Councilmember Joseph questions HRI expansion and asylum seeker fee support
Joseph asks about expanding the Haitian Response Initiative and partnering with council offices. Ali says providers remain the same at current funding. Joseph also asks about asylum seeker filing fees due May 29; officials describe funding allocated for fees and outreach to providers.
Wonderful.
Thank you, Chairs.
Good to see you always, Commissioner.
Just a couple of follow-up questions.
I know you said you provided programming on the HRI.
Number of people served, 610 for 2026 thus far.
That's correct.
Will there be an expansion of the HRI initiative?
Is that something you're looking?
Currently, the providers will be remaining the same at the same funding level.
Okay.
So I have another question.
Are you considering maybe thinking about partnering with council member offices to provide those services in their offices?
That's something that was actually raised when we met with our HRI partners on how do we reach more deeper into communities.
So it's part of an ongoing conversation.
Yeah, I think we should consider that.
I know that's, how are you supporting asylum seekers?
I noticed that they have a fee they have to pay by May 29, 2026.
How are you getting that word out to the community?
Well, one, to credit the council and also some of the work that we do.
We don't get enough praises.
Go ahead, though.
I have to be honest here, but because of the partnership that we had last year during the budget negotiations, we were able to allocate funding for fees,
including some of the filing fees that you're mentioning right now, which I think is a win overall.
We have been working with our providers to ensure that they're aware that that's available to them, and we have been pretty successful of spending some of that funding down.
How do communities or, for example, my office or non-for-profit get in touch with you to know that these fees are available for members?
Because I think today was the deadline for some of them to apply for those fees, for filing.
Yeah, I mean, we are always available after this hearing.
I'll send you an email, Councilmember, and then we're happy to make the connections with our legal service providers.
I would love that.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairs.
Thank you.
Councilmember Brewer?