Hanif asks about denied accommodation areas and shelter exits

And what are some of the areas in which accommodations are being denied?

So you mentioned anyone who might be immunocompromised, like a single room, requesting a room for themselves, that could be something that

gets denied.

Are there other sort of like broad topic areas that could be systemic, could be pushed for systemic changes outside of the settlement that they're supposed to adhere to?

Yes, and just to clarify, DHS does have a policy of approving single rooms for people who are immune compromised, but there is a limited supply and people have to wait a long time for them and people who have other types of disabilities.

What's the length of time?

So it's hard to say.

So, for example, there are no single rooms available for women in Manhattan.

And so some people will have a location-based reasonable accommodation if they need to be close to medical providers in Manhattan.

So if you...

identify as a woman and you have both of these RAs, there simply just isn't anything available.

And you will just have to wait really until there is, you know, potentially more construction or whatever DHS has to do.

One big issue that we're seeing lots of denials for is with kitchens, getting access to a refrigerator.

There's a very limited supply of kitchens in the shelter system that mostly goes to families with children, but only a small percentage of those families.

So really anyone who has some type of disability-related need,

regarding food and food preparation, people with Crohn's disease or other types of medical conditions,

they simply are not getting access to kitchens and often may not get approved to bring in their own food into the shelter system.

Now, when...

Folks are getting denied accommodations, do they tend to remain in that shelter?

Or is there...

Are we also dealing with folks who are leaving the shelter system and then becoming completely unhoused?

Yes, so I don't have statistics, but we do believe that there are some people who are choosing to leave the shelter system when they can't get accommodated rather than remain in inaccessible facilities.

And we believe that this has been happening with the recent move of the intake site for single adult men from

Bellevue to 83rd Street, which is an inaccessible building that the city is currently trying to remediate.

We do believe that there are likely people who are coming to intake who are then leaving because they are not getting adequately screened or getting the accommodations that they need.