Lauren Napier testifies on shelter conditions and staff incompetence

Ready?

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay, my name is Lauren Napier, and I want to say, Ms.

DeJesus, I am on par with her as an individual who is a professional who has found herself in the shelter environment.

I spent 224 days in a DHS shelter, four nights at the Franklin Women's Shelter in the Bronx, and then I resided for the remaining 200 days at the Empower Women's Shelter, which is in Gail Brewer's district.

And I am disappointed that she's gone because I would like to have addressed her personally.

I have gone to her office and communicated with her office on a multitude of occasions and was not helped.

I also previously testified at the COGE hearing on June 9th.

But as I said, I was able to exit the shelter within 22, after residing there for 224 days.

After and despite 100 days of staff incompetence, staff ignorance, and staff retaliation, egregious levels of staff retaliation.

But first, I want to talk about Franklin because I entered that shelter.

There was a ceiling collapse in that shelter where a water tower came down.

Upon evacuation, it was completely chaotic.

I actually fell down a flight of stairs, tore my meniscus, and herniated a disc in my back.

There was absolutely no level.

of urgency, security, or concern for people's well-being.

And that night, upon having to return to Franklin, we were required to sleep in wet rooms.

The room was wet, saturated, so much water that the tiles from the ground were raised, and we were required to sleep in that room.

And sorry, this incident occurred when?

Do you remember the date?

November 15th, 2025.

Thank you.

I then was moved to the Empower Women's Shelter on the Upper West Side.

It is considered a MICA shelter.

That is a mentally ill, chemically addicted shelter.

That shelter is inhabited, well, the residents are a mixed population.

So you have a mixed population, people like me and people who have severe mental illness and severe disability, along with people who have dementia.

In that shelter, there was not a medical.

Any level of medical personnel, not one.

However, there was a box of Narcan that was there for people in the event of an overdose, which I was witness to.

So as our commissioner sat here and discussed the things that happen in the shelter, it is inconsistent with what actually happens inside.

And it's really disappointing that it's very clear that there's a cleavage between the information that you have and the real experience that people are experiencing inside.

I also experienced and personally was assaulted.

I endured.

Months

of sleep deprivation, again, hostility from staff, retaliation, even after reporting concerns.

I, like you, sir, completed grievances in writing and in email and were often not responded to.

And I then escalated my issues to Jumaane Williams'office.

The Office of the Ombudsman, again back to Gail Brewer, and I, like you, followed the email formats of numerous, numerous city agencies.

I followed people on Instagram and DM'd them, sent them messages, all to your offices to no avail.

None.

So I just want to make it clear that you guys are responsible for hundreds of thousands of people's lives.

And we are not getting the help that we need.

It is an exhaustive effort of individuals who are residing in the shelter.

It is exhausting the taxpayer.

We are not, I'm a person who's been on both sides.

I'm a taxpayer and I am a person who required and needed the services.

And I was not able to effectively get the services.

I was doing the job of my case manager, my housing specialist.

I too lost an apartment during the process.

I used my resources to help myself out of the shelter and also to help the people inside of the shelter with me because the staff is unprofessional, unprepared, and ignorant to the process.

Even so much so that I had to provide them a PDF, a link.

and language of some of the policies that had been instated that indicate that there is no shelter stay requirement.

They don't even know the basics.

And so to speak about the professionalism and the education of the staff and who's there, it's a farce because that is not what is happening.

It's not what's happening.

And I also want to say that the Empower Women's Shelter had no potable drinking water.

We had no hot water.

There was another issue.

Yes.

During the Code Blue, no laundry detergent, no hot water.

The staff would hand out bottles of water at their discretion to whom they felt needed water.

They lost people's medication.

There was a girl who had her mother's ashes.

They lost the girl's mother's ashes.

When you talk about security and holding people's property, they don't do that.

Okay, they're not prepared for...

individuals'needs, nor do they care about people's needs.

Thank you.

I can go on.

There's a lot.

There's a lot.

Do you have written testimony?

I do have written testimony, and I will provide it in detail.

And I would also like the contact information so that we can have a sit-down discussion, because I have sat in one of these hearings, and it's very disappointing also to see our elected officials leave.

We sit here, and I understand that they have other constituents, but this is important.

And this is an exhaust.

I mean, there's.

ways that the city can save money.

You're hemorrhaging money.

You guys don't even know what the shelters are spending money on.

And they're hemorrhaging money.

And they're warehousing people.

Thank you.

We'll follow up.

Sir?