Morano asks Warner if problems are systemic
Morano thanks Warner and asks if his experience was one or two bad caseworkers or systemic; Warner says it is systemic due to overstressed staff and unwillingness to hear individual situations, and confirms he is now in permanent housing.
Mr.
Warner, one, thank you for your service to the country.
Second, thank you for being here today.
I appreciate you waiting a couple hours to testify and share your perspective.
And I know how difficult it is to hold down a job and look for housing simultaneously.
And to do that while you're in the circumstances of being in the shelter, I can only imagine how challenging that that must have been for you.
And I appreciate you sharing that perspective.
Without further mentioning one specific caseworker, I'm wondering if you can speak to how you made it out of the shelter system in general and if what you experienced is...
is a result of one or two bad caseworkers, or if it's a systemic problem with ICL and something that they can improve upon.
Because obviously it doesn't do you any good if you're on the receiving end of a poor caseworker, but I'm wondering if there's a systemic problem that we can try to fix to make sure others aren't in the same position that you were.
Good question.
It is systemic because in part you got people that are overstressed from being too much of having too much of a caseload.
Another thing is you don't have people there that are open minded to hearing your situation.
This panel has spoken about.
About us being veterans and our individual situations being different.
But they want to hear specific things that they don't, they're not willing to hear the specific needs of the individual.
They want to collectively
umbrella us all together in one scenario.
I actually have a specific scenario of how I got into this situation that I was in.
Same as the gentleman that was right beside me.
He had, but we're clumped together in the same scenario when it comes to receiving services.
You're in permanent housing now?
Yes.
Thank goodness.
Okay.
Let's stay in touch.
I'd love to stay in touch even offline after the hearing ends.
Thank you very much.
Yes, sir.
Grab a microphone and please identify yourself and get started when you're ready.