Oversight Hearing: Examining the Use of Cluster Sites as Temporary Shelter for the Homeless.

New York City Council Committee on General Welfare October 10, 2013

Hannah Biskind, Urban Justice Center

My name is Hannah Biskind and I am a Legal Advocate at the Urban Justice Centers Safety Net Project (SNP). SNP is New York Citys advocate for economic justice, combining direct legal services, affirmative litigation, research, and policymaking to achieve economic justice for all New Yorkers. We protect the due process rights of lowand no-income New Yorkers by ensuring access to public benefits, nutritional assistance programs, eviction prevention services, public housing, emergency shelter, and other elements of our social safety net. SNPs attorneys and advocates hold the government accountable in order to ensure that no New Yorker is without food, housing, or other basic human rights.

At SNP, I have the privilege of assisting homeless families navigate labyrinthine shelter process and have worked with a number of families placed in cluster site shelters. On Friday, October 4th, 2013 I visited a cluster site unit in Brooklyn where our client currently lives with her three children ages 5, 15, and 18. There was zero security and none of the doors into the building were locked. The family has lived here since the end of February and the day after they first arrived, signs of foundational deterioration presented themselves. During my visit, sections of the floor sank under my feet, clear signs that the apartment floor is rotting. A bucket sat under the hole in the ceiling and I watched water drip into it.

My client explained to me that the bathroom ceiling leaks water every day. Over the summer, the leakage was so severe that it flooded the bathroom, causing the rentpaying tenant below this family to experience ceiling leaks, as well. I observed mold growing on the bathroom wall and ceiling. Mushrooms grew around the hole in the ceiling. Pictures are provided in the testimony packet.

My client has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder. Two of her children have asthma. The family doesnt use their breathing machine because it short -circuits the
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fuse. After 30 minutes in the shelter unit, my own eyes were watering and burning and I had trouble breathing. The family has presented doctors letters detailing their medical conditions and medical needs. The familys caseworker told them nothing could be done and they were better off saving their money and moving into their own apartment, as if the family wasnt already saving what they can from their fixed income to try and get out. The neglected conditions in this cluster site unit all too clearly illustrate the way this familys health is placed at risk and their lives devalued. Because this shelter unit is in a cluster-site, a building with both shelter residents and tenants, the foundational issues must be addressed not only by DHS staff but also by the buildings management.

While most traditional shelters have on-site supportive staff such as case managers and security officers, cluster-sites often do not. Clients tell me stories of absent security guards. Often, security guards are in charge of log books and their absence prevents shelter residents from signing in and out. DHS uses these log books to make sure clients follow curfew and are in their shelter unit. Currently, I am advising one such shelter resident who had to return to PATH, a family shelter intake center, because he was logged out of his shelter when the security guard with the log book was absent for three nights. I have not heard of absent log books at traditional homeless shelters.

Traditional homeless shelters staff case managers on-site, making it easier for shelter residents to comply with their scheduled meetings. For cluster-site residents, case managers work at a central location that can be some distance from the shelter units. For New York Citys low-income population, MetroCards and carfare are not easy things to come by. DHS does not provide the money necessary for shelter residents to travel to their case managers. So what are my clients supposed to do when they dont have carfare? Jump the turnstile? Additionally, I have a client who expresses fear when traveling to meet her case manager. Her 17-year-old son was mugged in broad daylight on his way to meet with their case manager not long ago. Compounded with the lack of security at the cluster site itself (where someone was held up outside the front door just
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last week and where all doors to the buildings entrance are unlocked), DHS clients are not awarded any sense of security.

We have compiled a list of suggestions in response to our clients experiences in cluster site shelters:

1.

Address the hazardous repair issues contained in many of these units. The City of New York should not pay for housing units that place families in danger and often times violate housing maintenance standards. Enact a system that will enable residents to report hazardous conditions and provide oversight for case managers to ensure they address residents requests for repairs

2.

Provide MetroCards for shelter residents to attend their appointments with DHS workers

3.

Create a housing subsidy allowing homeless families to access permanent housing

Thank you for your time.