Chair Stevens Delivers Opening Statement on DYCD Budget and RHY Funding

Good afternoon, and welcome to our second half of the fiscal 2027 executive budget hearing for the Department of Youth and Community Development.

I am Councilmember Althea Stevens, Chair of the Committee on Children and Youth.

Today we are will be hearing from DYCD, our new commissioner, Sandra Eskadiz, along with our first deputy and our financial officers.

Thank you for joining us today.

We're here to discuss the agency recent release of executive plan, which includes a budget of $1.6 billion for fiscal 2027.

This funding includes $66.2 million in personnel services to support and a budget headcount for 704 positions and a total of 1.55 billion other than personnel.

The current fiscal 2027 budget is 105.3 million or 7% more than the fiscal 26 adopted budget.

However, DYCD's fiscal 2027's budget decreased by a 14.2 million from the 1.63 billion budgeted in the fiscal 2027 Flynn Rafe Financial Plan.

To note a few changes in the executive plan, there's an additional $14.8 million to expand services for the crisis management, CMS programs, and supporting wraparound services and fiscal 2027.

In fiscal 2028 in the outer years, the plan includes a baseline funding of 19.6 million in the Office of Community Safety so further support the programs in the new pro in the new office.

A plan also added $8.8 million for the Office of Economic Opportunity Adjustments for the Advanced in Earn Program that helped to train and employ young people ages 16 through 25.

The plan also includes the savings agencies found to meet the targets set by the Office of Management and Budget that included 6.3 million for over budgeting in the community resources for employment and development cred and ONS programs or surplus costs of cost of living adjustment resulting in a $31 million after assessing that providers district distribution funding needed to provide the three percent increase for human service contract.

I want to ensure that the coal adjustment does not impact programming and provides adequate funding to the providers.

I'm concerned that the executive plan includes baseline city fund savings of three million from the elimination of 27 vacant positions beginning in fiscal 2026.

Again, I want to ensure that actions don't impact programming for youth.

The executive budget did not include fiscal 2026, one um one chat funding for RHY funding and peer navigators, which is something that I've been fighting consistently with to make sure that we're funding because we do not want to forget about our young people.

I do hope the administration will provide baseline funding and the adopted budget for the navigators because that was a program that we lost, and then we got in the council brought back.

And so we want to make sure that this is something that's credible because the young people and providers have said it's a critical service need.

This gives them a sense of belonging, a sense of understanding.

The housing navigators assess in navigating the young people through transition and a safe dependable housing.

The services for RHY youth does not stop at the door, but it begins at the door.