Kristen Miller testifies on DHS access policy and NDA burdens

Hi.

Hi.

Good afternoon.

I'm Kristen Miller, and I'm Executive Director of Homeless Services United.

We are a coalition representing 55 nonprofit organizations who provide homeless services across New York City.

I want to thank both Chairs Murano and Hudson for this hearing.

I think it's a very important hearing.

very important topic, as do our members.

And I also very much appreciate your comments in support of the nonprofits who do this work every day to ensure that people experiencing homelessness have the best experience they can.

I think the issues raised today are rooted in a couple of things.

One is about partnership between nonprofit providers that are contracted to do this work on behalf of the City of New York and that partnership with the city.

I think the first issue that we've been talking a lot about is the New York City DHS access policy.

It is the legal, moral, and ethical duty of New York City shelter providers to provide the safety, security, and

privacy of the people they serve and the staff that they employ through established security measures.

Regardless of the procedures that DHS has put out, it is their duty to do that, right?

And while the vast majority of people coming into shelters have very good intentions, sometimes people don't.

And it is the obligation of the shelter providers to make sure that everybody comes into their building has the best intentions, right?

So they all have screening processes for ensuring that.

So we have to create a policy that is welcoming, a balance of welcoming of the community and also protecting the people who are inside the building.

But our members are reporting.

that the DHS protocol is a hindrance rather than a help.

This is because DHS must sign off on all NDAs before individuals can enter shelters, and the process is then unnecessarily burdensome.

To our knowledge, no other city agency

has this requirement.

This is unique to DHS.

And the result is that organizations, volunteers, and others who are eager and willing to contribute to shelters face additional barriers to giving their time and resources.

Some very specific examples that we've heard from our members are that

National organizations have been contributing volunteer supplies like diapers and books,

shelter makeover opportunities, have decided to offer their donations of time and resources to other places like New Jersey, Philly, Westchester County, where they don't have these same onerous requirements.

Are still able to protect the people inside the buildings'safety and privacy.

Providers have been prohibited from sister organizations coming on site for health fairs, job fairs, service fairs.

Delays and assignments to other city-funded programs for social work interns because the NDAs must go through the university's legal departments, which was taking longer than six months.

So social work interns, we're so understaffed, we rely on interns all the time, and now we're having a hard time getting permission.

for them to do their placement at shelters.

Back-to-school events were canceled in August.

Donations of diapers, hygiene kits, books were not able to be brought in by the volunteer groups and philanthropy.

And these shelter kind of spruce-up days have been canceled as these national corporate offices couldn't get to reviewing the NDAs in time.