Chair Hudson questions shopping letter renewal and six-month eligibility

But with regards to the shopping letter, you said they are...

Automatically renewed after six months?

They're automated.

Thank you for that.

They're automated, so it's an electronic process.

So it's issued.

It's available in Access HRA, so the client can go and see in their portal, the shopping letter, the case manager and or housing specialist provide a copy, and so that...

It's automatically renewed as long as they continue their eligibility.

Do you know the average time it takes for someone to find an available unit?

that we don't have that average time, just given there's a variety of different factors.

I think we're going to look at the data that we do have to sort of see what might be something we could track as to like when the CityFAPS right package is submitted.

That is probably the best sort of one of the markers that we have at the moment to look at.

And so I guess I'm trying to figure out.

How do you determine that six months is the most appropriate time for the eligibility?

I think the six months is based upon what we think is an appropriate time to just reconfirm income eligibility in case there have been changes in income, given that it's really done on the back end.

So it's not something that the individual in shelter needs to take action on.

It's just it's a good checkpoint.

So in case something has changed.

We would then address it at that point.

And if the person is no longer eligible, we wouldn't want to renew that letter.

And we would want the shelter provider to also understand you need to engage this household around a different plan for housing stability and what might their pathway be.

So that's what bases on the six month.

It's really about just trying to confirm the income and those other baseline eligibilities have remained the same.

How many people are deemed ineligible?

after the six months based on that?

I would need to get back to you on that data point.

I'd need to talk to our data folks on that.

Okay, just...

Yeah, I understand.

Sorry.

I understand where you're going.

Yeah, I understand what you're trying to get at.

I think the data you've already requested, which we do have, will tell you that time frame.

So from shopping letter to process to application submission, we'll give you that first data point.

I haven't looked at the data.

It's going to be longer than six months.

And so I understand the secondary question about, is that a meaningful?

Yeah, I mean, I'm just I'm just thinking and I don't know the answer, to be clear, but I'm just thinking, you know, if somebody is eligible for a city FEPS voucher.

Six months from that point, they're probably still eligible.

They're more likely to be eligible than not, let's say, to still be eligible.

And so I'm just trying to figure out why we have the six-month duration on that.

And is that, and again, I don't know the answer, and I know that you may not know it in this moment, but something to consider is then, is that six-month...

Duration or expiration necessary.

And maybe there's another opportunity for streamlining the process that allows that shopping letter to be eligible a little bit longer.

Yeah, I don't know.

I understand.

And we've already testified that it is very rare that people are found ineligible.

It's only returns, really.

We've already testified to that.

So I understand.

And then people have to go through the same hassle of, you know, all of that after the six months.

But I'm glad you're with me on that one.