Morano questions Dalton on shelter NDA policy and confidentiality law

Just to follow up on what Councilmember Paldino and Councilmember Wan alluded to, since they both brought it up and it was on my list as well, the issue of the so-called NDAs.

Before I visited Borden Avenue, you know,

DSS had sent me a document, which they referred to as an NDA, saying I had to sign it to go.

And obviously, I was not going to sign an NDA because I want to be able to share broadly exactly what I observed, good, bad, ugly.

And I forwarded this to the attorneys for the city council, and they said their view was that it was not an NDA, that it was a patient confidentiality form that just

prevented me from sharing any confidential patient information that I got.

Then when I got to Borden Avenue, one of your staffers for DSS, who was very professional and terrific, he asked several of us that were visiting, oh, did everybody sign their NDA, which added to a little bit of the confusion.

I'm wondering, since several of my colleagues have brought this up now, what exactly is the policy with respect to signing a form before you visit Borden Avenue or other shelters?

And what does that form actually prevent someone visiting from sharing?

Yeah, thank you for the question and the opportunity to clarify there.

All right, so DHS, I mean, I'll just start with, of course, we have

a requirement, us and our providers, to keep our clients, whether veterans or other people experiencing homelessness, their safety and confidentiality at the forefront of our work.

This is where people are living and staying, and they have a right to privacy in those settings.

And so we have codified the way we grant access to our shelters in a DHS policy and procedure.

It's got a name.

It's DHS PB 2026-001.

We can make that available to you.

It's a long document and has different specifications for different types of visitors because you can imagine there are different types of visitors.

And there is a section on elected officials.

Part of the reason we codified this and require signing the agreement that you referenced and others have referenced is it's the way we comply with, again, state and local law, right?

So there's the state social services law 136 and New York City administrative code 23-1201 through 23-1205, the identifying information law.

So we, both the form and the way we proceduralize that in our document are the ways that we comply with, again, state and federal, state and local.

local law.

To be clear, this is about protecting people.

This is not about talking about a tarp.

People are free to talk about the tarps that they saw with their own eyes, about the food that they saw or that they heard about.

Anything else except for people's

people's identity and their privacy, right?

So that's the piece that we are trying to protect and are required to protect under state and local law.

And so if there, you know, perhaps it is an area where the administration and council need to have more discussion, but we have

documented that protocol in a whole procedure and are following it in accordance with the state and local law.

Now, I don't think any of my colleagues, even a rule breaker like Councilmember Wong here, would ever reveal confidential patient information to anybody.

So just to be clear, before any of us are able to visit Borden Avenue, we do have to sign this document.

Is that a requirement?

It is a requirement.

Okay.

I have a number of other questions.

Councilmember Wilson.