Councilmember Gutierrez questions prevention cuts and voucher recertification data

Councilmember Gutierrez, followed by Majority Leader, I don't know if he's here or not, but we'll move on if not.

Thank you, Chairs.

Good to see everyone.

Welcome, Commissioner.

I want to just uplift the remarks of my colleagues, Councilmember Shulman, about the preventative service.

I understand the role of the Chief Savings Officer.

Obviously, I think we're all in agreement.

We want to be able to...

Fund programs that we have money for and fund effective programs.

I do want to say that families in my district, I know the folks from CAMBA and Forest Taylor here, they will be testifying.

But I really think that putting something out or making a proposal that cuts, severely cuts this program

without much of like a safety, without an explanation of what's going to happen to those jobs, without explaining what's going to happen to those families impacted is deeply, deeply concerning.

And you heard from Chair Lee about just the very simple math of the cost, the eventual cost savings to the city when we do invest in preventative care.

So I just want to uplift Councilmember Lee.

I, of course, am also asking some questions about the child care vouchers.

It's a hot topic.

And mainly because obviously we care deeply about early child care, as I think this administration does.

But we have families that are saying, what about me?

When the mayor is talking about child care, he's not talking about me.

He's not talking about the voucher that I'm desperately waiting on.

So I just have some data if you have them specifically, and I'll sign up for round two if I need.

But can you share what percentage, as I understand it, every family was able to recertify within this fiscal year?

The vast majority of families have the opportunity to recertify, provided they submit a recertification application, it's timely, it's complete.

There is a small percentage, it's about, and not to minimize how important child care is to this population, but there are about 6% to 7% of families that we serve that are not able to continue with their voucher because when we have limited funding, we are required by federal rules

to serve three populations first, families that are unhoused, families with a child with special needs, and families that are very low income, which is under 300% of the state income standard.

Okay.

And so that's around 6% of those folks unable to kind of maintain their voucher.

Okay.

Do you have a sense of those that were able to recertify, how many of them potentially have siblings, younger siblings that were not able to qualify?

Because I think that puts parents in basically back to square one, where they have one child who is utilizing a voucher, but they technically can't go back to work because they have a younger child.

Do you have a sense of that?

I don't have a sense of magnitude.

We know it's an issue.

I mean, we do have families reaching out to us telling us that they are trying to add a child to their case, and that child might be on the wait list if the family is still eligible serving other children.

we can look into whether or not those analytics are possible and get back to you.

Got it.

Just so you know, a few of my colleagues and myself jointly sent a letter to some of our folks at the state, knowing full and well the budget would not have been passed by April 1st.

Obviously, we don't have anything.

I think what you've shared today is just nothing substantial.

My last question, and I'll stand up for round two, is are there any...

Specific circumstances outside of seeing this miraculously in the state budget that would allow for ACS to begin offering vouchers to eligible families?

Well, I want to be clear that we will be looking at what is in the state budget, which is a substantial increase in funding that is allowing us at baseline to continue the policy that we have in place.

To restart, to have employees to restart, which is not nothing.

It is not nothing.

And we will be looking at where enrollment stands across all three agencies and spending to assess if there is a time in the next months that we may be able to begin moving the wait list.

But we don't know that yet because we need to assess what's in the budget, what attrition in our system looks like, what spending across ACS, HRA, and New York City Public Schools looks like.

Thank you.