Council Member Narcisse on homeless services budget and H&H federal cuts

Quickly, because we've got to run.

Thank you for being here.

The homeless services budget now tops the migrant crisis peak, even as arrivals fell.

What does IBO's analysis say?

Can you explain that?

Public hospitals face federal cuts, right?

And there are hundreds of millions while the city closed back their pension saving.

Does IBO see H&H financial plan holding up?

Sarita, why don't you speak to the asylum part?

Sure.

So, I'm sorry, your question was about the Department of Homeless Services budget still remaining high despite the asylum seekers.

So that is something we've been tracking really closely and particularly tracking the daily rate that they are paying for shelter remains relatively high.

It was even more elevated during the asylum seeker crisis.

There were expectations that that would decline, and I think even in IBO's projections, we had factored that in, and we have not seen the level of decline for that daily rate.

Great.

And we're also seeing a large population of single adults and adult families that has really contributed to the elevated costs.

And I believe the second part of your question had to do with the changes in the federal funding and the impact on health and hospitals.

So the Independent Budget Office does not directly receive health and hospitals financials, but we are aware of the city's contributions.

And as I outlined in our testimony, we are very concerned about the

soon-to-be-occurring circumstance of up to 450,000 people no longer being eligible for the state's essential plan

and continuing to need legitimate health care and seeking services, and that this may have a very large impact on H&H.

And as we flagged, neither the state nor the city added any funding in their budgets for this circumstance.