommodation would likely be denied. >> Okay. At that time but there's an opportunity >> and again the shelter staff is responsible for helping um people to secure the documents that they need. >> Okay. How many DHS shelters are wheelchair accessible? >> I'll get back to you on that. >> Okay. And um does DHS take age and disability into account when placing clients into shelters? >> Yes, as I mentioned, we do have a few shelters that are um designed. Yeah. So, as um if there are available beds there, we would certainly place someone as long as it was appropriate. And as those sites um have permanent placements and beds become available, we would be transferring appropriate folks in. >> Okay. And I I assume you take into consideration the availability of community services and amenities and access to public transportation and other factors that those vulnerable populations would need. Yes. How does DHS coordinate with agencies such as uh NYC aging and the mayor's office for people with disabilities to better serve older adults and people with disabilities who are experiencing homelessness? We're constantly engaging with our sister agency partners around best practices, any new services, um pushing for additional housing supports, um making sure that our providers are aware of all the services that are offered by our sister agencies as well. >> Thank you. And um I'm gonna go to council member Ales for a few more questions and then I have a question here from uh council member Thomas Henry who's joined us online but unfortunately we don't have quorum at the moment and so I'll have to ask her a question for her. >> Thank you so much chair. Thank you um to the whole team for your work and and being here today. Um so I want to talk a little bit about um the immigration legal services. Um in the preliminary plan includes uh 6.7 million of city funding added in fiscal 26 and 21.3 million added in fiscal 27 20.9 uh million added in fiscal 28 um and continuing on in out years. Um can you tell us what this funding is for specifically and what programs are going to be impacted by the additional funding? Okay. So, uh it actually it supports um a variety of immigration services across different uh programs and different agencies. So, it will support uh II which is at uh HRA under our office of civil justice. Um it also supports uh >> Can you tell me how much for each program? what would be the breakdown? So, I h at what amount? >> Okay, so we'll provide the breakdown on each specific agency um uh if they don't have it in in there, but um I then um the office uh NGBV to end gender- based violence um is also has programs that will receive some of that funding. Um uh our colleagues at Moya also receive some of that funding. Um, additionally, we have a low-wage worker protection program at HRA uh that will also receive some of the additional funding and we'll get back to you with the specific amounts for each one of those programs, but it crosses a variety of programs that focus on supporting uh individuals um who may experience uh immigration issues that need legal representation. >> Great. So, when you report back, we'd love to see the breakdown across and then across years. Thank you. Um in terms of the um the preliminary plan also includes um 11.6 million in city funding added to the baseline starting in fiscal 27 for immigration legal support centers operated by Moya. Are there specific Moya legal services or programs that the funding is for? And what providers will be part of this program? Also will there be a new RFP? We will have to get that information from our colleagues at Moya as we uh wouldn't have those specific details as to what they're planning, but we will follow up with you. >> Great. Also, in terms of uh uh in terms of the office of asylum seeker operations, it looks like the preliminary plan includes a reduction of 880,000 in state funding and eight positions in fiscal 26 only. Uh we were curious about how that funding amount was determined and whether AAASO has been officially disbanded. >> Yes. Um so the OASO staff and um funding have been absorbed by uh the various city agencies primarily by DSS. Um the uh state funding in the budget was just the the modified budget that was in there. I I have to get back to you on what in what uh that funding represented, but um yeah, I'd say AASO AASO is >> is no more. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Long overdue. So, the eight the eight um positions are now part of the DSS general budget have been reallocated. >> Yes. >> Okay. Great. Thank you. Um and then lastly, just to follow up on uh Council Member Nurse's questions about uh the shelter ICE enforcement. Um in particular we we are aware that um many of the security services that are in shelter are contracted services. Obviously they also are under the obligation of meeting our laws. We've talked a lot about it in the past. Um but can you tell us uh again for the record um how uh security contractors are informed and held to account on maintaining um responsibilities for our laws. >> Thank you, council member. Um, as we mentioned earlier in response to council member Nurse's question, these trainings, the communications, our contracted security providers or the providers contracted securities were invited and did participate. And in terms of the two instances where um ICE was able to enter a facility without permission um what measures have you taken to ensure that contractors will never have this problem they will never experience this failure again? Yeah, again uh thank you for the question. I think as we've mentioned just constantly reiterating the process, speaking with the teams after the incident, also to debrief to understand what kind of happened so that we can talk through next time. Um but it is an ongoing effort to make sure that everybody understands the way to handle this um especially in in the emergency situation. >> Great. And chair if I may just one more question. I'll give you two more. >> Oh, she's so kind. So many questions. So many so little time. Um and of course I can't find it now that I'm under the pressure of performance. Um I'd like to uh move back to home base. Um let me Okay, here we go. Um could you tell us um so we know that HR's homebased supports city feeps and community clients to maintain stable housing. Um we know it's a a network of community based organizations that provide these homeless uh nest prevention services. What's what's the current fiscal 26 budget for home base? Um and is that amount baselined? >> Um the current budget for home base is uh $67.9 million. There is um baseline funding in the budget um that does fluctuate a bit to 66.6 and 26 um going to 63.9 million and 27 and 28. Um >> yeah, >> so 90%age amount are baseline for that funding. >> Yeah, it's great. >> Larly baseline. Um in terms of um what's the actual spending to date in fiscal 26 and how much was oh uh yeah what was the actual for fiscal 25 >> um so through um fiscal uh through February for fiscal year 26 we've spent 46.5 million the actuals for 25 was 67.9 million >> okay and then in terms of um in multiple city fs oversight hearings, we'd heard from the public that the demand for the city faps application renewals and other rental assistance services that Homebase provides can't be met with the current level of funding budgeted. We've also heard that CBOS are having difficulty hiring and maintaining adequate staff levels. Um, as the PMMR notes, in the first four months of 2026, the program had over 12,000 enrollments, uh, which is 14.2% 2% increased compared to the same period of year. How many contracted providers are within the homebased program? >> Sure. There are seven providers with 16 contracts and I believe it is 23 locations but I will confirm that last uh piece for you. Um we are aware that for some homebased providers right uh uh there are wait times to be seen. I will say every homebased provider does an initial triage for everyone who reaches out to determine if there is an emergency need such as an imminent eviction or other other uh activity that needs to be addressed and those individuals will be seen either that day or within you know the next day or two. Um but we are as I mentioned before looking at ways in which we can uh shift some of the responsibilities that have been taken on by homebase over the years back into HR so that we can expand capacity for them to uh serve more people in the uh community. That includes, you know, looking at things that we're doing around subsidy uh work that they currently work on in especially around state FEPS um as well as some other complex case work that they do that we think we are able to bring back into the agency uh to expand their capacity. >> So since we we've acknowledged there's a capacity issue um do you know what the current uh case ratio would be for homebased staff at this moment? um it doesn't work on a case ratio basis in that manner. I will say you know um uh last year they did exceed their service targets right uh which was 30,000 uh served and they did serve uh uh 32,000 last year. So, it is something that we're tracking closely and we're in conversation um ongoing conversation with the office of management and budget around uh resources for the program >> and and what's the funding that you anticipate given what we know to date um the program would need to operate optimally. So that is something we're still discussing with OM to identify what additional resources uh would be appropriate to help you know respond to the community need. >> And and lastly, what so what is the directive when um so it sounds like the homebased providers are asked to prioritize and triage emergencies? how how is the agency um conducting oversight and evaluation that those triages are actually happening and happening promptly. >> So we uh speak quite frequently with our homebased providers um uh to assess what is happening. We talk to them about uh where they may be seeing weight times um and how that is manifesting itself within their work. Um and um I will also say that they are uh uh they they definitely come forward to us when they are finding that there may be some challenges especially if it's relating to uh serving those who are showing up with an emergent need that needs to be addressed immediately. >> Okay. Thank you chair. I'll be back. Thank you. >> You're welcome. I think that was about four questions that you actually asked. >> Um but important ones. So thank you. Okay. Okay, I'm going to ask a couple questions on behalf of council member Thomas Henry who's on Zoom. What is the process for someone in a shelter to apply for formally homeless set aides in new housing developments? From her experience, shelter residents are applying directly through housing connect and the housing coordinators at some of the shelters do not seem to be well informed on the application process for the set aides or availability of new sites. Um I will take part of that and then we might get back to you and the council member with some additional details. Um and I'll ask my DH colleagues to weigh in as well. Um so for um HPD homeless set aides, right? Uh the provider network is aware of the different availabilities that we have. Um to apply for an HPD unit, you do have to submit from through HPD connect. I know that we do have uh data shares that we are doing with HPD to sort of share uh information on those individuals um who have applied and are eligible. Uh but we'll have to get back to you with some more specific details to map it out. But obviously we do want to know if our shelter providers, right, if we're hearing that uh some staff aren't fully aware of the process and what should happen. That is something that we will uh discuss about and make sure that we're pushing out information that's clear and simple so that folks will ensure individuals who could maybe a you know uh benefit from those set aides know that they're available to them. >> Great. >> Yeah. Thank you, administrator. Um and I will add that um it is um first and foremost part of the rehousing strategy for clients in shelter to have HHAS submitted. So it is the job of of shelter staff to ensure that that's done that it's done accurately and when changes occur that things like income are updated. >> We can connect Council Member Thomas Henry with you all um to see if there's a specific location that might need some more assistance. Thank you. And then second question from her. Last year, a former JFK Hilton hotel in Queens was converted to over 300 affordable apartments for lowincome and formerly homeless New Yorkers. As someone who represents a district with an airport that is surrounded by hotels that have been converted to shelters, is there a long-term plan to replicate this model of converting hotels into permanent housing? >> Uh certainly. So, yes. So that conversion uh was part of the affordable housing services program that we have um which you know uh we are definitely very supportive of and looking to um expand if possible. I do know that there is sort of an overall interest as well across the administration to look at how other hotels could be uh transitions to more affordable housing. >> Great. Thank you. I'm gonna kick it over to Council Member Brewer before I continue on with my line of questioning. Thank you. West 74th Street would be great permanent housing. I'm just saying because I am, you know, the issues there, Scott. Oh my god. All right. Um, one question. How many cityrun shelters are there compared to run by nonprofits? >> Thank you, council member. There are five city-run shelters um when we exclude two intake facilities, Path and and 30th Street. >> Okay. And are they going to be continuing? Are you going to have more? or are you probably going to stick with the nonprofit? >> I think all plans are in discussion for those sites. >> Okay. Next is um I get a lot of calls about APS, adult protective services. According to the um preliminary management plan, there was there's an increase without getting into the specifics as I think mo many of us are getting older probably why but there are many more requests and it's increase in cases. So what is driving these increases except maybe age? How have you been able to handle the case load, the referral volume? Um, and how many are denied? I must admit I get a lot hoarders, which is a big problem. So, tons and tons of hoarders, APS, etc. And I think this is going to be a growing problem, a growing challenge. So, you obviously need case workers, you need uh budget, home attendance. So, I'm just wanting to know how in generally how you're going to be addressing either budget-wise, staffing wise, um the issue of case workers and APS and and the hoarding issue which is prevalent. >> Absolutely. Thank you for the question. Um so, um I can say uh in regards to case workers, over the last couple of years, we've hired an additional 107 case workers. Uh we obviously track very closely um case load ratios uh the budget as well. Um you know I will say we are within our timeliness rates to be assessing cases uh that are referred to us. Uh I will also note that uh eligibility for APS is very clearly defined by the state and other regulations. Um and it's sort of very specific criteria that needs to be met for someone to be um identified as an APS client. um which includes sort of a combination of things of an individual needs to be 18 years or older um and they need to be mentally or physically impaired. They have to be unable to manage their resources, carry out the activities of daily living or protect themselves from abuse, neglect, exploitation or other hazardous situations and have no one available who is willing or able to assist them responsibly. And so we all of those criteria need to be met to uh be deemed eligible for APS. Um otherwise the case case would be declined at that moment. Um but it is something that we're tracking very very closely. Um I agree with you with you know the the the aging of the population as well. Uh we want to make sure that we're we're supporting individuals. Um and we will assess and discuss with OM as well where we see additional resources need. Do you have a contract for hoarding to clean out or do you do that internally? Because I do a lot of it myself. >> We have a deep cleaning contract that we utilize when uh uh a hoarding situation has been encountered and we realize that some type of deep cleaning is necessary. >> Would you let us know how much that is, how much it's increased, and if you think it needs to be more increased because it's >> Yes, we will follow up with you on that. >> Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you, council member. Okay. by addressing chronic underbudgeting and city fees and cash assistance. In recent years, financial plans have not appropriately accounted for costs of HA's city feeps and cash assistance budget at a level proportionate with recent expenditures. The chronic underbudgeting of these two vital programs has been of concern to the council and was raised in every preliminary budget responses since fiscal 2019. The council was pleased to see that the preliminary plan fills a fiscal cliff for city feeps and cash assistance, increasing the baseline budget for both programs starting in fiscal 27 2027. The funding added in the preliminary plan for city feeps brings the total fiscal 2026 budget to $ 1.78 billion, growing to $3.04 billion by fiscal 2029. How do H and OM forecast the growth of the city FEPS program? Yes, thank you for that question. So, as I noted earlier, um I think in relation to shelters, we work very closely with the office of management and budget. We share data with them um and we uh you know work on fiscal forecasts for this and other programs um and reconcile those based on what we're seeing in in the program themselves. in cases of uh rental assistance, the growth we're seeing, the um anticipated growth for the rental assistance vouchers and so forth. >> Okay. Can you provide a breakdown of the primary factors that drive the cost increases across the plan period? >> Sure. Yeah. I mean, the the increase there is again new entrances into the program, which I noted earlier was about 15,000 for FY um 25. Um, we project what the voucher increases would be. Again, we we follow the New York City Housing Authority and their uh payment standards. Those payment standards are set by HUD. Um, so we we project the growth in payment standards. Um, and overall, you know, when you look at the new entrances, the people that are leaving, and the rental assistance, um, that sets how we project and what we think the populations would be. How much has been spent to date in fiscal 2026 on city feeps? >> Give me one second. >> Um, so our spending through January is $1.1 billion. >> Wait, through January? >> Through January. >> So that would be okay. 1 point >> one billion. >> Okay. And then how much was spent in fiscal 25? >> Uh fiscal 25 we spent um just under 1.4 billion. >> Okay. And how much of that went towards client benefits? >> Um that full amount was for just rental assistance. So that everything. >> Okay. >> That that's rental assistance citys. >> Okay. Hold on. We've seen consistent and significant growth in spending and enrollment in the program each year since inception. When does HA believe the program may plateau? >> So, I'll just I'll jump in. I mean just looking at the program which you know with the two weeks I've had on the ground um there's a lot of need and desire to use this program clearly and it's it's helping people um if we keep of course letting people into the program um and that's good and they're moving in out of shelter or avoiding shelter in the first place um but if there's no exit to that program it continues to grow essentially endlessly there's really two degrees of freedom right? There's ins and outs and if ins are always going to exceed outs and they are um without any other strategies then it will continue to grow. There's only so much of course that can be done in the middle. We should do our best job to run an efficient program to make sure that we meet rent standards but with increasing um people entering the program u and and very few exits it continues to grow. >> Understood. As of the preliminary plan, cash assistance makes up 19.4% of HA's fiscal 2026 budget at $2.76 billion and is baselined at $2.74 billion starting in fiscal 2027. More households are enrolled in and staying on cash assistance for longer periods of time. According to the PMMR, the number of people receiving cash assistance that was the number of people receiving cash assistance was 604,000 for the first four months of fiscal 2026, which shows an increase from that period last year. How do HA and OM forecast growth for cash assistance? >> Cash assistance, again, you know, we work pretty closely with OM to project the um the population for cash assistance. Um you'll see in the budget the um outyear budget or well really 26 through 28 is uh flat. Um one piece that admittedly is a change is mandatory engagement. So um we are you know working closely with our partners at OM to try to refine those models. Um uh cash assistance though is admittedly a more more difficult program for us to forecast. >> Okay. And how much was actually spent on cash assistance in fiscal 2025? >> In 25 it was um just under 2.7 bill uh billion dollars. >> And what about to date in fiscal 26? >> Through January we've spent 1.6 billion. >> Okay. Um, as of March, how many cash assistance recipients, individuals and households are there? >> Uh, so the overall cash assistance uh case load currently is 585,339 individuals, which is uh 327,059 cases. >> 33 327,059 cases. >> Thank you. And how has this number changed over the past several years? >> Um I over the past several years we've seen the cash assistance case load increase um over time. I would say over the last few months we have seen for the first time it actually begin to decrease a bit. Um uh but I think that is a trend that we're continuing to track to determine if that is actually a trend or some other sort of >> an anomaly perhaps >> anomaly perhaps >> because I was going to ask why there's been such a big uh increase over the years. >> Uh I think a big increase over the years is really reflective of uh the need that has been out there in the community. Um and you know cash assistance the eligibility determination is very much based upon income and someone is income eligible or they are not. So we as an agency continued to do you know that assessment um starting in 2023 especially we saw a significant increase in monthly cash assistance uh applications each month and that has really continued. We've seen some abating of that, but you know, we were seeing on average between 45,000 and 50,000 applications for like a multi-year period and many of those people were uh income eligible for cash assistance. So, they were were added to the case load. So, I think it is a it was a reflection of, you know, uh economic realities for uh low-income individuals in New York City. And we also made it easier to apply for cash assistance during that period of time. We shifted it to online so individuals did not have to come into one of our sites uh which allowed people to also apply whenever it was convenient for them. Um and I think that also led to an increase in in the applications and access to the program. >> Um that that's great. That work is great and would love to see more ways that we can make it easier for people to to access benefits. Um, what services is HR providing to clients to help them transition from the city FEPS program to to full self-sufficiency? And I guess this goes back to your statement, Commissioner. Um, just, you know, what effort really are we making to get people out of the program once they've been in? >> Yeah. No, that thank you for the question. I think it's a really important point and an effort we should we should work on together. So looking at how we can can reduce cost of the program, how we can of course move people to self-sufficiency over that five years. There will be a number of people who we can engage in our career and training programs. We can engage in um other subsidy programs to reduce the cost of the program overall. And so I think there are really some strategies we can use to help people move to self-sufficiency and to um to limit the cost of the program so that we can serve more people. Um, what have you done already to date? I know, you know, you're talking about things you would like to do in the future, which is all great, but I'm wondering what's already been done. >> Certainly. So, uh, to date, you know, much of that work would have been focused on individuals who are also on cash assistance in receiving City FEPS, um, and engaging those individuals in the robust career services programs that we have, uh, either through our PACE providers, um, as well as other programs such as Pink, Jobs Plus, um, and our business link program, which offer a variety of different, uh, connections to both training, education, as well as we've developed a lot of very robust partnerships ship with employers in the community um and connecting people to active employment. So that's work that we have been doing that has been really focused on the cash assistance clients um and I think to what the the commissioner is talking about is looking at ways in which we can really expand that to other people on city fees uh who could also benefit from those programs. >> And what about um specifically for city feeps not just cash assistance? >> Right. So, uh, we don't have a separate specific program for city feeps at this time, but I think that speaks to some of what the the commissioner was talking about in regards to, you know, looking forward as well, um, looking at things that can really be targeted at individuals on city feeps who may not be connected to other benefits. >> Okay. >> Right. I I think there as as the administrator said, there wasn't a focused effort for city feeps only clients. It's a great opportunity to work with people towards self-sufficiency, not waiting till year five, you know, starting early, engaging folks, and um and making those pathways out of the program. >> Great. Um and do you track how many City FEPS clients have fully transitioned to self-sufficiency? >> We can get that number. I know our data people are tracking city fs quite closely >> and I we would love to see for fiscal 25 and then fiscal 26 to date as you've been sharing. >> Thank you. Um okay, moving to community food connection CFC funding. Community food connection is a vital resource providing muchneeded food to the city's vast network of food pantries and soup kitchens. This program is especially important given the current changes to SNAP as a result of the federal HR1 bill. In the fiscal 2026 preliminary budget response, the council called on the administration to increase and baseline the budget to $100 million to help combat the high levels of food insecurity in the city which persists today. I was glad to see that as of the preliminary plan, the fiscal 2026 budget for for CFC totals $79.5 million. For the first time in the history of this program, the preliminary plan increased the baseline funding by 53.6 million to 74.5 million starting in fiscal 2027. Is the current fiscal 2026 budget for CFC an estimate of the need for the whole year or do you expect to add more funding in the executive plan? >> Um, no. We we ant we believe that this will be the full amount for the budget. >> Okay. and how will you allocate the additional funding across the CFC network in fiscal 2027 and the outy years? >> Um, that's a good question. We're still working across our network to um work on the distribution plans um and our various pantries. Um while increasing the baseline to $74.5 million is a substantial ad, food insecurity in the city has continued to increase and the inflationary increase in the cost of food puts a burden on the city's food pantries. Will H consider adding annual adjustments to the CFC budget to account for inflation and the increased cost of food procurement? Um we can talk to our partners at OM and um our partner agencies and explore that. Yes, >> I'll take that. Yes. At the end there. What is the actual spending thus far in fiscal 2026 and how much was spent in fiscal 25? >> Um through January, we've spent um $37 million. In fiscal year um 25, the program spent uh 59.1 million. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on to HR staffing levels. Um as of January 2026, the actual headcount for the agency was 10,821 with 1,696 positions vacant or a 13.5% vacancy rate. What are the main challenges the agency has been experiencing in hiring new candidates? >> I mean, I think some of it has been similar to what uh Chief Johns has said before. Um, you know, in particular when focusing on uh case management and case worker type of positions, but I think we have uh taken a lot of very, you know, um innovative approaches to a recruiting uh non-traditionally as well. also uh expanding where we are recruiting talent from um and where we can you know uh uh uh utilizing incentives which is we work we utilize something for the hiring of case workers around that um and you know we will continue to sort of focus with our office of um HR solutions to identify additional ways in which we can sort of expand recruitment efforts so that more people know about city opportunities and the benefits of actually coming to work for a city agency and the pathways that can provide. >> Um, many of the agency's frontline workers, such as eligibility specialists and others involved with the processing of benefit applications and reertifications, are in very challenging jobs with low levels of pay. Has the agency done an evaluation of salary increases for these positions to improve retention and hiring? Um, we're always looking at retention and hiring and salaries. Um, those are conversations that, uh, we would also have with the city office of labor relations as salaries are, uh, baselined within negotiations and agreements with the individual unions that oversee those workers. >> Um, what is the agency's hiring plan, especially as it relates to frontline client service positions, which I think you got into that a little bit earlier. What are the priority positions the agency is hiring for? >> I can speak for HRA. Um I would say for HRA, you know, we are always remaining focused on um our benefit opportunity specialists that are in cash assistance, the ES's who work in SNAP, um as well as the case workers who work across several of our uh specialized service programs including APS, HASSA, um and domestic violence services. And I think frontline workers will always be where we focus our efforts whether on the DHS side or on the HA side. >> Um what percentage of candidates offered positions accept them? >> We'll have to get back to you on that. Uh we'll need to get that data from our HR. >> Okay. Do you have any anecdotal information about the top reasons folks may turn some of these positions down or leave the positions after short periods of time? I mean for for turnover I will say and acknowledge what you had said right frontline positions in our agency and others um are very challenging right uh we are we are uh there to support uh New Yorkers who may be experiencing a particularly challenging time and so that is uh something that we really want to focus on um and make sure that we are really providing supports to our staff right whether it's through work well or other wellness initiatives that really helps to balance really talk about like self-care and what can we bring into these spaces so that uh staff can really access those as well as looking at ways in which we can really show staff that we are invested in them and we want to have them with us for a long time. So the development of the staff development uh that I had talked about before as well to really especially for frontline staff workers outline right what are pathways within the agency that one can really sort of advance um within it and see you know across DSS H DHS that this is a place to to create a career which we have you know many you go to many sites and you'll find people who have worked for for our agency for 30 35 plus years >> and I'll just add that that's a great that's a great indication of people wanting to continue to work with the agency and we'll still always create a need for more frontline workers, right? So even in that scenario, we're creating we're creating that gap. People are moving on to other jobs. That's that's a great that's a great story and we will always like there just always will be a fullcourt press on on frontline staff and creating the pathways I think into those careers so that people can see their future. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, all right. Benefits assistance processing and hiring plan. According to the PMMR, there's been a steady high participation rate in cash assistance and SNAP with 604,000 individuals receiving cash assistance and 1.75 million individuals receiving SNAP in the first four months of fiscal 2026. What is the average monthly volume of new applications and reertifications for each SNAP, cash assistance, and Medicaid? And would love a comparison to pre- pandemic levels if if possible. >> I do have that. Um, great. So, uh, the average monthly cash assistance application volume is 46,91 for FY26 to date. Um, and that is an increase of 77% from the same period in FY19, which was an average of 26,494 per month. On SNAP, the average FY26 to date monthly application volume is 29,454 and that is a increase of 14.9% from the same period in FY19 which was an average of 25,630. And then for Medicaid, uh the FY26 year-to-ate application volume is 28,553, which is a 9% decrease from the FY19 year-to- date average of 26,186. I'm sorry, that is an increase, not a decrease. >> Oh, >> yeah. >> Thank you. You said the 28,553 is year to date for 26 >> 26 and then it's a 9% increase from FY19 which >> 268686. >> Okay, got it. >> Um, what percentage of applications and reertifications are denied? Um I will I don't want to speak uh exemporaneously so I will uh get back to you on the specific numbers because I know it has transitioned and I think it might be in my book but I don't know that I underline that so we'll get back to you. >> Okay. And the reasons for denial would also be helpful. >> Absolutely. >> Um and are there bigger delays in each program processing new applications or reertifications? >> Uh no there are not. We have the the extensive delays and backlogs we saw several years ago have been cleared and we have remained they have remained clear >> have been fully cleared. >> Yeah, the backlogs have been fully cleared um and have remained cleared. We obviously still focus on our timeliness rates right and are always looking to increase those. Um, but I will say, you know, uh, uh, for a majority of like applications that maybe are not, uh, done within the 30-day window, uh, they are done shortly afterwards. >> Okay. Um, according to the PMMR, in the first four months of fiscal 2026, the cash assistance processing time timeliness rate was 67% and the SNAP processing timeliness rate was 89.9%. While these are improvements from the prior year, they're still below your target of having 95% of benefit applications processed within the state's required 30-day time frame. What is the current timeliness rate for cash assistance and SNAP for fiscal 2026? uh the cumulative rate I will have to get back to you though it is remaining consistent with those. I will say on cash assistance there are some uh managerial and systems things that we are soon to be implementing that will uh increase that as well. Um uh there's I don't want to get too weedy but there's there's there's different uh on cash assistance um there are certain uh cases called single issuance or oneshot deals um where uh the benefit is given to an individual um but uh there may be a system delay in actually officially closing the case but the timeliness is only calculated on the closingness of the case. So we're working on making sure that that closing of the case can happen automatically. So it will truly reflect that >> automatically at the time the >> of issues of the benefit. >> Okay. Because my question was going to be what would cause the discrepancy between the issuance and closing the case. >> Uh it may be staff member delay in going back to officially close the case. >> Oh, okay. >> Um and other things. So we're just looking at instances there. >> Sounds like a simple fix. So we definitely still I'm you know we still have uh ways to go but we're implementing a variety of you know management and tracking tools to further increase uh timeliness to get to the 90 95% targets. >> Okay. And I think that was everything from here. Okay. Staff retention rate. Going back to this, while the preliminary plan has included additional positions for adult protective services, case workers, and SNAP eligibility specialists, there's a growing concern over staff retention and lack of institutional knowledge, which both have a direct impact on agency operations, client service, and benefits processing time. IBO found that many APS case workers hired leave within one year of their start date and that more than 40% of the active eligibility specialists processing cash assistance or SNAP applications have less than three years of experience given that many hires are new to subject matter of their roles. How is HR ensuring that APS case workers are able to meet the demands of job of the job and navigate the technical complexities of their work? >> Certainly. So we focus a lot on training and onboarding of new members. Uh there's also um you know lots of desk training and other training uh going on within the offices. So newer workers you know uh uh are joining right we make sure that we utilize workers that have far more a longer experience time right to to help individuals and explain to them what's going on. Um and we are constantly evaluating right uh what additional trainings can we provide to APS workers similar to what we're doing on the SNAP side right um in regards to in the SNAP world yes we uh and cash assistance we onboarded over a thousand new staff members over the last several years um and you know have really focused on training in those instances uh especially increasing in-person trainings versus virtual trainings and as we said on the SNAP payment error rate we've been able to onboard 20 new trainers who will actually spend their time in these locations working with the uh benefit workers to address any gaps in knowledge and uh address any changes that need to be done in regards to how individuals are processing their work. >> And what are the current retention rates for the key benefit staff including cash assistance SNAP APS Medicaid and city fs? >> I believe we'll have to get back to you with those rates on those programs. Okay, thank you. Um, we'd like to get a better understanding of the budgeted and actual staffing levels for key benefits programs. How many budgeted positions are there for roles that support the administration of each of the following programs? SNAP, cash assistance, Medicaid, and city fs. >> So, uh, budgeted for SNAP is 1,324. Cash assistance is 1,718. Medicaid is 855 and then city FEPS is uh 161. But I would say that with the same caveat I did earlier in regards to that's like specific processing but there are far larger numbers of people who work on the city faps program. >> Okay. So 1,300 people for SNAP to manage almost well 29 and a half thousand uh applications monthly. Is that >> yes >> accurate? Okay. And 1,700 people for 46,000 almost 47,000 cash assistance roles. Yep. 855 for almost 29,000 a month for Medicaid and 161 plus we'll say for well we didn't get that one for you for the city fs okay all right I think the um case load sounds extreme >> um it is large numbers First, I will say um you know the SNAP cash assistance and Medicaid programs um uh NCT fibs they don't operate on a case load basis in regards to like a worker is assigned specific cases, right? >> Um that's how we used to work uh when individuals had to be assigned to a specific center and that's the only place they could receive services. uh when we move to a city-wide uh approach to this uh what the way in which things work is we have systems where workers can just take the next case that is in front of them. It can be from anywhere across the city which is a far more efficient way for us to actually process the work and make sure that we are moving through the work uh correctly. But yes, it is a large. >> I guess workload is maybe the word I should have used. But either way, it sounds like it's a lot of work for not that many people. >> Um, by program, how many of these positions are currently filled? Um sure. for SNAP. Um, the latest number I have is 193 for cash assistance. Um, I have You know, I don't have the headcount for cash assistance. >> Okay. What about Medicaid and >> city feeps? >> Yeah. Those uh you know, actually city fs also I only have the programmatic budget. So, we'll get back to you on that one. >> Okay. And Medicaid. >> And Medicaid 48. 710. >> 710. Okay. >> I would I would also note I think our numbers are a little older, so we'll make sure we'll follow more accurate account numbers. >> Thank you. And what's the average salary for each position? >> I'll also have to get back to you on those. We didn't I don't have that with me. >> Okay. Um, is the need greater than what is budgeted? So given the workload you know and the number of employees that you have and the retention rate um and the timeliness rate do you think that the number of employees you have currently is sufficient? >> Um I think our uh headcount as budgeted is sufficient. I think as uh we discussed earlier, making sure that we are keeping all of our vacancies filled is really a priority for us. Um and then that will really indicate to us if there are still gaps in staffing or not. Um but uh I I do believe, you know, the the budgeted headcount we're seeing um in the SNAP, cash and Medicaid program, you know, we are able to, you know, manage the volume. There are obviously months that may be a spike that is an anomaly. Um, but our focus is really on making sure that we're keeping we're we're as close to the headcount as possible and then that can inform to us if we think there might be an additional need and if so we would then have a conversation with OM. >> Okay, that's fair. Is H currently using overtime to meet the demand? >> Uh we are currently we do utilize overtime within the programs as needed. Um uh you know we have not had to utilize mandatory overtime in a very long time except in a few specific instances that were again anomalous. >> Okay. Um would you happen to know how many hours and and what the cost is for the few occasions you've had to use it? >> Uh for mandatory overtime, we'd have to get back to you on that. >> Any any type of overtime, >> right? I think on on we'll get back to you on that. Um, I'm assuming it's in relation to those programs you're talking about, correct? >> Uh, yes. >> Okay. >> And, uh, we just talked about this, but I was doing just my own. I didn't even do the math. I'm just looking at the numbers, but I would love to know if you have the current case ratio for SNAP, cash assistance, Medicaid, and rental assistance, and how that compares to the optimal case ratio. >> We can get back to you on that. Um, I think we need to talk to our folks about cash and SNAP because we don't think about it in case >> I was gonna say perhaps work ratio or whatever metric you want to call it. >> We'll we can come back to you on that. >> Okay, great. >> All right, moving into uh city of Yes. The city council secured $5 billion in commitments as part of the city for all housing plan in recognition of the importance of advancing a holistic housing plan that could support working and middle-class New Yorkers and invest in solutions that meet their housing needs. Of the $5 billion, 187 million was committed over 10 years for city feeps vouchers and social services to create permanent homes for those in the DHS shelter system. This commitment in included an investment of $122 million over 10 years for affordable housing service contracts. Was the funding added as a new need for affordable housing services in the preliminary plan part of this commitment? >> Um yes it was. Um we did as part of the um preliminary budget. Hold on one second. I'm so sorry. Um, looks like um we have $215 million for the city fabs vouchers. >> 215. >> Yeah. Let me make sure. Hold on. I'm sorry. You know what that that actually is the part of the original commitment which covered fiscal years 25 and 26. So >> So no, >> it wasn't added as a new need. Um, it would have been but not in the preliminary budget. >> The previous budget, >> sorry, >> it was added previously. >> It was added previously. >> Oh, affordable housing services specifically, not overall city fs. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Um yeah, I mean uh no, the affordable housing services money that was added to the budget um like the rest of our cliffs was added to cover um our anticipated spending for the AHS program as per the um uh previous administration's commitment. >> Okay. Are you working with other city agencies on this? >> Um I mean we we do work with other city agencies um on the construction. AHS is a program that um largely develops new affordable housing programs. So we would work with the normal city agencies um like HPD or um city planning and department of building on AHS. >> Okay. And how many new units will be available with this funding? >> Um right now we have um um provided we financed about 491 new units. Um we have additional units in our pipeline. Um, >> how many additional? >> Uh, 226. >> 226. Okay, thanks. And then >> I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I gave you the wrong I gave you last year's number. The current number of active units is 561 and we have an additional 226 in our pipeline. >> 226. Okay. And then how many of them are currently used by voucher holders? Um, AHS is >> they all would be AHS is uh >> 100% >> financed um based upon city fs. >> Okay. And when do you expect all of the new units to come online? Those additional 226. >> Um, one building I believe is uh more imminent. Um, but I can get some clarity from my uh development team to to understand when those two we should see them available and see moveouts. >> Okay. And what's HA's process for selecting and placing city feebs voucher holders in those units? Um we we look at it in the same way that we look at um any rent above a building in regards to we will work closely with our DHS colleagues um to you know let them know that a new building is coming on in a certain number of units and then we will work together to uh target uh appropriate referrals to the to those buildings. Those buildings I will say uh tend to often uh rent up relatively quickly. It's crucial that the funding allocated as part of the city for all commitment is targeted to those at the highest risk. How is H ensuring that the most vulnerable people are reached with this funding? >> Uh similarly similar process we work very closely with our colleagues at DHS depending on uh the affordable housing you know uh site and what specific services it may or may not offer. So because we want to make sure that we are making the most successful permanent housing connections as possible. Great. Okay. Give me just one moment, please. Okay. Um, rental assistance programs and source of income discrimination. In March 2026, a panel of five upstate judges ruled against the landmark state law that bans discrimination against people who use government assistance to pay their rent, stating that it violates the constitutional rights of property owners because the program requires building safety inspections. Has evaluated the potential implications of this ruling for the city and specifically for the city FEPS program? I think we are currently assessing its potential implication for the city. >> Okay. It can't be good. I would state um to date, how many source of income discrimination complaints have been filed by HR clients attempting to use city feeps vouchers in fiscal 2026? >> So source of income discrimination complaints would actually be directed to CCR. Yeah. You don't you don't know how many of your clients might >> I don't have that information here. We can look to see if we have anything, but CCHR would have the official >> number. We'll make sure to ask them in that. >> Um, and then how does HR work with CCHR to address source of income discrimination complaints from clients attempting to use city feeps vouchers? Is there anything like do you you know make sure people know their rights, the law, etc. We very throughout the process we make sure uh when individuals are utilizing a subsidy that they have information on their rights. If they think that uh they are being discriminated against, how they can go about filing a complaint and then obviously if CCHR reaches out to us, we would engage with them fully to support um whatever they might be looking at uh that impacted our clients. >> Um and an ongoing concern. Sorry, I'm moving to domestic violence services. An ongoing concern of both the council and advocates for several years has been the adequacy of the city's DV shelter capacity to fully meet the need. Many individuals who would benefit from the specialized services available in DV facilities end up in the DHS shelter system where such support services are not available even though they're deemed eligible for DV shelter. I understand that the current DV capacity includes 2,290 emergency beds and 628 units in DV tier 2 facilities. These figures have not changed since fiscal 2024. Does the current DV shelter system have enough capacity to meet the level of demand? And also I would just ask and I don't know if you have this or not but I know that um DV cases of domestic violence went up significantly during the pandemic and so I'm wondering if those numbers now are similar to those numbers or if they're more similar to prepandemic levels. >> I do not have that data with me but we can we can look into it. Um uh and you know you are correct on the number of uh domestic DV shelter beds that we have. Um, I will say though that we work closely with our DHS providers and they are required to make sure that they are connecting families who are experiencing domestic violence with appropriate services. Um, and um, you know, at times there are uh, decisions made by families who would choose to would prefer to actually go into the DH system rather than come into the DV system. Um, so we're constantly >> What was What are some of the reasons for that? Do you know? Um I think that uh there are uh in the DV system there are some um additional sort of rules and requirements that um need to be complied within the system that aren't necessarily the same rules and requirements in the DHS system. Uh much of the DV system is uh the emergency system especially is overseen by the office of children and family services at the state. So they really uh dictate to us uh all of the real regulations and they're um more of the direct oversight of those systems even though we facilitate it on our on our end. Um much of the operations of that system are really dictated by OCFS. >> Can you share any details about um additional tier 2 units or emergency beds that might be in the pipeline? >> Um we don't have anything specifically that is currently in the pipeline. Um but we are constantly you know looking and assessing and discussing uh with our partners at OM um if more beds would would be you know appropriate. I think one of the challenges in the DV system as well is for a family or an individual, a single adult, um there may be multiple factors that need to be taken into account around placement. Um which is why we're very thankful to our our colleagues at DHS um you know that sort of provides additional coverage um because to uh I think map out and try to understand um within the DV system the location size and other units that we would need across um is challenging which is why the close partnership with DHS uh helps to ensure that we're able to to place families and individuals. Um, what's the average vacancy rate for tier 2 units and DV emergency beds? >> Sure. So, uh, the tier 2, I'm sorry, the emergency beds has an occupancy rate of as of December of, um, approximately 85%. Um, and I will get back to you on the tier two because I don't seem to have that here on this sheet, but we'll get back to you. and how's DHS working to better address the unique needs of those impacted by domestic violence who reside within the regular DHS shelter system. Thank you for the question, chair. um as we do um around all needs of our clients, constantly working with our city partners, including the mayor's office to end gender and domestic violence around best practices, training materials, engagement strategies, going out into shelters to make sure that our staff, our provider staff is comfortable having conversations around domestic violence, that they're doing it with sensitivity and empathy, um and making sure that the warm handoffs from the DV system um continue so that if they're non-residential services that somebody is receiving, they continue to get those with us. >> And we also, I just say, also make sure that we coordinate closely. HRA runs a series of uh non-residential programs as well as our colleagues at uh NGBV. So, we have uh uh closely connected referral pathways between us as well. >> Great. Thank you. >> Okay, going back to asylum seeker response. Um, as of February 28th this year, there were 29,89 asylum seekers within the city's care, mostly in the DHS system. DHS will be taking over as the lead agency in the city's response and integrating asylum seekers into its existing shelter system. As we discussed, um DHS's preliminary plan includes 1.15 billion in fiscal 26, 1.2 billion in fiscal 27, and 498.4 4 million in fiscals 2028 and 2029 for asylum seeker expenses. How are these costs estimated and what services are provided with these funds and how do they address the unique needs of asylum seekers? You addressed that earlier, but um how are the costs estimated and what services are provided? >> The um special population support services funding um in the budget is uh somewhat of a legacy budget. Um if you recall in uh when other agencies were operating different shelters, all of the budget budgeted funding was um placed within DHS's budget and then on it was allocated on a periodic basis. So um the budget that we have now is based on our best projections of how many uh asileles that we would serve. Um but the the dollar amount um and how it was set is largely done on um earlier right on earlier projections from past years. Okay. Thank you. And the enhanced cost of the provision of shelter for asylum seekers during the Adams administration was a result of the reliance on emergency contracts, including those for hotels that were held by agencies outside of DHS. You may know that the speaker's bill on emergency contracting intro number two is now on the mayor's desk awaiting signature. It limits emergency contracts to 90 days unless prior approval is granted by the controller and requires audits 15 days after execution. If a contract is not submitted for audit within 15 days, the contract would be voided. The council passed this bill to save the city money on expensive emergency contracts and to ensure procurement goes through the proper channels. Does DHS have any remaining emergency contracts related to asylum seekers? >> We're currently in the process of transitioning um emergency contracts that will end in June to new contracts effective July, standard shelter contracts. >> Okay. So, uh no additional services or programs will be contracted post July. I can speak only to the the shelters that were under contract under the emergency contracts. >> Okay. Thank you. Um and how much do you anticipate the full integration of asylum seekers into the DHS system will impact costs? >> I would defer to Chief John's. However, our system is integrated in that as clients are coming in, they're being placed in the shelters that are available um at the services that are available. So I'm not sure that there's a >> if I mean if the outyear projections are accurate then it seems like there will be a cost savings but >> um yeah I mean generally speaking um the the shelters they're moving into the standard shelters would be cheaper. Um, okay, this might be a little redundant, but will there be any cost savings realized by this integration given that DHS already is experienced in the provision of shelter? >> Um, no, I mean, we're not projecting cost savings as a as it relates to that. Uh I mean if you look at the budget historically you would have seen adjustments made to the budget related to the um the change in the population but um not related to the integration. >> Okay. Thank you. Um okay and then just uh some followup to council member Nurse's questions earlier. Um, on February 19th, Gothamus reported that the administration would restart homeless encampment sweeps, which had been paused earlier in the year. Given that the mayor had been critical of sweeps conducted under the Delasio and Adams administrations, this was a bit surprising. The administration has stated that DHS will be the main responding agency for future sweeps, whereas NYPD was the primary responding agency in prior sweeps. Can you share more about what this would look like and how it would be different from past sweep operations? >> Sure. I'm I'm happy to to start here. Um, and as I as I said, I think the move to have the Department of Homeless Services take the lead makes good sense. And I personally don't think of these as cleanings or sweeps or moves, but as focused housing efforts. Um, we focus our housing efforts on all different uh parts of the population, whether it's at the end of the subway line or I've heard about, you know, the top 50 list of people we're really focused on who have really entrenched needs. Why not focus on people who are staying in a specific place and make sure that they have focused outreach and support around um housing and next steps. Um, so yes, I think uh DHS is the right lead. These are the outreach workers who've built the relationships. we know where the spaces are. Then we can also hear firsthand what people need and want and make sure that those offerings are available as we do our planning for the future. Um making sure that people's uh people's stuff uh is is cared for, understanding um their family situation, and making sure they're placed in the best possible environment. >> Okay. Thank you. And um what if the sweeps encounter a homeless individual in the encampments who doesn't want to enter shelter? How will that be handled? >> Yeah. And I I um haven't even had a chance to sit in with the teams yet to to understand what they do. So I don't want to answer there, but I think you know we we do want to be pursuing relentless engagement and we certainly cannot force people to take shelter options. >> I would say that's a good answer. >> Okay. Um, all right. How will how will um folks who are encountered be connected to services and shelters? So, I know you're not deep into this yet, but my understanding is that you have some experience in this area. So, maybe we can speak a little aspirationally about what what should happen and what the best >> Yeah, I would I would love to. Um I think it is actually important to set kind of non-negotiables for the way we engage with people. Um I um did want to know in my previous job and want to know here um the by name list of people that were engaging um their housing preferences. We had a specific housing preference form to understand what what people preferred and other social services they needed. I want to know what we offer to people. Um, and uh, I want to know what they um, will do given that the place that they've been staying will no longer be a place that they can stay in in the future. And I think um, in my experience, which may vary as I come here, um, most people if if offered the things that they they really need, we'll take those offers um, and be stably housed at least for some period where we can start to provide other social services. >> Okay. Um, a common criticism of sweeps in the past has been that many unsheltered people's belongings were thrown away. How will you ensure that that that this doesn't happen? >> And I will be happy to let the administrator speak about this as well, but I I think that um you know that that that kind of practice should not be allowed. We should understand um what people have with them, what they will be able to take with them and what they want to take with them and make sure that that um those materials get inventoried and that they can retrieve them and then anything that is left we mark as left. Right? I think it's also really important to our partners who do the actual cleanups to make sure that we haven't left something behind that people want. Right? We have to leave that space clear for them to do their their proper work. So, I think the issue of people's belongings is a really important one. >> Okay. And um you know, I know again you're you're still just getting your feet under you, but in past cases we've seen, you know, Department of Sanitation that's usually engaged in these types of sweeps, literally throwing people's belongings right in front of them into the back of the sanitation trucks. Um items for their children. um you know and obviously just valuable items to them um deemed invaluable by you know city employees. So just flagging that for your awareness. >> Did you want to add anything administrator? >> Thank you chair. I would I would just add as the commissioner mentioned especially for those who have accepted um placement making sure that we're working with them to bring in uh items within limit things that are important to them but also ensuring that we're maintaining the health and safety of of all of our clients. >> Understood. Um do you have lockers or storage for sweeps? >> Yes, there um is storage that DHS manages. So, we will kind of inventory with the individual what um they're not going to take with them and we will um store that for them. >> And I assume that's free of cost. >> It is free of cost. >> Okay. Thank you. And um again, you may not have this direct uh information right now, but how will DH But you might actually. So, how will DHS identify encampment sites for sweeps? Like do you have already a list of locations identified? >> We do and we work with our partner agencies, elected officials, um community members to identify and assess um areas of concern. So this is an ongoing um practice. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Capital. Okay. >> All right. I I think we're getting into the home stretch here. um capital plan budgeting. In the recently released preliminary capital commitment plan for fiscals 2026 through 2030, both HR and DHS had virtually no changes in funding since the adopted capital plan. No funding was adjusted for any of the major HR capital projects such as computer equipment and technology upgrades, improvements to HR facilities, or communication systems. In DHS, no funding was added for the single room shelter units in upper Manhattan that the administration announced in February. The Belleview Men's Shelter and Intake Facility, which will be closing this month for repairs, also did not receive any additional funding, nor did the East Third Street and Bowie shelter sites, which will become intake centers following Belleview's closure and may require capital funding to accommodate more clients. Why were there no adjustments to the capital budgets for HR and DHS? Um yes thank you for that question. Um so part so the there are a number of initiatives that you had noted some of them um we didn't have the estimates prior to the capital plan locking um but for the most part we've worked really closely with the our partners at the office of management and budget particularly through um um the last you know number of months to align our capital budget. So, while we didn't add money, we are moving money around to ensure that we have funds in the places that we think will need it. Um, and we also have um money in lines where we can move it and make it available. Um, but at at the time of the capital budget, we did not have um a need to make uh a request for additional funds. Okay, that sounds like um a bit a bit of a budget dance there in ter you're saying you're just going to move funds for certain projects. >> Um >> to other projects? >> No. What what I think what I'm saying is that there there are some needs like um um uh Belleview which we didn't know at the time right of uh >> that the budget lock. So there will have to be adjustments made for that. But there are some needs that we are aware of. We've been um at some of our sites that is >> that you're saying the funding for >> Okay. >> All right. >> For example, and at the risk of adding an example where I could be wrong, but um being at 83rd a few times now, um I believe for example that there's an elevator upgrade that has already been budgeted as part of the normal capital planning. Okay. Um for the existing site. >> Okay. Correct. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you. Um, so and then I guess this goes back to your earlier statement. Has capital needs assessment been conducted since adoption? >> Um, that's a good question. Uh, I'll have to get back to you. That's not in my area, but um, we we'll get back to you on that. >> Okay. And how often are capital needs assessments required? Um, again, yeah, I'm sorry. I'm just not aware of that. I mean, we we we will get the information to you. >> Okay. Um, okay. Then you might have the answer to this one. Has an assessment been made of what repairs are necessary at Belleview and what the capital cost may be? >> I don't think there's been an assessment of that done at this time. >> Okay. All righty. We'll follow up on all of those. Okay. Right. Okay. All right. Thanks. Okay. Um Okay. More City FEPS. Uh City FEPS has grown exponentially since the inception of the program in 2018. The initial budget for City FEPS was only 26.3 million, growing to $1.78 billion in fiscal 2026 as of the preliminary plan and growing to a projected budget of 3.04. 04 billion by fiscal 2029. As the program is approaching the one decade mark, we would like to discuss key takeaways and what the future of city feeps could look like. Can HR detail what has worked effectively within the city feeps program, what has not worked and what lessons have been learned since its inception? >> I think we're very happy to set up a separate time to sort of go more in depth there on on that. But I think the you know I think the the program has been very successful in moving people out right connecting people to permanent housing. Um I think you know it's very clear that the program has effectively done that. I think as the commissioner said right we do need to look at you know ongoing of the program right from a sustainability point of view. Um but I think that you know it has uh proven itself to be a respected tool within the community in connecting with landlords. So, um, that I think, you know, is proven in the 66,000, uh, or 68,000 households currently utilizing the program. Uh there are obviously things we're going to be looking at in regards to ongoing, you know, uh management of the program and how can we make sure we're effectively connecting people to services that also offer a off-ramp from the program because we've connected people to uh good paying jobs and employment that allows them uh self- sustainability. Um and those are I think some of the some of the key things but we are happy to set up time to discuss at further detail. >> Okay, that sounds good. I look forward to it. But um just to clarify, some of the workforce programs it sounds like are improvements that you might want to make in terms of >> uh yeah, some of the >> the the city feep specific targeted programs that we had discussed before. We hadn't had just one that was specifically focused on uh cityf. So that is I think one of the things we would we would be looking at to connect uh more individuals to services that can support them in you know the progression of an individual's career. Okay, sounds good. What is the number of city feeps voucher holders who lost their housing and subsequently returned to shelter within one year in each of the fiscals 2024, 2025, and 2026 to date? >> We'll have to get back to you with that data. >> Okay. And also, I'd like to know how many return to shelter within two years. So, within one year and within two years. Um, there have been multiple studies and reports analyzing whether the efficient utilization of city feeps could offer potential savings for the DHS shelter system by providing New Yorkers permanent housing and helping them avoid shelter. Can you walk us through how the monthly cost of shelter compares to the monthly cost of rental assistance vouchers? >> Yes. Yeah. I'm sorry. Um, yes, I can do that. So, the the shelter system is paid on a PDM rate. Um, so if we think about just a um single adult, it's probably a little easier. Um, it would be about $4,600 per month for shelter. And that would compare to um >> Sorry, what was that number? >> Uh, $4,600 for shelter. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Um and comparing that to the city perhaps rate um where a studio apartment would be 2646 as our payment standard. >> Okay. In the long term, how how do the cumulative costs of shelter and city feeps compare? >> You know, that's a good question. Um, and it's a hard one to answer. I mean, a lot of the driver for the two programs is on length of stay. Um, >> is on what? >> Length of stay. >> Oh, length of stay. Mhm. >> Yeah. Um, and generally speaking, people would stay in rental assistance or housing longer than they would shelter. >> Okay. Has DSS seen DHS shelter savings as a result of the current city FEPS program? So, I I shouldn't answer that question, especially when we've got the shelter numbers in front of us and a direct kind of correlation or causation even um between those two programs. But I think just to add that um I think the way you're thinking about it, the questions that you're asking are the way I'm thinking about it as well. If we're going to invest um in programs that help to support people into affordable housing with subsidy, we've got to see savings somewhere. Um, and I'd love to see them in the shelter population. I think that's where everyone would love to see them. All things being equal, everyone prefers housing to shelter, whether that's the individuals being served, us I think uh as officials as well as the community, right? So, we we want to see that um happening. So that is the way I'm starting to as you know in the first couple of weeks looking at both of those budgets together and how do they impact one another so that we can house as many people as possible and see reductions in shelter. >> Thank you. City FEPS is a crucial program for helping families and individuals leave and avoid re-entering the shelter system. We've seen consistent and significant growth in spending and enrollment in the program each year since inception. CityFEP's enrollment is reaching a point where voucher holders are entering their sixth year and beyond in the program. We would like to learn more about this specific subset of voucher users. Currently, by household, how many city FEPS voucher holders are in each year four and five of the program and how many are in six or beyond? >> Uh, we can get back to you with that data. We we have it. I just don't have it here here with me, but we can follow up with you. >> Okay. How many households have been in the program for less than four years? Is that where the other numbers are? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, for that I would like four years and then three, two, and one year. >> Certainly. >> Basically, >> every how many are in each how many people are in each year of >> You got it. Thank you. Got it. >> Um on average, how long do clients stay in the city febs program? Um we uh um have seen that yeartoyear there is not a lot of drop off where folks are are renewing and they continue to be eligible. Um so uh we are not we don't see an extensive amount of drop off you know throughout the program. Uh but we can follow up with some more details on that. >> Okay. This goes back to your earlier point commissioner that on once you're in you're basically in the program. It's not really >> right unless we do the work that the administrator has been describing um to really work with people early on. >> Okay. Um how many city febs households currently have earned income? >> Uh it is we can get you the specific number but I think it is about 25 to 30% in that range. Um, and then on average, what is the household contribution amount for City FEPS voucher holders? >> Uh, it's 30% of income. Uh, we can get back to you what what those dollars may look like, but um, uh, it's 30% of income. >> Yeah. Okay, that concludes my questions. Thank you all very much for your patience and um Commissioner, I will just say that uh usually you all leave and then we have public testimony. um much of which I think you should be present to hear. And thank you. And I'm making this as a a general statement for your awareness. Um we're always told by the administration that somebody in some room somewhere is watching online, which I believe to be true. Um but I do think it's really important, especially given this topic, that folks stay. Um, and so I recognize that you're not always going to be able to stay for the entirety of the time. Um, I certainly as the chair am committed to being here for the entirety of the time, but I would ask that whether now or at future hearings that you make um a real concerted effort to ensure um that members of high level senior members of your administration remain in the room um to hear public testimony. Thank you. Okay, I think we're going to take maybe just a three minute uh break to transition here. Thanks. Come Okay, thank you all so much for your patience. I'm now opening the hearing for public testimony and I want to remind members of the public that this is a government proceeding and that decorum shall be observed at all times. As such, members of the public shall remain silent at all times. The witness table is reserved for people who wish to testify. No video recording or photography is allowed from the witness table. Further, members of the public may not present audio or video recordings as testimony, but may submit transcripts of such recordings to the Sergeant-at-Arms for inclusion in the hearing record. If you wish to speak at today's hearing, fle please fill out an appearance card with the Sergeant-at-Arms and wait to be recognized. When recognized, you will have two minutes to speak on the preliminary budget for general welfare. If you have a written statement or additional written testimony you wish to submit for the record, please provide a copy of that testimony to the sergeant-at-arms. You may also email written testimony to testimony at councsil.nyc.gov within 72 hours of this hearing. Audio and video recordings will not be accepted. Uh the first panel is and forgive me in advance for mispronouncing any names. Anthony Lackam, Shandra Smith, Lisa Rhymer, Naveen Swallen, Mun Clifford, Abby Bieberman, and Melody Cra. Okay. Abby Bieber is that? No. Okay. >> Okay. >> Oh, okay. But she's not here. >> Abby, we going to follow. >> Abby will go on in the next one. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. We will begin with Anthony. >> Hi, I'm actually here for support. Okay. As in you're not testifying, you're just >> Yes, I'm just >> No problem. Thank you for your support. Shandra. >> Hello. My name is Shandra Smith. I am an eligibility specialist for uh the Human Resources Administration. I work in Brooklyn and I process SNAP benefits for uh congregate care facilities and uh social security recipients. Um the recent budget cuts have impacted us tremendously. We are working under staff and the human aspect is really lessening. What we want is um to be able to process the the applications and know who we're processing for. The people in the community are our neighbors. um the the people that come in that need social services or need to have a human interaction and with AI we can't really um get that human uh interaction for the whole um better to to better the experience. All right. When they're applying, they have different circumstances. Um, all of the people are not the same. And with AI coming in, um, what they do is pretty much generalize everything that uh, they lump them into different categories. And that experience has led to um some people not getting the benefits that they need. >> I'm sorry, just to clarify, AI is being used currently as part of the application process. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Yes. It's less um less staff and um with the system being updated constantly is causing a lot of issues. Some applications are not being processed in a timely manner. There are applications that are being denied because of the machinery and it's just do you know when um do you recall when AI when you started to use AI? >> No, I don't recall. >> Okay. We'll follow up with the agency. >> Right. I I don't recall. >> Okay. Let me just run through the the full testimony and then I'll come back to you. Is that the end of your testimony? >> Um I guess so. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Uh Lisa, >> hi. My name is Lisa Rhymer. I'm also an eligibility specialist. I work for SNAP as well, but I work at a Bronx location. Um, the reality of it all is that um, machines do not have the capacity to practice empathy. And when people come into the censors looking for help from um the human resources administration as an eligibility specialist, you are making a determination on what is happening right before your eyes in real time. Again, just to piggyback off of what TR just said, um you watch it as it happens when you're going to work, when you're leaving from work. It's our neighbors. It's our families. It's people who know um our communities as well. Um and if a machine is allowed to make this determination, there will be a lot of hungry families which makes other things happen because it's a raindrop effect, right? Um so it's imperative that we keep the personal touch because what is occurring with people is not happening to a machine. Um so with the delay in services being processed for families, individuals, our communities so to speak, um when there's an error, you need a person to fix that error because if the person is entitled to the benefits, then they should receive them in a timely manner. Um, so again with all the updates and the things that they are making interact with our jobs, it often causes confusion and there's a constant state of hysteria. um because we are mandated to make sure the benefits are secured and issued to set families that deserve these benefits, but they don't think about how the machine is messing up the function. So again, a delay that you need a person to fix. So it's very important that we use it as as possible if not at all. >> Thank you. >> Um you have to worry about like just the kids watching the kids and going to school and if they can't eat your brain needs food to function. >> Yeah. >> Um how are you preparing them for anything better? And if we are showing them the way by keeping the people in their jobs to do what is needed for our communities and for the city of New York, then you know it's very important that they weigh it. Uh we should not cause families to be collateral damage, >> right? >> Because we're trying to save money. >> Yeah. Thank you so much for your testimony. Thank you both. Um, Naveen Swallmayen. >> Hi, my name is Naveen. Um, I want to start by thanking the folks on the panel for their testimony and thank you, Chairperson Hudson. My name is Naveen Swamin. I'm the health justice advocacy manager and the health justice program at New York lawyers for the public interest. We urge the council to continue and strengthen support for the immigrant health initiative, a program that saves lives every day. It funds more than 20 nonprofits including NOPI um to provide legal help, community education, hospital partnerships, and critical medical advocacy for immigrants across our city. Access to health care remains limited for more than 400,000 undocumented and uninsured New Yorkers. Um with the council support, we've increased enrollment in state funded Medicaid and the essential plan changes that are life-saving and cost-saving for the city and the state. In 2025, Nilby screened 85 people with serious health conditions such as endstage renal disease and HIV for immigration and health benefits. We also trained hundreds of case workers, medical providers, community groups, and legal service organizations citywide. As more New Yorkers are detained in immigration jails, NOP remains one of the few organizations addressing the severe health risks inside these facilities. We continue to provide culturally competent legal representation, including for transgender, gender expansive, and those living with HIV. Yet, major gaps remain. HR needs staffing, multilingual capacity, and targeted funding to reach black and LGBTQIA immigrants who are facing the highest health disparities. HR, which serves over 3 million New Yorkers, cons continues to struggle with delays, high case loads, and inconsistent case handling. When H is underresourced, people go without food, medical care, and housing. We see the impact daily. One of our clients, a black LGBTQIA asylum seeker with a chronic health uh condition, spent months trying to secure Medicaid despite being eligible, repeatedly turned away, denied interpretation services, and was ultimately hospitalized, something that was entirely preventable. New York needs more navigators, stronger training on immigrant eligibility and disability pathways, and clearer multilingual material so people can enroll and stay enrolled. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and we look forward to doing this critical work together. >> Thank you so much, Mun Clifford, Melody Crowell. >> Oh, okay. Yes. Sorry. We'll put you on the next panel. Thank you, Melody Cra. >> Good afternoon. Um, my name is Melody Crowwell. Thank you for allowing us to uh speak today. I am a associate boss opportunity specialist, a boss, um, for the past almost eight years, but before that I was a regular worker, a boss. I've seen a lot of transition in HRA during this time. I don't like it. Um, you know, I've seen a lot of in a lot of outflux of boss and a boss retiring, resigning. It's a lot of pressure. Um especially with the different programs that were have recently been implemented in the last couple years such as CA demand seams some of those programs to me don't make any sense because what we already have been using worked um effectively and efficiently. So I didn't understand like why are we doing this and then certain part of those particular programs um don't carry over certain functions. So we run into a little bit of a lot of error as my uh co-workers have said over here before. Um I it also you know people are dealing with like I said a lot of stress with management practices are not that great. Um the increase in um applicants for cash assistance. Um less staffing. Um, we voluntarily have to work on the weekend to keep up with our cases processing, you know, single issuance grants, single issuance cases, reertifications, etc. I do it because I know the work has to get done. We have a job to do, a service to do to the people that we serve in this wonderful city and I just like to be able to continue to do my job effe efficiently and effectively with the best support as possible. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Um, and then did you want to add something? >> Yes, please. >> Go ahead. >> So, I I saw you asked the question about AI. Mhm. >> So, first, um, Anthony Lacken, I'm actually the president of local 1549. >> Okay. >> Uh, before I started that role, I was an eligibility specialist, um, working in home care. Uh, I say that to tell you everything everyone said on here, I agree with. Last year, uh, during the holidays, uh, the agency reached out to myself and 371 and other unions to ask us to have our workers work overtime, mandated overtime. And we asked why. And they said because a private agency that they had hired who uses AI messed up. And there were over 30,000 cases that were not going to be completed because AI couldn't do it or messed it up. And then my eligibility specialists had to pick up the slack to get that completed. So when we're talking about AI not having the ability to feel, he also doesn't have the ability to complete the work to be done in a timely manner. >> I'm sorry. When when did you say >> uh >> this occurred? >> So Thanksgiving day I was working last year. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. >> While everyone was working, I was having Thanksgiving, I was working. >> And I just wanted to confirm, you're talking about mandated overtime. You mentioned you work, you voluntarily work. Does that mean you're getting paid overtime and you're just volunteering to do the work on the weekends and get paid overtime or that you're not? >> That's correct. But there was a time that we were also mandated as well. I didn't want to put all of that in my testimony, but yes. >> Okay. >> There was a time. >> Well, because um what the administration just told me was that they haven't had mandated overtime in quite some time. So, do do you know >> so >> when the last time was mandated overtime? >> Sure. Mandated overtime ended in January 6th >> or 13th of this year. It continues in social services, home care, and probably ended sometime in February for the ESS's >> mandated overtime. >> Mandated overtime. I can provide emails if you required proof of that. >> We'll we'll follow up. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. Okay. Thank you all so much for your testimony. We really appreciate you being here. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Okay. And the sergeants will just get get your email addresses. Okay. So that we can follow up directly. Um, Anna Champany next from Citizens Budget Commission. Thank you. You can begin when you're ready. Okay, this looks good. >> Okay, >> thank you. Uh, good afternoon, Chair Hudson. Um, I'm Anna Champany, vice president for research at the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan nonprofit think tank and watchdog that advocates for smart fiscal, operational, and policy choices to deliver a better future for all New Yorkers. Our report, False Choice, presents our assessment and recommendations on the fiscal year 27 preliminary budget. We commend Mayor Mumdani for his more accurate and transparent budget that reflects the true cost of current services, but find that the proposed budget risks the city's affordability, competitiveness, and preparedness for what may to come. Rather than raising taxes and raiding reserves, the city should eliminate wasteful spending and improve efficiency so that government can deliver high-quality essential services that remain affordable over time. To demonstrate what's possible, we present five actions that could save 2.6 6 billion annually, including one that I want to discuss today. Keeping the number of housing vouchers flat to restrain unaffordable spending growth without impacting current recipients. Capping city PEP's program would save $330 million in fiscal year 27 and $3 billion over the four over the next four years without taking away vouchers from current recipients. City FEPS is the nation's second largest voucher program only behind NICHA section 8 program and it is a radical outlier among locally funded voucher programs. Its cost has tripled in the last three years from 499 million in fiscal year 23 to a projected 1.7 billion this year. The preliminary budget projects spending will increase another 24% to 2.2 billion next year and 44% over the following three years. While increasing rents drives some of the cost growth, most of it stems from the growing number of vouchers. In just one year, from October 24 to October 25, the number of vouchers grew 31%, an additional 15,046 vouchers, reaching uh a total of 64,439 households. The average uh subsidy grew 13.2% over the same period. Uh the preliminary budget adds 9.5 billion for city feeps on top of the previously budgeted 3.1. The city needs just twothirds of the 9.5 billion to cover baseline funding for current vouchers. The remaining one-third would fund new vouchers, allowing the program to continue growing. We estimate this would lead to 70,000 vouchers at the end of fiscal year 27 and over 100,000 at the end of fiscal year 29. The city cannot voucher its way out of the homelessness crisis. Not only is the program fiscally unsustainable, but even as the number of vouchers has more than tripled, the number of households in shelter has not shrunk. In fact, excluding migrants and asylum seekers, it has increased 21.5%. Now is the time to cap the number of city FEPS vouchers at the current level. No one would lose a voucher, and the city should certainly not be pursuing an unaffordable expansion that would explode costs even further. uh turnover would allow the city to issue vouchers to some new households and priority should be given to those with the greatest need. This smart choice would save 330 million in fiscal year 27 and 3 billion. As I said, city feeps can and should be part of the city's housing strategy, but the housing crisis can only be solved by leveraging state and federal housing subsidy programs and partnering with the private sector to increase housing production. Expanding city FEPS beyond current levels would compromise the city's ability to deliver core services and potentially jeopardize the viability of the program for current voucher holders. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for your testimony. Um and I do want to acknowledge that uh Deputy Commissioner Hooks is here. So, thank you for staying. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to call up the next panel. Thank you so much, Molly Earl. Yes. Mean Vega, Carlos Rodriguez, Allison Rosenthal, Beth Williams, Rachel Sabella, and Nicole Hunt. We can start with Molly. >> Good afternoon, Chair Hudson. Um, thank you for holding this hearing today. My name is Molly Eckerley and I'm here on behalf of Met Council to join our fellow anti anti-hunger advocates in calling on the council to baseline fund community food connection at $100 million and to continue in to invest in the incredibly impactful feeding our communities council initiative by increasing its commitment to $25 million. For over 50 years, Met Council has been one of America's largest Jewish charities dedicated to fighting poverty, providing wraparound social services that include the nation's largest kosher and halal emergency food network and serving more than 320,000 New Yorkers annually. New York City's emergency food system is at a tipping point. Nearly 1.3 million New Yorkers experienced food insecurity in 2025, exceeding COVID era highs. And this was before the federal SNAP cuts. These devastating cuts will cause hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to lose SNAP benefits in the coming months. And SNAP provides nine meals for every one that a food bank provides for the same cost. When SNAP is cut, the need does not disappear. It shifts onto providers that are already stretched beyond capacity. New York City is also home to the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in the country, and too often these New Yorkers must choose between their religious observance and accessing emergency food. CFC's unique flexibility allows providers to select food that meets their community specific needs, including kosher and halal um that are not available through other funding streams. Investing in CFC means combating the looming SNAP cuts while advancing equity in New York City's emer emergency feeding system. Uh feeding our communities has also enabled Met Council and our partners Hispanic Federation and Catholic Charities to connect underserved communities to culturally appropriate food where traditionally traditional emergency feeding falls short. We urge the council to continue and expand feeding our communities to $25 million, ensuring that we can continue this important work. By baselining CFC at $100 million and continuing feeding our communities at 25 million, the council can support both providers and hungry New Yorkers. Thank you, and we look forward to continuing to work with this committee. >> Thank you so much. Perfect timing. Yes, mean Vega. No. Okay. Carlos Rodriguez. She's not here. >> How about now? There we go. Thank you, Chairwoman Hudson, and members of the general welfare committee for holding today's hearing on New York City's uh budget for fiscal year 27. My name is Carlos Rodriguez. I have the privilege of serving as president of City Harvest, New York's first and largest food rescue organization. I want to thank the council first and foremost for it steadfast support support of food security initiatives and city harvest over the years. Uh this year our plan at city harvest was to rescue and deliver 86 million pounds of food to millions of New Yorkers. We thank the city council for its continued support in that effort including investments in feeding our communities initiative that was established this past year. Because of that investment, we actually project being able to rescue 90 million pounds in this important year by the end of June. As an organization that's been fighting hunger for over 40 years, it's clear to us that this year is not business as usual. City Harvest network of over 400 pantries across New York City, some of whom are sitting uh at this table with us, are seeing over a million additional pantry visits per month. That's an 87% increase compared to pre-COVID data from 2019. We have already taken significant steps to uh in response to this growth in need. Uh since 2019, we've increased our food distribution by over 30% with a focus on high need neighborhoods with pantry uh food supply gaps and at risk populations. We started recruiting new partney uh pantry partners over the last uh 18 months. Uh now we are also rescuing over 6 million pounds of local food from New York State, more than most uh other organizations in our area. Uh we want to connect New York City neighbors with food from our upstate farms. We have expanded our policy and advocacy uh efforts so that our neighbors and pantry leaders alike are represented in the halls of government. However, charity alone cannot and should not be expected to replace effective and equity uh public policy. So, we asked for three basic things. First, the expanded expansion of CFC uh and continued funding of it at 100 million to fully fund HAN SNAP enrollment operations and SNAP outreach programming uh and so they can support and to make sure that they're actually utilizing it as well, which I know has been an issue in the past. and to restore access to healthy grosser in incentive programs in addition to the other uh uh funding lines that support our our frontline partners and pantries as well. Thank you. >> Thank you so much Allison Rosenthal. >> Hi Chair uh Hudson and members of the general welfare committee. Thank you so much for this opportunity to testify and for your continued commitment to addressing food insecurity in New York City. Um, my name is Allison Rosenthal and I am the chief program officer and registered dietician at the Westside Campaign Against Hunger. Uh, we are an anti-hunger organization that for 47 years has been focused on providing access to healthy, fresh food and direct benefit enrollment to New Yorkers in need. WISA is one of the founding members of the Roundtable, Allies for Food Access. The round table is a coalition of nine of the largest and most innovative emergency food providers in New York City and includes organizations like City Meals on Wheels, Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, Met Council, New York Common Pantry, Part of the Solution, Project Hospitality, St. John's Bread and Life, the CA, and the Campaign Against Hunger. Together, our members serve communities in all five burrows and collectively support a network of more than 800 pantries, soup kitchen, and feeding providers that that feed more than over 1 million New Yorkers each year. I am speaking today on behalf of of WISKA and the round table. As the council considers priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, we urge you to continue investing in frontline emergency food providers, innovative community-based solutions that address food insecurity at a scale and strengthen the emergency food system that so many New Yorkers rely on. First, we strongly uh support establishing a 100 million as a permanent annual baseline for the community food connection program. CFC is the backbone of the city's emergency food network, providing flexible funding that allows more than 500 food pantries and soup kitchens to serve neighbors experiencing food insecurity. Second, we encourage the city council to strengthen collaboration and accountability across the city's food policy infrastructure. Uh we we we asked for the establishment of a dedicated city council committee on food that would elevate food policy and citywide prior citywide priority and ensure consistent oversight of programs addressing hunger and food access. Finally, we urged the city to broaden leadership within feed NYC to include frontline emergency food providers. Um earlier today you asked HR how they were going to allocate their resources and the organizations um on FeedNYC that advise that do not include any frontline emergency food providers and we need to make sure that the frontline perspective is also included uh in how uh resource allocations um get made. Thank you. >> Thank you so much Beth. >> Hi. Thanks Chair Hudson. My name is Beth Williams and I'm the New York State Policy Director for Hunger-Free America, a national uh direct service and advocacy organization. We're headquartered here in Manhattan and we have an office in the Bronx. Um I'm here today on behalf of the 1.2 million New Yorkers who are experiencing hunger as you all know. We've talked about today. Uh we're in a massive crisis in the city that's only going to be made worse by the HR1 bill. Um we need a massive coordinated response from both the city and the state to deal with this crisis. Right now, one in five children in New York City are dealing with hunger, and almost half the children in the Bronx are dealing with hunger. The cost of living continues to increase in the city as salaries don't match that. Um, we believe the most impactful way to fight hunger is through increasing participation and keeping folks on um the the supplemental nutrition assistance program, SNAP. Um, as we know, uh, with HR1, up to onethird of SNAP participants in New York City are going to have their benefits threatened. Um just in the month of December in 2025, 1.7 million city residents received $415 million in federal grocery support through SNAP. And so in order to help these folks maintain their benefits, um Owen also mentioned this morning, you know, what we were going to do to help folks stay on SNAP. Um all that was really mentioned was just, you know, screening folks for work requirements um at their reertification meetings in the next year. and we believe that more needs to be done with for that along with working with the state. Um we believe that the final budget deal needs to provide extra money for DSS to work with nonprofit groups to help SNAP recipients meet their work reporting requirements by being both screened for mental and physical disabilities, offering work and paid employment, participating in job training, or performing volunteer service. And we also support the increase in the civic impact fund to fund nonprofit organizations to host SNAP recipients as volunteers to meet their work requirements. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for your testimony, Rachel. >> Thank you, Chair Hudson. Thank you for hosting this hearing and thank you to all the council staff members that have worked so hard to make sure all of the thorough questions were asked today. My name is Rachel Sabella and I have the honor and privilege of serving as the director of No Kid Hungry New York or a national organization working to end childhood hunger and poverty. You will have my written testimony with all the data, with all the wonky requirements, but what here today I want to say is how important it is for this council and the Mandani administration to work together to connect New Yorkers with meals. I want to ditto everything my colleagues at this table said and I could not be more grateful that these are the organizations on the ground providing New Yorkers with meals as we face one of the most devastating times that we have ever had as a society. HR1 has been mentioned a lot today. That was when on July 3rd the United States Congress voted to decimate the SNAP program. $200 billion in cuts to benefits, but also cost shifts and new requirements. And that's why it's more important than ever that we listen to what the earlier panel said about the workforce and how they are there for people. As we look through this, New Yorkers are struggling. One in four children face hunger. Our recent poll told us that threearters of families in New York City are choosing whether to pay the rent or to pay for food for their families. parents skipping meals. They are going to grocery stores and buying filler meals. We have to do better. But our immediate needs that we need to make sure the city's budget responds to are the cost sharing effects of HR1. One is the SNAP administrative costs. As of October 1st, the federal government is expecting states to put in 75% of administrative costs. In the past, it was 50%. that would increase costs in New York City by more than hund00 million. Now, I'm sure there's negotiations going on. Could the state put this in? Could the city put it in? We need to make sure that money is there. So, there is no stopping this program. As families are facing the work requirements, the support is there. The enrollment is there. The last thing I will mention is that as of October 1st, 2027, states could be on the hook for paying partial benefit costs. It's all based on a state's error rate. And that's something we also want to make sure is reflected in this budget. So that's where those staffing lines are so important. Is there technology? Is there training? How is New York City working together with New York State to do this? We stand at the ready to work with this council. We know New Yorkers support these programs. We know how important they are to the economy and we are here to make sure that we protect the SNAP program. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Nicole. >> All right. Hello. Thank you, Chair Hudson, and everyone on the general welfare committee staff for being here today. My name is Nicole Hunt. I have the honor to serve as director of public policy and advocacy at Food Bank for New York City, the city's largest hunger relief organization, serving over 800 community-based organizations across the five burrows and all 51 New York City council districts. I'm here today because New York City must act in the face of the coming hunger crisis as changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act continue to take effect. This bill will slash $186 billion dollars from SNAP over the next 10 years, putting 48 million meals at risk right here in New York City in that same time frame. As many here know, new ABOD rules take effect this month. And approximately 180,000 New York City SNAP recipients are at risk of losing this critical benefit beginning in June of this year. Not because of any change in their circumstances, but because the rules have shifted underneath them. We know many of these New York New Yorkers will turn to the food assistance network. We will do all we can to close that gap. But our network was never designed to replace federal assistance. And yet that is increasingly what we are being asked to do. Our ask for the city budget and I'm also going to submit written testimony with all this written out, but um our 100 million in baseline funding for CFC to bolster the food assistance network during this time. support for SNAP outreach programs and administration and the HRA workforce to help preserve benefits for as many New Yorkers as possible, investments in key council food initiatives such as the food pantries initiative, food access and benefits and feeding our communities to allow flexible and innovative programming and funding for programs that promote food access and healthy nutrition such as get the good stuff, health bucks, and groceries to go. These are not luxuries. They are the backbone of a food security system that millions of New Yorkers depend on and that is currently at risk. Thank you for your time and the opportunity to testify. >> Thank you so much. Thank you all for your testimony. Really appreciate you being here. Okay, the next panel is Mun Clifford, Abby Bberman, Anna Arin Gallagher, Montel Cherry, and Chiron Small. Chevron. Sherbon. Shiovan. Cherbon. Thank you. Okay. We'll start with is it man? >> Oh, Moon. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Hudson. Right. All right. Good afternoon. My name is Moon Clifford and I am the attorney in charge of the housing practice at the Legal Aid Society. Thank you, Chair Hudson, and the members of the committee uh for the opportunity to testify today regarding the budget. Uh we also want to acknowledge that uh the commissioner, Miss Dalton, um for her leadership and engagement on the issues of homelessness prevention, housing stability, and the supports families need to remain safely housed. When tenants when a tenant is wrongfully evicted, when a mother loses SNAP benefits to skimming fraud, when a survivor of domestic violence cannot safely navigate a divorce, or when an immigrant New Yorker is detained without counsel, the consequences are immediate and devastating. Families lose income. People enter shelter. Vulnerable New Yorkers are pushed deeper into crisis. That is why this budget hearing matters. With an annual case load of nearly 200,000 legal matters, the Legal Aid Society takes on more cases for more clients who cannot afford private counsel than any other service provider in the country. Our work is amplified by volunteer help from law firms, corporate law departments, and expert consultants. Together, we bring a depth and breath of perspective that is unmatched in the legal profession. Legal Aid's unique value lies in our ability to go beyond any one case to create more equitable outcomes for individuals and broader, more powerful systemic change for society as a whole. for our civil practice. The exe the executive budget and the city council's investments provide crucial funding for legal aids work representing tenants facing eviction, helping families access benefits and supports, preventing homelessness, and stabilizing communities. We're we're grateful for that partnership from for the council's long-standing commitment to preserving and strengthening the promise of the right to council. We appreciate the conversation today regarding homelessness prevention. We are encouraged by what the administration and council have said about addressing homelessness and stabilizing families and communities. We welcome the emphasis on practical tools that can help keep people housed. As we approach the 10th year of the right to council, it is important to reflect both on how much has been accomplished with the support of the council and what still remains unfinished. Right to council has transformed the landscape of housing court in New York City. It has helped tenants remain in their homes, prevented countless evictions, and made housing court fairer and more just. We're proud to have partnered with the council and the city in helping realize that vision, and we remain committed to working together to fulfill it more completely. However, the program remains not fully funded. I'm going to wrap up in another critical sense. There are still a significant number of income eligible tenants who go unrepresented. Even with all that has been accomplished, the city has not yet fully realized the promise that every eligible tenant who needs council will receive it. While we are grateful for the council's partnership, for the administration's engagement, and for the opportunity to continue to build on what has already been achieved as we mark nearly 10 years of the right to council, we should celebrate what the city has made possible. But we should also remain cleareyed about what is still needed. With continued partnership, adequate investment, stronger data, and a shared commitment to full implementation, New York City can continue leading the nation in protecting tenants and preventing homelessness. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify. Um, I will submit more fully written testimony. >> Thank you so much, Abby. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Hudson. My name is Abby Berman. I'm associate director of the public benefits unit at the New York Legal Assistance Group. I want to highlight a few urgent issues today. Uh first is access to public benefits. Um Nyl continues to see clients improperly denied public assistance, SNAP and emergency rental assistance because of systemic failures, long phone wait times, delays, and failure to index documents and applications that are not processed within the legally required timelines. Clients applying for renters grants routinely wait more than 30 days pushing them to the brink of eviction and the DSS1 number remains nearly impossible to reach. Some clients can't complete critical steps in the application process or they can't obtain information that they need um crucial information about their public assistance uh cases. These administrative failures create churn, increase homelessness risk, and ultimately drive up city costs. We also have concerns about the additional burdens that are going to be on the agency as it implements these federal changes. Second is CityFaps. NILAG supports the council's expansion of cityf and we understand the city is facing a deficit, but there is a need for long-term investment as it would not only get families out of shelters and keep people housed, but it will also save the city money even for those who do not qualify for city fs. I'm sorry. Even for those who do qualify for city feeps, administrative delays are preventing families, landlords, and case workers from resolving routine issues. Um, the city is failing to move people out of shelter because of these delays. And this is for people who already have shopping letters. Expanding staffing, improving communication, and digitizing documents would dramatically shorten shelter stays. We haven't really heard what the city plans to do um in terms of concrete plans. Third, I just want to wrap it up with some DHS shelter services. Um according to the mayor's management report, 43% of families are receiving behavioral health and developmental supports due to staffing shortage and un um uneven distribution across shelters. Um, families are also now spending an average of 401 days in DHS family shelters, which is more than a full year of a child's life spent in temporary housing. These delays reflect the systemic barriers to accessing permanent housing and require urgent coordination. Lastly, we um urge the continued support for right to counsel, legal services, and increased um and all of our uh initiative asks will be in the written testimony. Can you just give me that that number again? 401 days. >> Um, that was what was from the mayor's management report, but yes, 401 days average. >> Thank you, Anna. >> Hi, good afternoon. My name is Anna Arkin Gallagher. I'm the associate director of the civil justice practice at Brooklyn Defender Services. Thank you, Chair Hudson, and members of the committee for the opportunity to testify today. And thank you to the New York City Council for its continued support for legal services programs like ours. BDS serves more than 40,000 people each year across our Brooklyn and Queens offices who have historically been unable to access traditional legal services or whose unique issues caused or exacerbated by criminal, family, or deportation proceedings require specialized knowledge to address. With the generous support of the city council speakers initiative, our civil justice practice works to minimize the consequences of system involvement and provides early intervention legal services to ensure our clients keep their jobs, stay in their homes, and acquire essential benefits and services. And it's here that the council funding we rely on truly has an impact, allowing us to intervene quickly by providing upfront legal advocacy to avoid the kinds of protracted litigation that can drastically destabilize the lives of the people we serve. To give you just two examples, we routinely avoid public benefits issues and non-payment proceedings for families whose children are temporarily removed from their care by ensuring rental assistance budgets and housing vouchers remain unaffected by a change in household size, which can avoid non-payment proceedings being filed and the prospect of eviction. We also make sure clients of our criminal defense practice understand their employment rights, work to verify their employer's following New York state and city anti-discrimination laws, and affirmatively advocate with employers who have violated these rules. Often, our early intervention means a worker is able to get back to work and litigation is entirely unnecessary. Funding through the New York City Council Speakers Initiative allows us the flexibility to provide these types of preventive legal assistance services and ensures more New Yorkers have the chance to avoid the types of legal problems that can irrevocably disrupt their lives. We respectfully request that the council increase this critical funding so we can continue to provide the proactive highquality advocacy that keeps New Yorkers in their homes and their jobs. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and for your continued support of the people, families, and communities we represent. Our written testimony provides further details on the program initiative and discretionary funding requests we are making to ensure we can continue to do this work. >> Thank you so much, Montel. >> Good afternoon, Chair Hudson and the Committee on General Welfare, and thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Montel Cherry and I'm the deputy director and director of litigation for Mobilization for Justice. Our mission is to achieve justice for all. For over 60 years, Mobilization for Justice has provided free civil legal services to New Yorkers who with low incomes who are disenfranchised and who have disabilities. We also conduct community education, advocate for policy reform, and bring impact litigation. Every year we handle more than 10,000 cases from across New York City and the broad areas of housing, disability and aging rights, economic justice, and children's rights. Through our services, we prevent homelessness, help seniors and people with disabilities live independently, help families maintain economic stability, support immigrants and children with mental health disabilities, and address racial disparities. We're speaking here today in the midst of several crises. surging homelessness, skyrocketing cost of living, marginalization of the vulnerable, and a city struggling to meet the needs of its existing residents, let alone those of our newest neighbors who come here seeking safety, stability, and opportunity. And we're tackling these issues in the face of a federal administration openly hostile to the ideals of public service and the public good. The nonprofit community in New York City has faced severe delays in contract payments and hiring obstacles amidst the challenges of pay parody for public service work. It has been a tough couple of years, especially for our clients. I'm respectfully asking you to ensure the following initiatives are fully funded and enhanced. Legal services for lowincome New Yorkers and working-class New Yorkers. Legal services for family advocacy and guardianship. Immigrant opportunity initiative. AAPI community support and community housing preservation strategies. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you so much for your testimony, Shervon. >> Good afternoon, Chair Hudson and members of the committee and staff. Thank you very much for the opportunity to testify today. >> Hold on one second. I'm going to start. There you go. >> My name is Shamon Small. I'm the executive director of Legal Services NYC or LISNY, the largest provider of free civil legal services in the country. At its core, our work is about stability. Uh we help people stay in their homes, access benefits, maintain income, and avoid crises that would otherwise push them to the shelter system or deeper poverty. That work is secary. It is central to the city's infrastructure. We are part of the New York City's homelessness prevention system and its broader anti-poverty safety net operating at the intersection of housing, public benefits, and the nonprofit systems that this committee oversees. Today, I want to focus on two structural issues. um whether these homelessness prevention programs are funded at their cost and whether the nonprofit sector delivering them is financially stable. First on cost, New York City made history when it enacted their access to council law commonly known as the right to council program recognizing that legal representation in housing court is essential to fairness, stability, and prevented homelessness. But a right only exists if it can actually be exercised. A right without funding is not a right. It is a promise we cannot keep. At present, funding provided through the right to cancel contracts only cover a fraction of the need. Each year, more than 120,000 eviction cases are filed in New York City. Yet, the current contracts fund representation for only a third of those tenants. We estimate that the true cost of delivering high quality holistic eviction defense is approximately 7,500 per case. Current contract rates fall significantly below that. What that means in practice is that nonprofit providers are being asked to subsidize a public program. For years, we've done that, using federal funding, state resources, and private philanthropy to close that gap. But that model is becoming increasingly unsustainable. Federal funding through the legal services corporation faces growing uncertainty. State funding streams such as Iola are subject to spending restrictions and fiscal pressures. Private philanthropic dollars are crucial to our work, but they are not intended to backfill structural funding gaps in government programs. We case when case rates fail to reflect the true cost of services, providers are forced into impossible choices. We're forced to borrow AC across the the the city um our our partners here I'm just going to skip for right through it. My partners here are forced to borrow each and every day to meet um our our obligations to our staff to meet payroll and instead of the money going into our communities, they go directly into the banks. And I'm not and I do not think that's what the the council intended. I believe the council should fully fund this program, continue to pay us on time. so that we don't have to borrow and put money into the pockets of the banks. Thank you, chair. >> I don't disagree with you, but I would also argue the administration should fully fund the program. >> Absolutely. I really appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you all for your testimony. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Okay, the next panel will be Allison Wilkkey, Victoria Lehy, Lauren Schuster, Jade Vasquez, Katherine Trapani, Brendan Cheney, Thank you. >> Thank you, Allison. >> Hi, my name is Allison Wilkkey. I'm the director of government affairs and strategic campaigns at the Coalition for the Homeless. Thank you for having this hearing and for trying to get through all the detailed information as quickly as possible but with thoroughess. Really appreciate that. Um so I mean to start I'll just say simply that the solution to homelessness is easy. It's housing. Um, but the fact of the matter is is that for every 100 extremely lowincome families in the New York City metro area, there are only 35 apartments that are available and affordable to them. And it is that gap that we are grappling with and that we are grappling with in our city's budget. Um, city FEPS is a really important part of meeting that gap. And there's a lot of talk about how costs have ballooned. The program has grown exponentially. And that is all true, but it is because the program is successful. It's because we are moving people out of shelter with it. Um, you know, in FY25, according to the mayor's management report, there were 21,266 subsidized exits from DHS shelters. And from the testimony of DSS today, uh they said 15,000 people moved out of DHS shelters because of CityFeps. So that means that City FEPS is about 70% of how people are moving out of shelter into subsidized housing. And we know that that keeps people out of housing. It's an investment that we have to make and continue to make. Um, and you know, the council passed laws to expand the program that need to be implemented. I mean, the shelter census is a function of how many people are coming in and how many people are leaving. And if we are not addressing both ends of that spectrum, the shelter census will continue to grow. If we hadn't had city faps, then we would have far more than 100,000 people in shelters uh at this moment. Uh so it's an important program that we need to continue to invest in. Of course, it is not the only program. It's not the only thing we need to be doing. We need to be building deeply affordable housing. Um we need to use all of the tools that we have. But I think the suggestion earlier that instead of funding more city feeps and that we should cap it and rely on state and federal resources is a farce. Those state and federal resources are not there. I mean, we are fighting for those all of the time, but really the city is left with a moral choice here of do we invest in city feeps to house people and make sure that our people, our residents have a home or do we leave people in homelessness? That's a simple choice. Um, the other thing I'll just mention briefly is uh our unsheltered neighbors and funding for safe havens. The city says continually there's over 4,000 safe havens. Um, I think most recently in the press they said there's 4,200. Uh, I've never seen the census beyond 3,900. And if you're talking about online units, um, what's my date here? As of March 13, there were 3,710 online safe haven and stabilization. >> Can you give me that number again? >> Yeah, 3,710 that were online um, and available. U not, I shouldn't say available, but being, you know, most of those are being used. So, we need to invest more in safe havens if if we're really serious about getting people off the streets out of public spaces. That is a key part of it. And, you know, we're asking the the city to add 2,000 more uh safe haven or stabilization beds. That would be a cost of about $98 million, but that's an investment worth making in the system so that we can uh help people get off the streets, get into shelter, and ultimately into permanent housing. >> Thank you. Can you just tell me the statistic that you gave at the top of your testimony? How many? >> Yeah, so it's for every 100 extremely lowincome families in the New York City metropolitan area, so that does cover a little bit of New Jersey, there are only 35 available and affordable rental units. >> Thank you. >> Y and that comes from the um National Low-Income Housing Coalition from their the GAP report. >> Thank you, Victoria. Uh, good afternoon. My name is Victoria Ley and I'm the director of policy and planning at Homeless Services United. HSU is a coalition representing over 55 missiondriven homeless service providers. And right now, New York City confronts an unprecedented homelessness crisis. But this year, city budget can change all of that by making sizable investments in solutionoriented programs. First, we must fund the full city fats expansion. This program has been critical in preventing evictions and moving New Yorkers from shelter to permanent housing. We know that vouchers break the cycle of homelessness. They reduce the likelihood that somebody's going to return to shelter and we urge the administration to make the investments needed to move forward with the full expansion. Then we must increase investments in prevention programs and make accessing benefits easier. We know that Homebase is oversubscribed and this is has caused increased wait times for these very critical services. But our homebased providers at HSU report that they're exceeding their contract deliverables by 113% with months still left in the contract year. So to ease this burden on homebased providers, we need to rightsize their contracts so that they can meet the needs of our neighbors. And as highlighted today, our social service agencies are riddled with staff vacancies, which cause benefit processing to slow down. At a time when the federal government is attacking our neighbors and threatening their benefits, our social service agencies must be staffed and trained accordingly to meet the need. Then we must increase investments in street outreach and low barrier transitional housing. To successfully move successfully move more clients from the streets to housing, we need to expand the housing options available, invest in more single and private rooms as is often requested by clients. And our outreach teams also need modernized software that aids their data coordination. We have to restore headcounts at DHS, DSS, and Mox to eliminate pervasive payment delays. Nonprofits still experience delays in getting paid for their work. In a recent survey of our members, we found that just 22 orgs were still owed $152 million of uh contract payments dating all the way back to fiscal year 18. And we know that staffing has contributed to that. And then finally, we must create parity in shelter contracts. This year does make a more accurate projection of spending on shelters, but what remains true is that there's a lack of parity across those budgets. And this imbalance creates significant differences in the level and quality of program programming an org can provide to their clients. And we feel that New Yorkers experiencing homelessness should experience the same standard of care regardless of which organization runs their shelter. And establishing parody will do that. So more details and data and facts can be found in our written testimony that we've submitted. And we look forward to working with the city council to making sure that this year's budget delivers for all of our New Yorkers, including our homeless neighbors. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Lauren. >> Oh, thank you, Katherine. I had good morning in my testimony, but good afternoon. It's a long day for you all and thank you to you and your team >> uh for the opportunity to testify today. I'm Lauren Chuster, the chief external affairs officer at Urban Resource Institute. We're the largest provider of DV Shelter in the country. On any given night, we house more than um nearly 4,000 people across 27 locations. Thank you for your leadership. Um my detailed testimony will cover a variety of topics. Um but I want to hit the top notes. Procurement reform. Um, you or I, like so many of our partners, we are still owed, even with advances, tens of millions of dollars for services already delivered. We have to get to the underlying causes of the payment delays and increase headcount at DSS to help us do that. Workforce investment. Our frontline workers supporting survivors and unhoused families, they are overwhelmingly women of color and they are doing lifesaving work. They're still paid significantly less than their counterparts in the government. We need pay equity for that workforce. Increased dove funding. Domestic violence rates, they continue to remain stubbornly high. Black and brown women, particularly in the Bronx and parts of Brooklyn, are disproportionately impacted. Dove funding needs to be increased and equalized across all districts. Um, we also urge an investment in violence prevention and survivor empowerment. um prevention is the best way um to stop somebody from engaging in violence. Youth and community- based violence prevention work with people who have caused harm. Economic justice work with survivors and their families. And I want to thank you for your advocacy on behalf of the PAL's program at Magnolia Gardens. Pet inclusive shelter isn't just a nice to have. It is lifesaving. More than 50% of survivors have said that they will not they cannot seek shelter if they have to leave their pets behind. funding from the city of New York to make pet inclusive shelter a reality at every shelter is critical to getting people out of danger um and into safety uh and shelter. Um I also want to underscore what my colleagues have said about fully funding city FEPS. URI is moving into supportive and affordable housing because we recognize that we need to build more supportive and affordable housing. City FEPS is the pipeline to help people move out of shelter and into housing. Um, and we just want to partner with the council on all of this. We know that this is a tough budget year for everyone and the needs of the marginalized populations that we serve are greater than ever. Um, and we look forward to working with you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Can I just ask one quick question? >> Um, you mentioned an increase in headcount would I don't want to put words in your mouth. I don't know if there's a direct correlation or >> I think the um delay payments the late payments the procurement issues are directly related and correlated to >> directly related. >> Yeah, I would say absolutely and I'm sure my colleagues would agree. I don't think that's the only reason but I think that is the main driver of it. If I just add this is something that HSU has worked uh a lot on and we find that for DHS specifically for budget mod or new needs it goes through several layers of staffing. You have your programs, you have your budget, it goes to OM and whenever there's staffing vacancies in those departments, it forces one worker or a few workers to see all of that, right? And it bottlenecks which causes longstanding delays. We've had uh some of our um we've had some of our members go months without a single payment from the city. And while the city council has done wonderful work, right, we've passed several bills in the last few months on future payment schedules, we need to really address the backlog. And doing that means staffing up. >> Thank you. Thank you both. Okay. >> Thank you, >> Jade. >> Good afternoon, Chair Hudson and members of General Welfare Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Jade Vasquez, director of policy and research at WIN, the city's largest provider of shelter and supportive housing to families with children. We operate 16 shelters and nearly 500 supportive housing units across the five burrows. Every night, nearly 7,000 people call Win home, including 3600 children. Today, as our city faces its worst affordability crisis, over 100,000 New Yorkers, including 33,000 children, are living in New York City shelters. As federal cuts threaten vital social safety nets, New York City must lead the nation by expanding, not diminishing, local programs and initiatives that serve struggling New Yorkers experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness. To address this crisis, last fall, win published our action plan to end family homelessness, which urges the city to prioritize funding in the following areas. One, implement city feeps reform. Council must allocate sufficient funds to begin implementing the 2023 reform package, which would extend rental assistance to low-income households in the community, expand to households earning 50% of the city's area med income, and remove burdensome work requirements. These laws could help up to 92,000 New Yorkers access vouchers and could save the city $630 million on shelter costs alone over the next five years. Two, fund local law 35 by investing $40 million to place clinical mental health professionals in every family shelter. This is a critical investment in the long-term health and stability of homeless families. Three, support immigrant families by allocating an additional 85 million for immigration im immigration legal services. We must also invest in the share program, which provides a pathway to permanent housing for long-term stayers in shelter who are ineligible for other subsidies. Four, expand workforce development by increasing funding for shelterbased programs like Wind's income building program. Shelters need dedicated job developers and youth income building specialists to help residents secure stable employment and educational opportunities. Five, uphold the city's COLA commitment by maintaining the 3% cost of living adjustment for human services workers to ensure our dedicated workforce can afford to live in the city they serve. With federal funding uncertain, the city must step up. We urge you to pass a progressive budget that centers the needs of working people and marginalized communities and provides every New Yorker with a fair shot at financial stability and permanent home. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Katherine. >> Thank you so much. Um, I just want to say that we we're submitting written testimony with more detail, but the goal of the social safety net should be to prevent homelessness whenever possible. when someone comes into a shelter, it should be a dignified space that's very high quality and there should always be robust and meaningful access to housing. How we get there with this budget is one I always thank you for the questions from you and your colleagues about our street to home program like getting unhoused people directly into the housing that they want is critically important and we're really committed to expanding that to ensure that the shelter options that we're offering folks that can't access a street to home unit is dignified. We need to revisit the model budget and we need to preserve shelter stock that's frankly crumbling. Um there's a lot of infrastructure needs that the shelter system has and those model budgets that were created in 2018 really need to be right-sized so that we can ensure that people can live with dignity. The city should also continue to invest in purpose-built shelters. Um leveraging the DHS contract for a nonprofit owned model so that we can be better stewards of our real estate and shelter stock. And as we do that, we can close the shelters that we're frankly not that proud of. Um, and we also have to rightsize the wages for the human services workers in those shelter facilities so that the quality of care, the stability of the staffing is there to meet the needs of the residents. Um, but perhaps most importantly, we need to expand citys and follow the law. Um, I really was gratified to be joined by so many neighbors and friends and and you, Chair Hudson, talking about the importance of the expansion. There was somebody testifying earlier um on a on a previous panel that said that it was too expensive and that we should we should be funding core services. City FEPS is a core service. Um, housing our neighbors is a core service. Uh, we have to make sure that nobody is forced into homelessness and needlessly displaced. And so that's really critical. I also want to underline my colleagueu's comments about preserving agency headcount so that the HR, DHS, Mox has the necessary staff to one register and pay our contracts. We were owed $40 million at the close of last fiscal year because of delayed payments, but also in >> and are you still owed that $40 million? >> The net is a little less with advances, but they're starting to recoup them. So TBD, so almost um but also the headcount necessary and there was a panel of H workers that talked about this when the demand for benefits goes up and the federal requirements get more ownorous, we really need people in those seats at um HA at APS at all of these agencies that are really the gatekeepers for our clients that need these critical services. And so I'm I'm wary of proposals I've heard to eliminate headcount. Um we have to make sure we're not sacrificing core services when we're, you know, understandably looking to save money. So, just thank you for your work um and for this committee and the staff for everything you've done today. >> Thank you so much, Brendan. >> Good afternoon. My name is Brendan Cheney. I'm director of policy and operations at the New York Housing Conference. We're uh an affordable housing policy nonprofit affordable housing and policy advocacy organization. Um you have my written testimony, so I'm just going to summarize it in the interest of time. Uh we are concerned about underststaffing and bureaucracy at HR and DHS um and how it's affecting housing programs. Um the understaffing has meant that the agencies do not have the resources they need to effectively run the programs they're running. Um the way we have been analyzing uh staffing at HA and DHS and HPD and and our other work is looking at how staffing has changed since before the pandemic to now and looking at actual headcount. So at HA for example uh in December of 2019 HA had a headcount actual headcount of 12,528 and then in January now their headcount is 10,866. For DHS, it was 2,257 actual headcount in December of 2019. Now it's uh 1,621. So big decreases in actual headcount from before the pandemic until now. We saw this at HPD, but HP recovered their headcount over time in a way that DHS and HR have not. Um, and this um affects their ability to process one shots, city fs, and homeless referrals. And this is at a time when these program programs are growing. Um, uh, City FAPS grow has grown from 3,800 vouchers to 15,000 last year. One shop program 52,000 last year. And then, um, uh, moving households into affordable housing in 2009. DHS moved 409 households from shelter into affordable housing under the set aside program. And last year, uh, they moved to uh, 3,700 households. So our recommendations, HRA must sufficiently staff the agency to meet the needs of these uh various programs and ensure timeliness of their processing. Um ensure homeless referrals are supported and already approved. Uh we're also concerned about non-payment and evictions in affordable housing. Um and so we call on HR to work with HPD to proactively avoid uh evictions. And um we have a recent report that looks at this in more detail. Um that includes appointing a coordinator for oneshots for corrective strategy and then uh finally ending city thefts inspections. >> What was the last bit you said about improving for oneshots? >> Uh coordinator for for oneshots. So what we found is that uh in order to and this is in our report that we put out but um in order to get a oneshot tenants often have to go to housing court before HA will approve a one shot. And so if there's coordination with HPD, with HA, and they're uh getting one shots earlier in the process, it saves the city money, means people aren't going to be evicted and and aren't going to hous in court. >> Thank you. Thank you all for your testimony. Appreciate you being here. >> Okay, the next panel is Shaniah Ramsey. Maria Diaz, Rahham Bader, Meg Espie, Katie Mui, and Richard Flores. Richard Flores. We can start with Shaniah. Just press the the button on there. Yep. Good afternoon, Chair Hudson, and the other members of the committee on general welfare. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the preliminary budget. My name is Chana Ramsey. I have been a New Yorker for over 40 years and a mom of three children and a special needs mom. I am also a member of the Anthos Home Speakers Bureau, a program helping community members with lived experience of housing insecurities and homelessness to share their stories and advocate for change. I'm here today to speak about my housing journey and advocate for housing navigation services for families and changes to the city's process. I have lived in my apartment for over 14 years. It wasn't the best neighborhood and there were a lot of uncertainties due to the management, but that was my home. During CO, the bathroom ceiling began breaking. I called the supers for help, but no one came. When the bathroom ceiling fell in, our apartment was deemed unsafe. And that's when we entered the shelter system. I found myself with $17, two garbage bags, and three children in front of New York City's Department of Homeless Services. In nine months, I lived in three different shelters. The whole time I had had I have had a housing voucher and couldn't find an apartment of my own. My genuine tears of frustration were met without sympathy. A caseworker at the shelter told me about Anthos Home. One of the workers explained to me about the program and didn't believe I didn't believe it. After so many months of being told no, I finally was told yes. Um, I looked for a few apartments with Anthos home. I fell in love with the second apartment I saw. I didn't believe it. It was real. I signed my lease. I didn't tell my daughters. I didn't tell my daughter until we moving into the apartment because there have been so many times that we didn't work out. The support didn't end in moving day. Anthos home set my family up with essential furniture like beds. We had a safe and comfortable place to sleep from day one. From the first year, housing support specialist checked in with me every month to make sure that I knew my rights as a tenant and I could renew my voucher and my lease on my own. Anthos Home has been the glue filling the gaps between valuable resources from the city like housing vouchers and homes. Without a program like Anthos home, I believe I'll still be in a shelter somewhere. Really wouldn't have, you know, I would be somewhere I really wouldn't even thought City Febs is available resource many families like mine can use. Due to discrimination and bureau bureaucracy, families need additional support to navigate the housing process at Anthos Home Program. Model has demonstrated the extra support and advocacy makes all the difference. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. I'm sorry for my nervousness. >> No, no, we, you know, take take the the time and the deep breaths that you need to. We always appreciate hearing from folks who have had direct lived experience. So, thank you very much for being here and for testifying. >> Thank you, >> Maria. >> Good afternoon, Chair Hudson and members of the committee of the general welfare. Thank you for the opportunity to testify uh today on the preliminary budget. Uh, my name is Maria Riaz and I am an afterare specialist at at Antos Home, a nonprofit that helps New Yorker with housing vouchers move out of shelter and into permanent housing as quickly as possible. We are also a member of the family homelessness coalition, homeless services united, and the homes can't way coalition. Today, I'd like to speak about how we can move people out of shelter and into homes faster and help them stay housed long term. In our work, we see both the severity of New York City's homelessness crisis and the impact of targeted housing solutions and process changes. The city has the opportunity and the obligation to better serve its most vulnerable residents both by reallocating existing funds to more effectively address the crisis and by streamlining the voucher process. W's report more than a moral choice shows that the cost of housing a family and shelter cost 35% than doing so via sites. At the same time, many eligible households cannot use the voucher due to discrimination bureaucracy and competition for units. In 2024, the state controller reported that only 21% of households with shopping letters got their voucher approved. Families need >> Sorry, you said 21%. >> 21%. >> Families need support to navigate the housing process as Antos Homes model shows. We provide housing navigation services and at least one year of of postmoving um postmoving support since September 2023 with would help over 1,00 people move into homes, engage over 600 property providers and maintain 100 100% housing stability. By providing targeted funding, the city can move more New Yorkers into permanent housing, engage more property providers, and reduce shelter returns, all while saving money. There are also opportunities for impactful lowcost voucher process changes, including streamlining the package approval process, simplifying income reporting requirements, and allowing CBOS to perform inspection for all units. Together, these solutions will help more people move out out of shelter faster while reducing costs. More details are provided in my written testimony. Thank you for the opportunity. >> Thank you. Can you just share this statistic again? 21% with shopping letters receive housing. Was that it? >> 21% of household with shopping letters got their voucher approved. >> Thank you. >> No problem. Thank you, >> Rahm Bader. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Chair Hudson and members of the general of the committee on general welfare. My name is Rahan Bader and I am the director of community health and well-being at the ArabAmerican Family Support Center, also known as AAFSC. At AFSC, we help immigrant and refugee families enroll in health insurance to address urgent health and food security needs. Our team includes the only two Arabic speaking certified health navigators in New York State filling a critical linguistic gap in the health care system. As a result, our services are in extremely high demand. In 2025 alone, our team supported 3,320 clients in securing health insurance coverage. Today I would like to highlight the importance of managed care consumer assistance program or MCAP and the access health NYC initiative. Both programs are critical lifelines for New Yorkers navigating the complexity of the health care system, particularly lowincome residents, immigrants, people of color, individuals with limited English proficiency, and those living with chronic health conditions. Through MCAP, community based organizations help residents understand their health coverage options, resolve problems with health plans, appeal insurance denials, access prescription drugs and specialty care, and address cost of care challenges. For many families, this support is the difference between having meaningful access to care and going without the services they need. Access Health NYC is a citywide initiative that funds 37 community- based organizations across all five burrows to provide education, outreach, and direct assistance to New Yorkers seeking health coverage. This work is especially important in the current policy environment. Programs like MCAP and Access Health NYC ensure that New Yorkers are not left to navigate the system alone. By investing in community based organizations with deep cultural and linguistic ties to the communities that they serve, the city can ensure that all residents are able to access the health care coverage and services they need to stay healthy. To continue meeting this growing demand for services, we respectfully request maintaining $2 million in funding for the managed for MCAP, increasing funding for Access Health NYC initiative to 4.5 million, $115,355 in access health NYC initiative funding for AFSC and $144,000 645 in MCAP initiative for AFCSE. Thank you for your time and your continued commitment to ensuring that all New Yorkers can access health care and the benefits we deserve. >> Thank you so much, Meg. >> Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I'm Meg SV, the policy and advocacy coordinator at Her Justice, a nonprofit organization that has advocated with and for women of gender minorities living in poverty in New York City for more than 30 years. Last year in 2025, her justice served more than 4,000 women and children across all five bureaus in family court and Supreme Court, including child and spousal support, custody and visitation, orders protection, divorce, and immigration matters under the Violence Against Women Act. Legal services not only stabilize family, but enables an access and engagement with critical public benefits. 92% of our clients are women of color. 85% are survivors of domestic violence. Three quarters were born outside the United States representing 103 countries. Through our proono model, Her Justice trains and mentors thousands of volunteer attorneys each year and pairs them with women facing urgent legal needs. This model allows us to leverage the private sector legal expertise to expand access to justice for low-income New Yorkers. Her Justice is grateful for the New York City Council's long-standing partnership in supporting survivors of gender- based violence. Council investments through the initiatives such as save dove and the speakers initiative have enabled her justice provide critical legal services to survivors across New York City. The need for legal representation of for survivors, it remains significant. Last year, we worked with 866 family matrimonial matters serving more than 2,000 women and children. Through these cases, clients secured more than a million dollars in financial awards and settlements along with ongoing monthly benefits to help stabilize families. Her justice serves the urgent needs of immigrant survivors in family and divorce cases and in applications for status under the US immigration system. Given the heightened enforcement, our immigration practice provides critical assistance for survivors whose abusers exploit immigration status as a tool for control. Last year, our immigration attorneys handled more than 2,000 matters, securing legal status for 102 survivors and their children. Her justice was proud to support the passage of Intro 1175 last year, creating private a pilot program to provide divorce representation for survivors of domestic violence. Divorce proceedings are often one of the most complex and financially consequential stages for survivors. Her justice has deep expertise in litigate divorce representation and provides holistic services so survivors can secure financial independence and remain free from abuse. We urge the council to continue its investment in civil legal services that are essential in ensuring that survivors can securely sa access safety, financial stability, and independence. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. >> Thank you so much, Katie. >> Good afternoon, Chair Hudson. I'm Katie Muay, the policy and programs manager at the network, a membership organization representing over 200 nonprofits that develop and operate operate supportive housing across the state. As you know, supportive housing is one of the most effective tools to ending homelessness and strengthening our communities. However, the model faces mounting challenges as ongoing federal uncertainty, rising costs, and workforce challenges place increasing pressure on our providers. We are here today to discuss the need for targeted investments to preserve the city's existing supportive housing stock, advancing the goal of 1300 units preserved by 2030 in alignment with the NYC 1515 reallocation plan, which the council is in support of. Now, it's time to put that plan into action. We are asking the city to invest 44 million in capital funding and 21.3 million in the expense budget to preserve 325 supportive housing units in fiscal year 27. Our data shows that at least 7,600 units are primed for preservation. All these units are at least 15 years old and use a combination of federal rental assistance and NICH harro support services funding putting them at significant risk of closure. The federal cuts to continuing care are imminent as you know, meaning nonprofits will lose their operating subsidy for thousands of units, destabilizing programs and tenants alike. By investing in preservation now, the city can mitigate this loss. On the services side, the units we've identified are currently operating service contracts through NICH HR SRO support services. This is the lowest funded service contract in existence. While the network was successful in securing a 17.8 8 million increase in last year's state budget. This still falls short. Allowing nonprofits to claim NYC 1515 service contracts will increase the significant gap who will address the significant gap in funding so the providers can adequately serve their tenants. The 44 million in capital funding will preserve at least 325 units that are 15 years old or older to complete necessary renovations, meet energy efficiency standards, and offset rising maintenance on and operating costs. If the city does not address the significant preservation needs now, we will have to contend with the reality of programs closing, residences shutting down, and tenants losing their homes. Proactive investment in preservation is crucial to the stability of nonprofits and formerly homeless New Yorkers. We also fully support the continuation of the 3% COLA, the passage of intro 452 sponsored by Council Member Stevens, and raising the baseline funding for the peer behavioral workforce to 6 million. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you so much, Richard. >> Thanks for giving me the opportunity to testify today along with everyone who's testified and thank you for your assistance. At the last meeting at city hall, there was a message that was being sent. How or why did 13 people die as a result of being homeless, either not receiving basic services, emergency shelter, and medical treatment? Were these deaths a case of mismanagement, neglect, or something else? Despite current Mayor Zorheim Mumdani's reporting that more than 1,100 people were placed in shelter or safe havens during the coal snap. More alarming to me is the factors regarding why 1,100 people needed this type of assistance to begin with. Is it economic? Is it social factors? Everything that everyone's testified today about what their organizations need, how much money they need to help people to work effectively as an organization. um seems to me that are the de facto definitions as to why these individuals are in this position to begin with, including myself, dealing with the Department of Homeless Services, dealing with HR, uh and having them actually perform the tasks regarding housing, regarding vouchers, regarding city faps, regarding section 8 to all New Yorkers who qualified for this assistance. Again, I've stated that u trying to open a case just for myself in regards to the judicial system in this country regarding how I became homeless to begin with has been mired with corruption discrimination fraud. I've dealt with racism, etc. Especially as I noted to you before, as you know, there is now an investigation with a so-called notfor-profit company called the Bowie Residence Committee. Uh along with them, municipal agencies I personally don't feel are running the way that they say they are. I don't have the time here and also this is not the place to go into a very long uh uh explanation as to that but I'm sure everyone here is aware of what that issue is and that's the reason why I'm here because I'm a person who's been homeless for over 10 years and in that 10 years time I've been denied a voucher I've been denied section 8 for various reasons. The last company that I worked for was actually a company that uh gave Mayor Bill Delasio money that he used to run his campaign, which I find a very serious matter in so far as how that's been handled by the city. So that's the reason why I came here to uh testify. Uh lastly, I just like to say that I think relegation of constitutional law would hopefully would result in a replacement of old laws with new and revised laws, which would result in better progress regarding housing placement, regarding citys, how they're issued, regarding section 8 vouchers, etc. And um I would imagine that's how New Yorkers would have a better uh way to have their needs met quite simply. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you all for your testimony. Thank you. Okay, my apologies. Um the next panel, Dana Dennis, Gabina Santa Maria, Nicholas Pearson, Arty Bala, Brian Frri, and Jeremiah Gonzalez. We can start with Dana. Just press the Good afternoon everyone. Uh thank you, Chair Hudson. Um I have testimony prepared and I'm sending it up to you and I know my two minutes has started, but I will say that I come here year after year. Um, and I know this is your first time chairing this committee, but I'm always that general welfare committee every year. And I I do feel thankful today that you asked a lot of the heads of the agencies to stay, but I'm just interested on how we can get that formally implemented outside of like personal preference because it's always hard as an advocate. Um, and specifically as an organizer, someone who's organized people with lived experience to stay here and tell their story and how these systems and policies almost disrupt their individual lives um versus like protect them in the way that they're supposed to. And you know, I have so many folks here who are just taking time out unpaid unlike the rest of us here who may be staff um and consider this work throughout our day. So I'm thankful to the volunteers of Writers Alliance that join me today and thankful for you all for hearing us and to the gentleman that stayed I forget his name. Um with that being said, my name is Dana Dennis. I'm the senior organizer of Writers Alliance. We're a grassroots group that fights for better transit. I've been working on the Fair Affairs campaign for a decade of my life. When I started, I was not an organizer and it is something that is very near and dear to me. I'm here today to advocate for the expansion of fairs. Um, I think there's a host of New Yorkers across this city that still do not receive the subsidy and too many people that don't even know about it. Um, I'm here to also advocate for automatic enrollment for fairs. And as we heard from all these previous agencies that just spoke about staffing concerns, I think it goes right along with that why we need automatic enrollment. With that being said, um I know there's not many of us left in the room, but if you take a good look at me, you may not be able to see um you know, all the things that I identify with, but I am also someone who will label myself as a priced out New Yorker. I'm born and raised in this city. Um and yet I'm told often that I make too much, right? And I know that I don't make enough. And so, my time is up, but I'm gonna go just very quickly. And so, due to that, I ended up having to move to New Jersey a few years ago. Still work here. I have no family, no friends there, right? Only because I could not afford my rent, could not afford child care once I had a child and had to get a two-bedroom apartment. Myself and my husband just could not afford this city. And so, it's really, you know, painful even to sit in this room and hear these things. I'm from Bedstey, Brooklyn, as many of us know. Bedside Crown Heights has experienced so much gentrification. And so I speak to New Yorkers every day and I'm going quickly who are at the intersection of affordability around housing, food insecurity, and then most of all transit because transit, public transit is how they access most of these systems. And again, these are the reasons why we need fairs to be expanded. Um, and I'll just lastly say that if folks cannot afford to get on public transit, they can't afford their food and all these various costs, then they're also struggling to afford the fines that are put upon them when they can't get into the systems and all of the barriers and stress that it feels to be under the weight of poverty. I had a lot more to say, but I'm going to pass it to my colleagues. Can't wait to hear their testimony. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. And we do have your written testimony, so thank you, >> Gabina. Let me know you hear me. >> I can hear you. >> Hello everybody. Thank you for this opportunity. Um my name is Kavina Santa Maria and I'm a member of writers alliance. Today I will speak in support of the fairs program. I have fairs and it's lifeline for me as a writer. A lot of times I have to pay double because I live in the Staten Island, the forgotten borrow the fairs because and not only me but so many people. Give you a quick example. If I want to get out of the island, I got to take two buses plus one train and sometimes another bus. So that means it's $6 for one, right? There are working people in Staten Island who spend a lot of commuting every day because they cannot afford $7.25 it takes to get an express bus. It should not be difficult for people to have access to affordable transit. Public transportation is a human right and we should not have to make a choice between our food every day and our transportation. We should not have to risk a ticket or a rest when we cannot afford the ride. And if we spend, let me give you another example. If I if you spend a lot of money on those gardens on the doors and security to watch you if you pay you fair or not. I think we have enough money to spend on fairs. I fight for public transportation but also for immigrants rights. ICE have detained a lot of people in Staten Island. Unfair because there are no eligibility for the program is so low, unfair, unfair. So many people don't qualify. My Staten Island people, I'm sorry, struggling. They cannot afford it. They're planning to move. We want them here. We need here our neighbors. It is time for the city to invest in making transit more affordable and expand the fair first programs. I don't want to lose my neighbors. I don't want them to leave New York. It's one of the most effective ways and it's time to Stan Island raise their voices. Stan Island excluding no more cis. Thank you. Thank you so much, Nicholas. >> New Yorkers, working New Yorkers, working people believe in one simple truth. Transit is the way. Transit is New York and New York is transit. Because the hands that built this city should never be the feet left stranded in it. When we talk about subways, when we talk about buses, we have to think about working families and their commutes. Because too many politicians forget what it really means to get around this city. Too many forget what it means to protect the fair affairs program and even extend it. Not many politicians truly understand what it means to walk one block, five blocks, six blocks, seven blocks down the street just to reach a bus stop or a train station, especially in the Bronx. Too many people who make the decisions in this city have never had to live with the consequences of those decisions on the sidewalk. Every delayed train, every long wait at a bus stop, every fair that rises too high is just an inconvenience. Is not just an inconvenience. It is a weight laid on the backs of working New Yorkers. The very people who keep this city standing. We have a goal. And today I am speaking on behalf of the writers alliance because this movement means something to me. The general general welfare of the Bronx means a lot to me. A better transit system is better for working families. A better transit system is better for the average Joe's and the average James. A better transit system is better for the mother counting every dollar and every dime. And yes, a better transit system is better for even the transit workers themselves, the proud members of the Transport Workers Union Local 100, who keep this city moving every single day. Because when fairs are reduced, when fairs make sense for the dollars and dimes people have in their pockets, the city works better for everyone. Trans this matters. Transit matters. Working people matter. And the future of New York depends on whether we choose to stand on business for the general welfare for the people who keep this city alive. >> Thank you, Arthy. >> Good afternoon. My name is Arthy Bala. I live in Washington Heights. I ride the subway or bus nearly every day. and I'm here today to advocate for the expansion of the fairs program for affordable transportation for all New Yorkers. I moved to New York City nearly 12 years ago. I've had jobs in education, workforce development, and social work. I really believe in contributing to my community, and I love New York City. I've lived in upper Manhattan, in Brooklyn, and in Queens. When I met my husband, he moved to the city, too, and began to contribute his own talents. But the city, which has always been expensive, is becoming less and less affordable. The cost of groceries, rent, electricity, childare, and public transportation are all rising. My husband and I got married last year, and we want to start a family in the city. But between all these rising expenses, we don't know if we can afford to. The expansion of the Fairfires program could save hundreds of dollars every month for families like us who are being locked out of their own city by the $3 fair that prevents them from paying their bills, getting to school or to a job, accessing city services, receiving health care, and so much more. We need the council to treat transportation and other basic needs such as housing and food as rights, not privileges. Or we risk people moving away and losing the contributions and skills of so many people who love this city. We will continue to fight for a New York where everyone can afford to move, live, and thrive. Thank you for listening to writers like me. >> Thank you, Brian. >> Good afternoon, Chair Hudson. I'm Brian Fritch, associate director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, PCAC. For nearly 50 years, PCAC has served as the official voice of riders on the MTA system. Wonderful to be up here with so many of my writers alliance colleagues today. We've heard a lot today from New Yorkers delivering a clear call to city government to do everything they can to fight our affordability crisis. A daunting job. But sometimes the right tool to do that work doesn't need to be bought. It's right in your toolbox waiting to be used. The Fairfires program is that tool, but it's been overlooked. Currently, an estimated 35% of the over 1 million eligible New Yorkers are enrolled in the program, and as a result, it's been chronically underused and underfunded. This means hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who could be saving up to $910 a year in transit costs are instead getting nothing at all. H needs to step up and develop a plan to reduce the hurdles for low-income New Yorkers that they face in getting enrolled. After all, how many residents are already in the HA connect system are known to be eligible based on income verification for another program yet are not receiving fair fars? Too many. We believe now is the time to pursue automatic enrollment in this program, which could double enrollment and give New Yorkers a much more affordable way to get to jobs, education, appointments, and more. Use the tools you already have in your toolbox. We'd also love to see more data released on existing enroles, including demographics, locations uh by council districts, and more. Just over a month ago, we organized a letter from a broad range of unions, transit and disability rights advocates, social and immigrant service organizations, and more who believe city hall can make transit affordability a reality in this year's budget by transforming the fairs program. Our five-point plan includes expanding eligibility to at least 300% of the federal poverty level. Uh to include workers making at or near minimum wage, fully free fairs to the lowest income New Yorkers at the current level of 150% and adding commuter railroads and express buses as options. Let's get people to work with the tools in our in your bag. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. >> Thank you so much, Jeremiah. Esteemed members of the city council, thank you for the opportunity to hear us out today. My name is Jeremiah Gonzalez. Since November 2024, I've been a member of the Fairfires program, which has been essential to my ability to access job workshops, recruitment opportunities, and other related activities that this city offers. Whether I have to go to Manhattan or Brooklyn or just across the Bronx, Fairfire allows me to stretch my transportation costs without having to wonder if I have to put less onto my car to pay my conet bill. Unfortunately, many do not have the opportunity to use fairs because they are not eligible even though they would absolutely benefit from this program just like me. With this program, just this year alone, I've saved $81 with 54 trips. Mind you, for an unemployed person like myself, those savings are significant. I don't have any children, but many who would benefit do have children. With child care costs and inflation higher than precoid, less money is in family's budgets to afford the $6 or more they need to get where they need to go. This is not to mention the increases in rents and conet bills etc. Saving for those costs will really help the purse strings hold firm a little while longer. State members of the city council writers are facing a general welfare crisis. We do not ask for handouts. We ask for a hand up. That we can contribute to the biggest city in the largest economy in the world is something we should not be begging for. transportation, child care, housing. They are not privileges to be handed to the few. They are rights. If we treat them as rights, the Big Apple and his residents and his guests will notice it and they will love it. On behalf of the RS Alliance, we asked for this because I listen, I want to have enough money to pay bills to contribute to the city. I was born here. I I would rather have this city and his people prosper. They cannot do that if at every turn their finances say no. Expanding services like fairs, making transit accessible to everyone, especially those who rely on it every single day is something that will help the five burrows in the short and long run. It has helped me immensely. I want to see those benefits given to many, many people. It will help them immensely, too. It's the emergency city council. Thank you for your time for having us today. >> Thank you so much. Thank Thank you all for your testimony. Uh I just want to state for the record I am in full support of the expansion um of the fair affairs program and really appreciate you all being here today. Thank you. >> Okay, sergeants. Can we add one more chair? Thank you, Calvin Michael, Anita Quac, Amy Blumsac, Shana McCormack, Haley Nelasco, Marcos Reyes and Michaela Perry. Maybe we don't need the extra chair. I don't know. Let's see. Okay, we can start with Kelvin. >> Okay, he's not he's not here. Anita, thank you, Chair Hudson, for convening this budget hearing. My name is Anita Quac, a policy analyst at United Neighborhood Houses, a member organization of settlement houses across New York. Demand for emergency food is higher than ever with many New Yorkers struggling to meet their basic needs. Federal funding threats and cuts to programs like SNAP are leaving settlement houses without the necessary tools to respond while placing greater strain on other emergency food programs. The community food connection program plays a vital role in combating food insecurity. One of our members uses it for their pantries and soup kitchens. Another uses it for a new pilot program to provide pantry clients with grocery gift cards. A total investment of hund00 million is needed to sustain and grow the community food connection program at this time of deep need, which will allow providers to allocate resources for the growing needs of food insecure New Yorkers. Additionally, in fiscal year 27, the city should invest $13 million in New York City services civic impact fund, which funds nonprofits to expand their volunteer infrastructure, which in turn will help those nearly newly subject to federal SNAP work or volunteer requirements. Investing in the civic impact fund program presents an opportunity for SNAP recipients who are able to continue receiving SNAP benefits by meeting their work requirements through volunteering at organizations across the city. A $13 million investment is needed to expand this civic impact fund program to include more community- based organizations and larger grant sizes, allowing CBOS and settlement houses to expand or fund their volunteer programs. UNH also does a lot of work in the SNAPKMing space. Our settlement house members have increasingly raised concerns that this is persistently occurring in communities, especially for for older adults and those who rely on EP card benefits to feed their families. We urged the city council to support our state budget advocacy this month to secure EBT chip cards and a snap skimming victim's compensation fund in the final FY26 to FY27 state budget and to support council member Dwang's intro 512 to help track skimming's cases. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you so much Amy. >> Thank you Chair Hudson, members of the committee and staff. We really appreciate your time and attention. My name is Amy Bloomsac. I'm the director of organizing and policy at Neighbors Together. We are a small community-based org in central Brooklyn. Um we have three programs. We have a soup kitchen, we have direct services, and we have organizing and policy led by our members, 80% of whom are homeless, have experienced homelessness, or have vouchers. City FEPS is a critical tool for addressing the homelessness crisis. Um, at Neighbors Together, we know firsthand from our members experience that vouchers are a life-saving tool and we need the full implementation of the City FEPS expansion laws. Um, homelessness, um, homelessness, yes, homelessness and the use of city feeps have increased because the need for affordable rent is increasing. City FEPS is working. It's getting people housed. It's keeping people housed. But as rent continues to rise, more and more people are going to need it, particularly as we only a portion of our units are um rent stabilized. Um so I think it's really important to say that expanding city feeps in the community will not only keep families in their home, but it will also preserve affordable housing. Right? If those families become homeless, enter the shelter system, cycle through the shelter system, and then if they're lucky, get a voucher, they're going to use that voucher to rent an apartment that costs way more money than the affordable units that they're in. Now, in addition to the full implementation of the city feeps expansion laws, it's really critically important that we address and fix the administrative barriers in the city's program. Um, we need to increase the staffing at DHS and HA. We should also expand the number of community- based organizations that can submit CityFaps applications in order to help alleviate the delays that our members experience at home base. Um, thank you for asking about source of income discrimination. We also need to have DHS and H coordinate with CCHR around source of income discrimination. It's a massive barrier to people with vouchers finding housing. And last but not least, um we need to build housing that is targeted to the people who need it most, which is extremely low income and homeless New Yorkers. The many like most recent most of the units built in the last few administrations have been called affordable housing, but they haven't been at the AMI levels for people who are in the shelter or who are falling into homelessness. So, we need the city to make a commitment there as well. And um Yeah, if a dam has multiple holes, you can't plug just one hole. We have to address holistically the crisis of homelessness in the city. And um we give more details in our written testimony which we'll be submitting soon. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much, Shana. >> Hi, good afternoon uh Chair Hudson and members of the general welfare committee. Thank you for convening this. My name is Shaina McCormack and I'm here on behalf of Rethink Food, a chefled nonprofit that has spent the past six years ensuring quality meals make it to those in most need. We believe that every New Yorker, regardless of their circumstance, deserves a meal that nourishes them, not just nutritionally, but also culturally. For the for the over 100,000 plus of our neighbors living in public shelters, food is more than sustenance. It is dignity. It is belonging. It is a signal that this city sees them. Right now, that signal is too too often missing. At Rethink Food, we've built a model that works. We partner with small independent restaurants and food businesses across the city, many of them women and minority owned to prepare and deliver meals that are fresh, chef crafted, and reflective of the communities being served. We've delivered over 35 million meals through this model, and we've kept some small businesses alive through the hardest seasons the city has faced. And as we're discussing budgeting, we've done it at a cost that is competitive, sustainable, and proven. New York City does not need to invent a new solution. The solution exists. It's operating right now in the kitchens and the communities of this city. What we're asking for is simple, to just ensure nonprofits like ours and others have opportunities to do what we do best. And for us, that's creating quality meals at scale. When public dollars flow through missiondriven organizations, they don't disappear. They recirculate. They fuel more meals, more partnerships, and more impact. The diverse, inventive, resilient fabric of this city is one of our gracious assets. Let's use it. Um, and separately on a personal note, um, navigators within the uh, on the housing note, navigators to help successfully place people with vouchers is needed. We have to give them the the assistance and help that they need to successfully get placed. Many of them are in critical positions and need that extra hand. So, thank you. >> Thank you so much, Haley. >> Good afternoon, Chair Hudson. My name is Haley Nolasco, senior director of government relations at the Center for Justice Innovation. Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify today. As New York City confronts fiscal challenges, we must continue to invest strategically, prioritizing prevention alongside crisis response. Too often systems engage New Yorkers only after challenges already have escalated. So when individuals are food insecure, when they're facing eviction, entering the justice system, or experiencing homelessness. This highlights the need for earlier earlier community- based interventions. We thank the council for its support and humbly requests sustained investment in community based solutions that stabilize our most vulnerable New Yorkers before crisis really deepen. just some of our programs. Our community justice centers, just as those in Harlem, Midtown, and Red Hook, provide holistic support connecting New Yorkers to social services and housing assistance, mental health care, workforce development, and legal services. In Harlem, the housing help center works directly with tenants to prevent eviction, and maintain stable housing, having 3,000 visits in just 2025, helping navigate housing, court, access rental assistance, and address unsafe living conditions. In Midtown, our Community First program reaches people experiencing street homelessness through street outreach and mobile case management, building trust, and connecting individuals to care early. Our community justice connect program, which is in Crown Heights, South Jamaica, and I'm sorry, Crown Heights, Jamaica, and South Bronx, connects trains volunteers to help neighbors navigate housing and public benefits issues, preventing legal problems from escalating. And finally, our strong starts court initiative supports young children and families in family court by integrating early childhood experience to um early childhood expertise to improve long-term outcomes. Across these efforts, the goal is is clear. Continued investments in community based services help navigate tough systems, offer timely intervention early, and stabilize families. Thank you so much for your time, your partnership. Additional data has been submitted in my written testimony. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Marcos. Hello everyone. Thank you Chair Hudson for having me today um for having me testify today. My name is Marcos Reyes and I'm a CBC youth advocate and it is a great honor to be given this opportunity to give this speech. On September 13th, 2023, I lost my home in a brutal apartment fire that almost cost me and my family our lives. And without we escaped, but we couldn't escape hardship. And without House vouchers and EBT to help ease our tragedy, I would not be here today. With the looming anxiety and uncertainty of SNAP benefits and the ongoing federal budget cuts with SNAP, it has thrown my family into panic. No parent should have to be forced to choose cheaper alternatives and nutrient- deficient foods that nutrient deficient foods. No child should have to eat foods that will that would not nurture them or empower them. As a brother of two little girls, I feel a clear duty to speak because their well-being and future are at risk with these cuts. I have to look into their eyes and watch their growth and potential be jeopardized by circumstances beyond their control. And I and I explain to them why the fresh foods they have come to enjoy are replaced with what we can afford, not what they need. I can skip meals so my sisters can eat well. I can handle handle hunger, but it shouldn't be that way. No one should have to choose to starve themselves. And as a youth advocate, having to worry about the next meal, the next sacrifice dwindles my ability to advocate. We all know that healthy food supports strong minds. I ask that the elected officials here in New York City support the programs that help families like mine in mine like mine. In particular, we urge you to invest in community food connection program. Invest in programs to address hunger and older adults and and in city council initiatives. We help people access food benefits. We urge you to invest in ex in expanding citys and housing voucher programs. And we urge you to invest in fairs so all New Yorkers can access public transit. These programs are all life-saving and help New York families thrive. You can see more in our written testimony. When SNAP and other public benefits are cut, it cuts a lifeline for hundreds, thousands of families that keep food on the table. I implore legislators to invest in children's health, to invest in their future. A child's potential should never be limited by their parents' income. Thank you. >> I couldn't agree more. Thank you so much for being here and for your testimony, Michaela. >> Good afternoon. My name is Michaela Perry, advocacy manager at Equity Advocates, and we convened the New York City Food Policy Alliance, a network of 60 food and farm groups fighting for a healthy and equitable food system. Some of our partners are sitting at this table right now. Last year's passage of the federal HR1 bill unleashed the largest cuts to food assistance in our nation's history. Under HR1, roughly 180,000 New York City households are projected to lose their SNAP benefits, half of whose members are children and senior citizens. Estimates suggest that 70,000 residents in our city will be pushed below the poverty line every single year starting in 2028. As the federal government retreats, the city must step forward. First, we ask the council to increase baseline funding for the community food connection program to $100 million. With an 83% rise in emergency food visits since 2019, our pantries need support. This investment would better address rising food prices and provide critical support for vulnerable communities. Second, we request the council increase health bucks funding to $700,000 to provide an increased allocation to community and faith-based organizations. Community health bucks are independent from SNAP, making them a vital resource for individuals ineligible for public benefits, including non-citizen households and folks newly required to meet federal work requirements. Finally, we asked the council to scale the groceries to go program above the previously allocated $10 million. Groceries to Go is a proven lifeline for New York City care members with an incredible redemption rate. For every $100 in credits the city puts into the accounts of New Yorkers, $99 is actually being spent on groceries, which bolsters our city's economy. In a city this well resourced, hunger is a policy choice. We ask the council to pass a budget that chooses dignity for every New Yorker. And thank you for your leadership. >> Thank you so much. Thank you all for your testimony. The next panel is Elizabeth McKay and Judith Douglas. >> Thank you, Elizabeth. I don't know which one. Yeah, they saved the best for last. So, we're the last two. So, um thank you um for allowing us to be here today on March 17, 2026. And I'm glad to be alive because three weeks ago I was hospitalized um due to um them finding blood clots um severely in my chest and my lungs. So here I am was fighting for justice for others and wound up in a hospital fighting for my own life. But praise the Lord that I am here to testify and just came back from Albany and continue fighting the good fight. So, as um and congratulations for being um the chair speaker. >> Thank you. >> Um and I wish everyone else stayed, but thank you for the deputy commissioner Hooks for um being here today. So, I'mma read a little quote and it says, "Even though things look hopeless now, Jesus is not done. there will be life, ownership and promise again in this land. I'm very spiritual and I believe that things happen for a reason. Um 29 years ago I used to work for the city um under administration and children services um and foster care and I also taught for seven years in the private sector as a teacher. 20 23 I found myself being homeless. Never could imagine um being in that predicament. But I think that's when God showed me what I need to do. 2019 I died on the train and that's what brought me to become homeless. Um and man said I have 95% brain damage. came back, couldn't see, couldn't talk, couldn't even move my left side. But here I am fighting for what is right. I have um a city fence voucher, which I thank God for. Um but there are some issues that I listen to the staff of um DHS H that was here to testify. The city is backed in a rears. We talk about landlords, dead beats, slum lords, but H has their own issues. H owes landlords millions of dollars of back rent. And here I am, they owe my landlord close to $9,000. Um, next month I have to go to court. But I know that the God I serve, justice will be served. Um, H who funds city faps need to pay their share fee. Supposed to be 70%. How every other month they paid a landlord, but for five months they got backed up. five months I get a rent ledger. So as I'm not knowing that I'm becoming sick back and forth to h because now I have to stop doing my advocacy because I have to advocate for myself. They have to do better. So many people is in that city's office demanding even the landlords demanding where's the money at? So we look at homelessness, look at a voucher that they say which it does help people like myself, but why are they not paying the landlord? So the landlord looking for to evict us to become right back in a shelter system where it's a revolving door. Now, they said it cost about close to $4,600 for one person, an individual to be in a shelter, but that's not true. It it went up close to 6,000, right? The shelter that I was in, 11.2 million that they was providing 200 women to be in the shel the city shelter. Is it right? No. We become collateral for all these systems. These systematic systems that keep us bounded, keep us chained, homebased. I've been trying to get emergency transfer. They treat me like if I'm still in a shelter, the I report. I have to do that. Why? I'm not in a shelter no more. It takes so long to get help, to get assistance, but then the panel was here and they make it seem like everything is good as what they want y'all to see, but we hear and they need to be here to hear all the things that we go through with their systems. So, I do hope and pray that Commissioner Hooks will go back and tell their people what we go through. I really hope and pray that H pays my landlord his back rent cuz I forbid to go back to the shelter system because y'all don't know what I went through. I'm out here fighting for expansions for this, for that. While the city, the most expensive city of Rink going up, but also the most city that I was born and raised in. We >> we'll make sure that we get your contact information so we can follow up with you directly to see about your particular case. And also I'll say that this is exactly why we encourage people particularly those with lived experiences in all of these systems to come and testify because it is important to hear directly from folks um with direct experience and also many times um it is you know the testimony that we hear from you is in uh direct contradiction to what the administration is sharing. So, um, again though, I do want to thank Deputy Commissioner Hooks for being here, um, and listening intently. Um, and so, thank you. Thank you for your testimony. >> Thank you for having me. >> Judith, just press the button, please, at the bottom. >> Hi, good afternoon. My name is Judith Douglas. I am a tenant. I'm also a member of the hope housing organizing for people empowerment and part of East New York Community Land Trust which is helping um the community to maintain their property without anyone coming in to steal it from them. So I'm glad to be a part of those um and learning to know my rights as a hope organizer. So, I'm here because I have seen so many um programs that are here to help the community is kind of failing them. And I say that because when I hear the some of the speakers talk about the organization, the agencies, and I'm like, wait a second, maybe that's a new maybe I'm not aware of it. But particularly HR, there's so many issues with the H system. They need to revamp it. The resertification process, so many people losing their vouchers because they don't have no one to help. We we basically um when you call it j the number that they gave you you will be on that phone for seven hours until the phone drop ship finish. I've tried that so many times. I've helped so many people go through the process. It's a tedious process. It doesn't work. You wonder if somebody if somebody works in that agency, nobody picks up. Even the number they gave for the disability is worse. I've been through all of them. It doesn't work. So, I can speak from my own experience. So, when I hear people talking about their experience, I know exactly what they're going through because I've been down that road before. Help people knowing the struggles that they have. Imagine those seniors who can't who are not techsavvy, can't be on the phone, they don't have the patient to hold on, they're the ones who are suffering. Um, so another thing when you submit when you H when you when you do the reertification through them on the computer, they give you a time in which they will call you back. You will wait on that time. Nobody calls. When that time pass, you will try to call him before the time pass. Nobody will pick up. You will leave message to call. Nobody will respond. But they will discontinue and tell you have to start all over again because you missed the appointment. You didn't you didn't call me. You I put in my application. You're supposed to call me back and tell me, you know, go through my paperwork. You never did that. All of a sudden, I have to go through the whole process again. The entire process take about an hour. It's about eight or nine pages you got to go through individually. You know, it's it's real painful when you have to do that. Imagine the senior how they feel to do that because they can't do it. And when they go down to the office, they they give them the time to sit at the computer and they stay all day. Nothing get done. They're not helpful. So, that system has to it has to be more friendly, client friendly because right now it's not. Um, when tenants get a voucher and they're ready to move out and they put in their they put in their money, they put in the application to get the one shot deal, one month's rent, all those things. The landlord tired of waiting. They so tired of waiting. Somebody say, "I don't want the client anymore. I no, I don't want to be bothered with anymore. Give me somebody else." They will go and take the cash. The process is too lengthy. They have to work on it. I was speaking to the guy from HR. I was telling him the same thing. We are failing the client. It makes sense. We have a system in place and we're failing them >> because it's not working. How you going to take three months to do a to cut a check for somebody? Huh? You're saying you give a voucher then speed up the process. It cannot be it cannot be two and three months that don't have time. They have bills, >> right? >> And they don't want to work with the city. A lot of the feedback, I don't want to work with the city. They before they go and take the cash. Yeah. >> Huh. Because the young lady was saying they have back rent. They're not paying. >> Thank you. >> DHS shelter. We have too many client in DHS shelter that needs to get out. Too many client that need to get out. point blank. People have a voucher. Why do you dare the voucher expire? The work is not renewing it. They don't even give you paperwork to say, "Oh, go and get yourself um here's a list of apartments. Go and start looking for it. There's a h there's a case manager. There's a housing there's a housing specialist. What are they doing? What are they doing? Are we rather paying the executive director $6,000 a month to keep a mother and a child there? And you have case manager there working. They can't even move those clients out. Clients are there for five years. The last time I The last time I was working there, it's like a client there for over a year. And all she wanted was to do the city closing on her apartment building because the LA wasn't fixing it. So to make it unlivable. So she end up in the shelter. Guess what? She was waiting on a transfer voucher from from Niger just a transfer and she been for a whole year. That's ridiculous. We have to hold these agency more accountable >> because they're not. All they're doing is taking the whoever is paying them DH um DSS or HC um D um H >> every month. We don't need to keep the clients there that long in a shelter system to do what? >> I I I agree and that's why we appreciate your testimony. >> I used to I used to work in shelter. Huh. >> Thank you. We we appreciate your testimony because it it helps color >> what what we've been saying and and gives us a clearer understanding of the lived experiences of people who are going through these systems. >> Yeah. >> So, thank you. And you can submit written testimony. >> Yeah. The the shelter the shelter is not home. >> So, you you don't need the clients to be there that long. It's not it's just a temporary something. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Thank you both. We appreciate your time. Thank you for being here. We will now move to virtual testimony. Please wait for your name to be called to testify and please select unmute when prompted. Jason Chanchchow, >> you may begin. I think Jason needs to be unmuted. >> That's what >> Ah, there we go. >> There it is. Okay. >> Hello, Chair Hudson. It's nice to see you again. Um, thanks to you and members of the general general welfare committee for the opportunity to testify. I am Jason Sansiato. My pronouns are he, him, his, and I'm the vice president of public policy and external affairs at GMHC. Founded in 1982 as the world's first HIV and aid services organization. In 2025, GMHC served uh over 7,600 clients who lived throughout all five buraus of NYC and who represented NYC's poorest and most vulnerable residents. In 2025, GMHC provided supportive housing services to 424 unique clients with histories of chronic homelessness through our connections with HUD and the housing opportunities for people with AIDS program. Um, I'm here to update you on two issues of import to this committee and the communities we serve. Um, first, an issue for which the council does not have direct control, but is important for you and HASA to be aware of. Over the past few years, we have been supporting clients in distress after receiving a letter from HASSA indicating that they will lose their hassa housing subsidy in 30 days because of an increase in their income from a uh social security cost of living adjustment or COLA. For example, one client, a 72-year-old Hispanic man, was $1 over the hosta ceiling of $376. another received uh an SSI cola that causes income to be $16.26 above the ceiling. JHT supports the submission of an appeal for these clients which is almost always denied. And while the appeals process is happening, these clients face having to pay back the subsidy they receive if the ruling is not in their favor. Um, as a member of the statewide ending the epidemic coalition, GMHC supports a solution to this issue that is incorporated into the HIV housing for New York plan, which would extend the 30% rent cap that has supported New York City residents to people living with HIV statewide. This plan includes an increase in the income ceiling to 200% of federal poverty level. This is a solution preferred by OTA. HIV housing for New York is included in the state assembly's one house bill. >> Thank you for your testimony. Time has expired. for its inclusion in the final FY27 state budget. I'm sorry, did I was my time up? >> It it's up, but you can wrap up if you're towards the end. >> All right. Last is that um you know, we support the committee's concerns that the impact of uh HR1 will have particularly on SNAP benefits. In 2025, we served 1,340 clients, over 26,170 congregate and 24,840 pantry bag meals. Um and when SNAP benefits were um uh halted briefly in December. We saw an increase in demand uh of 10%. So, I just want to thank you uh all for your support um uh for helping to feed and house our clients and people living with HIV and AIDS. >> Thank you so much and sorry for butchering your name there. >> Don't worry about it. >> Annie Mingz, >> you may begin. Good afternoon everyone. I am Angel Donahghue. Um I am actually testifying on behalf of Annie Mingz with Good Shepard Services. I want to thank you Chair Hudson and the Committee on General Welfare for the opportunity to testify today. Um I am a runaway homeless youth coordinator at Goodshipeperd Services at Chelsea Foyer Program. We're a transitional living program for youth experiencing homelessness. Um, Good Sheeperd Services continues to advocate to expand city's eligibility for runaway and homeless youth transitioning out of foster care or youth transitioning out of foster care by counting their time spent in the Department of Youth and Community Development, also known as DYCD, and the Administration of Children's Services, also known as ACS, towards um the 90-day shelter requirement. In 2021, we joined in celebrating that the council passed two pieces of legislation to expand the eligibility criteria for the safeeps rental assistance program to include runaway and homeless youth and young people aging out of foster care. Everyday youth are aging out of the DYCD RHY system and into the adult shelter system. Today, as you know, I was accompanied by LJ Jojoy Clark to city hall. Lejoy is a resident of the foyer and spoke and supported the expansion of city f's um vouchers for youth. Lejoy has been living in a dycdr program ours for two years with no access to a voucher. Um she did not qualify for these um section 8 voucher due to an administrative error um at at the section 8 level. Um Lejoy stated today that it is unfair and I'm quoting her. It is unfair that young people don't receive city as much as adults. She expressed that this is mentally draining. Loy is turning 21 on April F. No, she's turning 21 soon, but she's going to age out of this program unfortunately on April 1st and she's going to have to move into an adult. >> Thank you for your testimony. Tom has expired. >> Um we're winding it up right now. Um no problem. We urge the council to ensure youth in need of these vouchers can access them without any further delay as we are lightening the population of DHS shelters, adult shelters, just by being in existence as a DYCD provider agency. Thank you so much for this opportunity to testify. >> Thank you so much. Thank you for being here and for your testimony. Okay. Thank you to everyone who has testified. If there's anyone present in the room or on Zoom that has not had the opportunity to testify, please raise your hand. Seeing no one else, I would like to note that written testimony, which will be reviewed in full by committee staff, may be submitted to the record up to 72 hours after the close of this hearing by emailing it to testimony@counsel.nyc.gov. We very much appreciate everyone's time and patience today. The testimony provided is incredibly important to the work that we do advocating to ensure we have all of the full funding and resources needed to address all of these issues pertaining to Department of Social Services. So, thank you again to everybody including the staff. This hearing is now adjourned.