Councilmember Brooks-Powers questions CMS funding expansion and gun violence reduction

Okay, Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, followed by Councilmember Brewer.

Thank you, Chairs, and hello, Commissioner, and to the DYCD team.

The increase of $14.8 million of city funding in fiscal 27 to expand services for the crisis management system program is welcome news.

My community has seen a surge in gun violence in the last few months, including in a neighboring district where the deputy speaker represents with the tragic shooting of 15-year-old Jaden Pierre in Southeast Queens.

How will this new funding allocation help reduce gun violence, particularly among our youth?

What CMS groups will see additional funding thanks to this increase?

and how will the transition of CMS from DYCD to the Office of Community Safety Impact Programming and the city's administration of these programs, because we know when it shifted from Mach J to DYCD, it was a whole

dynamic there.

And then also for my CMS providers, they're often going above and beyond, going beyond the small territory they're responsible for, and the funding that they have right now is absolutely not sufficient.

And the last question, I'll leave you with, and I can repeat whatever you need me to.

SYEP meets a critical gap for youth to seek gainful employment and stay busy during the summer months.

But we have heard that youth need similar employment opportunities throughout the academic school year.

What is DYCD doing to meet this need?

Yeah, I'm going to start.

Thank you for that question, Council Member.

I'm going to start with the transition of ONS from DYCD to the Office of Community Safety, and then I'll pass it over to my colleague, Daryl.

The first thing I want to say is that I am really excited about the Deputy Mayor, Renita Francois, and her commitment to

really seeing this program through and to making it a priority for the whole city.

And so the transition is going to take place in two phases.

The first is the programmatic and strategic transition has already occurred.

So it's a transition.

It is already reporting to the new commissioner and to the deputy mayor.

And that has been seamless, and it has been happening in tandem with the support of my team.

The operational aspects of it, the contracts and some of the operations, are going to be transitioned over the last year, over the next year.

What I can say is that because we had the experience of transitioning from MACJ to DYCD,

we have experience in what this could look like in ways that really keep programming intact and then do not disrupt services.

And so we're all committed to doing that and to continue to partner with the deputy mayor as well as the new commissioner.

And then, Daryl, you can speak specifically to the other question.

I dare you.

Yes, and I would need to be sweating.

Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee and to respond honestly to council member questions?

I do.

You may begin.

Thank you, Council Member, and it's great to see you.

You too, Darrell.

So we are working closely with the Office of Community Safety on the additional investment of $14.8 million for the Office of Neighborhood Safety.

We're working out details now on both how that's going to be.

Either amended or procured and which groups that it's going to, but it will support the place-based work, the precision work that that team is doing on the ground.

So supporting the crisis management system, supporting the wraparound services, supporting the

The HFIP hospital program as well.

And I just want to put a plug in for Hamels and expansion to Hamels because right now I'm using discretionary funding, which is fine, but they have not been designated an official site.

And so we have King of Kings that is stretching pretty much most of the peninsula.

And then the supplemental funding I give to Queens Royal Priesthood is like a stopgap.

So we need to expand those as especially as the summertime comes.