May 13, 2021
Every Family Housed: A Blueprint to End Family Homelessness for the Next Mayor
Despite the focus on reducing the number of families in shelter, the number of homeless families and children remains unacceptably high because the current approach does not end the cycle of homelessness. While the census has dropped, the Barclays Center does not have the capacity to hold the nearly 29,000 children who slept in a DHS shelter on an average night in 2020. Below, we explore recent trends and outline the homelessness landscape the next mayor will inherit.
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April 18, 2024
Testimony for the New York City Council Committee on Immigration | April 16, 2024
We applaud the City’s introduction of legislation to increase transparency around their management of migrants, like Intro 84 and Intro 85 to elicit information related to economic opportunities and health needs of asylum seekers. Additionally, Intro 739 to receive reports on expenses, temporary housing, asylum applications, and the demographics of arriving migrants will yield valuable data. Finally, we add our support to Res 340 to call on Congress and USCIS to cover the cost of filing humanitarian benefit applications.
April 18, 2024
Testimony for the New York City Council Committee on Contracts Preliminary Budget Hearing | March 22, 2024
Urgent action is imperative. The City must deploy a Rapid Response Team to address the backlog of contracting and payments, ensuring that organizations like Win receive the compensation they are owed. Additionally, systemic reforms are needed to streamline the procurement and payment process, ensuring transparency and efficiency.
In conclusion, the current state of affairs is untenable and demands immediate attention. Win and other non-profit organizations cannot continue to bear the brunt of delayed payments without significant disruptions in the services they seek to provide. It is incumbent upon the City to prioritize this issue and take decisive action to rectify it.
April 18, 2024
Testimony for the New York City Council Committee on General Welfare Preliminary Budget Hearing | March 11, 2024
Win stands with HSC and the #JustPay campaign in advocating for equal pay for City-contracted human services workers. A 5% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA)—permanent and not in for the form of a Workforce Enhancement Initiative—at a cost of approximately $150 million, is essential to ensure fair compensation for these workers. Additionally, a public commitment from the Mayor to fund a 3% COLA in each of the next two years will bring the full investment in human services workers to 16% over five years from FY23-FY27.
April 18, 2024
Testimony for the New York City Council Committee on General Welfare | March 1, 2024
We therefore unequivocally support Intro 210, sponsored by Council member Shahana Hanif, which prohibits any city agency from imposing limits on the length of time an individual or family may remain in shelter or emergency congregate housing, provided such individual or family is eligible for temporary housing assistance under State law, as applicable. Similarly, we support the corresponding state legislation, S8493, sponsored by Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and A9129, sponsored by Catalina Cruz, to prohibit the imposition of limits on the length of stay at homeless shelters and emergency congregate housing. Together, these bills will ensure that the immigrant households and children will still have a warm and safe place to sleep during the coldest months of the year. This legislation will save families unnecessary trauma and will inevitably save the lives of those who will perish after being forced to sleep on the street. Stable shelter is not an indulgence or a perk of the social safety net, it is urgently needed emergency healthcare.
April 18, 2024
Testimony for the New York State Budget Hearing on Housing Joint Legislative Public Hearing on 2024 Executive Budget Proposal | February 14, 2024
For those experiencing homelessness, stable shelter is imperative to uphold the dignity and safety of households. We urge the state legislature to pass S8493, sponsored by Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and A9129, sponsored by Catalina Cruz, to prohibit the imposition of limits on the length of stay at homeless shelters and emergency congregate housing. The current 30- and 60-day time limits imposed by the Adams administration have forced migrants to sleep on the street during the winter months, disrupted children’s education, and displaced families far from their established communities. Additionally, shelter limits will result in an increase in street homelessness, which has costly and fatal consequences.
April 18, 2024
Testimony for the New York City Council Committee on Finance Oversight – Mayor’s November Financial Plan | December 11, 2023
As the City continues to face historically high levels of homelessness, the Mayor is scapegoating asylum seekers for the City’s budget shortfalls while simultaneously cutting funding for the very services that are addressing this influx. We cannot cut our way out of a crisis, and the City needs to invest in services and resources to see any significant savings. We call on the City to partner with the nonprofit sector and work toward creative solutions – like improving and expanding CityFHEPS – rather than hindering the organizations and agencies that are supporting it. The City cannot withstand a 5% cut to its budget, and if the Mayor continues to pursue the full 15% cut as intended, it will gut the social service sector, undermining the public safety, health, and livelihood of New York City.
April 18, 2024
Testimony for the New York City Council Committees on Mental Health, Disability, & Addiction, General Welfare, Veterans, and Housing and Buildings | December 7, 2023
Although the benefits of supportive housing are clear, there are also considerable challenges associated with operating supportive housing programs. One of the biggest hurdles is getting new families into units. Unfortunately, administrative and process issues are rampant. In New York City, supportive housing providers receive all of their referrals from the Human Resources Administration, which is supposed to screen clients for program eligibility before connecting them with a potential program. However, providers cannot rely on HRA to properly screen families, and it is commonplace to get referrals for clients who are not actually eligible for the program to which they have been referred by HRA. As a result, program staff who are already stretched too thin must comb through dozens of pages of materials just to ensure that a family meets the basic criteria for the program.
April 18, 2024
Testimony for the New York City Council Committee on Finance, General Welfare, and Oversight and Investigations | October 23, 2023
The wave of recent arrivals coming to New York City that started last year is a challenge that no one saw coming. Yet, after more than a year of dealing with the challenges that accompanied this wave of immigration, the City must move beyond crisis mode. Win, advocates, and many in the City Council have developed a menu of solution-oriented interventions that will allow the City to move away from its reliance on emergency hotels and to help new arrivals move into homes of their own and get on a path to self-sufficiency.
April 18, 2024
Testimony for the New York City Council Committee on Immigration | October 18, 2023
New arrivals, along with the notable thousands of other noncitizens who were already residing in the City’s care, have been systematically excluded from the social safety-net, most notably rental assistance, resulting in them becoming long-term stayers in the shelter system and forcing families into prolonged poverty. As a result, many aspiring Americans lack a pathway out of shelter and into permanent housing. For these asylum-seeking families to ultimately find permanent housing, they need a “legal first” approach to apply for asylum and work authorization. Our clients want to work legally and to support themselves independently; however, historically, it has been nearly impossible for families living in our shelters to find affordable and trustworthy legal help for their immigration cases. This delay is extremely concerning for immigration cases, as asylum claims must be submitted within a one-year deadline of an individual arriving in the United States. Families who arrived here in the past year risk their asylum cases timing out, and immigrants eligible for asylum are denied status only because they lack an attorney or legal advocate to oversee their cases.
April 18, 2024
Testimony for the New York City Council Committee on General Welfare Oversight Hearing – Public Benefits Processing Delays at HRA | September 27, 2023
Despite the Mayor’s rhetoric that we can cut resources from DSS without significant impacts to City services, the cuts enacted under his tenure have already resulted in massive disruptions in critical services. For instance, cash assistance timeliness rates, which are listed as a critical indicator in the 2023 Mayor’s Management Report shows a rate of just 28.8 percent in FY23, down from 95.4% in FY21 when Mayor Adam’s took office. Similarly, the SNAP timeliness rate is also down to just 39.7% in FY23 compared to 91.9% in FY21.i That equates to families waiting an unacceptable amount of time for the benefits they desperately need.