Gabriela Sandoval Requena
Director of Policy and Communications
December 11, 2023
Thank you, Chair Brannan and members of the City Council Finance Committee for holding this oversight hearing on the Mayor’s November Financial Plan program and the opportunity to submit written testimony.
Founded in 1994, New Destiny’s mission is to end the cycle of domestic violence and homelessness for low-income families and individuals by developing and connecting them to safe, permanent, affordable housing and services. We build and manage supportive housing, and, through our innovative programs, we assist survivors in finding permanent housing and remaining stably housed.
New Destiny is the only organization in New York City solely dedicated to the solution of permanent housing for survivors and a leading advocate in the effort to obtain the resources needed to end family homelessness. To learn more about our policy priorities, see our 2023 Policy Platform. New Destiny is also a co-convener of the Family Homelessness Coalition (FHC), a collective of formerly homeless mothers and organizations committed to tackling homelessness among families in our city.
We are grateful to Speaker Adams, Chair Brannan, and members of the Council for holding the Adams’s administration accountable. The Mayor’s 15% budget cuts and hiring freeze at city agencies will not only hinder survivor’s ability to secure safe, permanent housing, but it will also put their lives, and the lives of their children, in serious jeopardy.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND HOMELESSNESS
While domestic violence is considered one of the most under-reported crimes, in 2022 the NYPD still filed, on average, 1 domestic violence incident report every 2 minutes.1 Access to safe and affordable housing is one of survivors’ biggest, most urgent concerns and it often determines whether they leave their abuser.
Domestic violence is the main driver of homelessness in New York City. In 2022, more than 10,600 adults and children entered the Human Resources Administration (HRA) domestic violence shelter system, 96% of them were families. Meanwhile, 39% of families using the NYC Department of Homeless Services shelter system identify domestic violence as the reason for their homelessness. Evictions rank second.2 With so few housing resources for survivors, once in shelter, they are far more likely to remain in shelter rather than to move to an apartment. More than 50% of survivors who left HRA emergency domestic violence shelter went to another shelter instead of moving to an apartment, upon reaching the state-mandated 6-month limit.
That is more than 1 in 2 families that left shelter for shelter. The Mayor’s push to reduce investment in social services and affordable housing will only prolong shelter stay – or worse, Mayor Adams will push countless survivors back to their perpetrators.
THE MAYOR’S BUDGET CUTS IS PUTTING SURVIVORS IN DANGER
The first 5% cut in the November Financial Plan has already reduced programming and services provided by nonprofit organizations. The additional 5% planned cuts in January would be detrimental to vital services for survivors, and it would decrease affordable housing production and housing placements. As the New York Housing Conference mentioned in their letter to you, which was signed by 60 organizations, the cuts are posed to reverse recent gains at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
We are also concerned about staffing shortages in HRA, which has an ongoing backlog of public benefits applications. In FY 2022, the agency reported that the cash assistance application timeliness rate declined by 13 percentage points, and in FY 2023, when the Adams’s administration implemented its first program to eliminate the gap, timeline rates deceased by 53.5 to 28.8%. Similarly, only 40% of applications for Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, were processed within a month, the legally mandated timeframe. What’s worse, the SNAP payment error rate was 14% – the rate of mistakes in payments has more than double compared to before the pandemic.3 HRA identified that having fewer staff has contributed to the slowdown and the increase in payment mistakes. Limited capacity has significantly delayed check processing times, slowed moves from shelter to permanent housing, and impacted the success of rental assistance programs.
We call on the city to partner with the nonprofit sector and work toward creative solutions – not hinder us further. For instance, there are at least three budget-neutral, administrative solutions that will improve timely access to affordable housing, and would not cost the city anything:
- Allow families in ALL shelters, including survivors in HRA shelters, access to HPD homeless set aside units, as the Mayor promised in the Housing our Neighbors Blueprint.
- Reduce steps and streamline the process to fill vacant affordable housing units made available through Housing Connect to meaningfully reduce lease up timetables.
- Open-up city-funded supportive housing to domestic violence survivors and their children, who are not currently eligible for NYC 15/15 units.
The city cannot withstand a 15% cut to its budget, and any additional cuts to the nonprofit sector will only undermine the much-needed development of affordable housing, public safety, and cleanliness of New York City, while risking the lives of survivors of domestic violence.
Thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony. New Destiny looks forward to continuing to collaborate with the Council. We welcome any questions you may have.
Footnotes
[1] NYC Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence. (2022 October 2). New York City Announces its Annual Domestic Violence Awareness Month Campaign. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/ocdv/downloads/pdf/DVAM-Press-Release-2023-10-02.pdf
[2] New Destiny. (March 2023). NYC Policy Priorities. https://newdestinyhousing.org/wp-content/uploads/2023-NYC-Policy-Priorities-final.pdf
[3] Mayor’s Management Report Fiscal 2023. (2023). Retrieved from: https://www.nyc.gov/assets/operations/downloads/pdf/mmr2023/2023_mmr.pdf