Transcript: Mayor Bill de Blasio Announces Results of 90-Day Review of Homeless Programs

April 11, 2016

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Keisha, we are so proud of you. We are so proud for you for standing up for your rights, standing up for your family, and fighting until you made things right. And you know what, Keisha, I think you epitomize the American Dream and the New York Dream, which is – who is ready to work hard and do the right thing should get a chance to make it. Everyone deserves a shot. So, I think there is such a powerful story – on the brink of eviction, and now a full-time job, getting her Associate’s Degree, moving forward for herself and her family. Let’s give Keisha another round of applause.

[Applause]

Now, where is Patrick Lovelace? There he is, stand up – stand up. Give that man a round of applause.

[Applause]

I have to tell you, the people who do this important work; the people at Homebase; the attorneys who represent folks on the verge of evictions and stop those evictions, this is such important work – literally, changing the trajectory of a family’s life. And this is the kind of thing we all come here to do in public service. For all of you at Homebase, you can tell that you, every day, are making people’s lives better. You’re helping families stay together. And to all the attorneys – and we’re very, very proud of the investments we made in legal aid and legal services. Listen to what Keisha said, she was alone up against a landlords attorney. She said something to me when we met earlier – she said, I didn’t even understand the words the attorney was using – all the legal terminology – and she felt alone; she felt outgunned. And then, Alberto Gonzalez became her attorney, and now it was a fair fight. And when it is a fair fight, the tenant can win, and she’s still in her apartment where she belongs.

[Applause]

Now, I wanted you to hear from Keisha, because it is not only a very powerful story, and not only a wonderful victory for this good family, but Keisha is living a reality that so many people are today in New York City who end up being homeless or on the verge of homelessness. And as you can hear from her story, it wasn’t for lack of hard work; it wasn’t because she was dealing with some of the other challenges that some people deal with in our society – no, it was economics. It was that she was left with a bill she could not pay. And in this City, it’s become more and more expensive to live. If it hadn’t been Homebase, if it hadn’t been the legal assistance, she would have had no choice but to end up in shelter. A good family – a family that was ready to work hard and do everything right would end up in shelter. And that’s what we are trying, every day, to stop and turnaround – this reality of people ending up in shelter simply because they can’t make ends meet. And we in the City of New York have more and more tools to change that situation; to save people before they go over the brink; to keep them in their apartment, in their neighborhood. By the way, what Keisha said about her children – where are your children? Let’s have them take a bow as well. Stand up for a second, guys, would you?

[Applause]

I want you to know; [inaudible] I’m going to brag on you. When Davon was at his previous height academically he was getting a 4.0 average. It went down a little to three point-something. I said Davon, I never had a 4.0, so you could feel pretty good that you’re on the right track.

[Applause]

So, this is – thank you children – this is the work that we know needs to be done for families all over this City because we can’t have people end up in shelter. You know what happens when kids end up in shelter – they get disconnected sometimes from their community and their schools; or if they have to go a long distance to school it disrupts their lives. We’re trying to stop the problem before it even happens; to keep our families in their apartments. And it’s so much better for our families. It makes so much more sense. It is so much more the decent thing to do. And I’ve always said, it’s so much better for the taxpayer too – to help people on the front end to prevent homelessness because homelessness has a horrible human cost. It also has a horrible cost to all of us.

So, this is a success story and we’re going to have many more like it because we are making the kinds of changes we need to in light of this reality. And here’s another fact you should know to recognize how different today’s homelessness is versus what we knew in the past – right now, of the families in shelter – and I think everyone knows shelters used to be overwhelmingly single adults – now, shelters are predominantly families. Well, here’s an important point to know – 30 percent of the adult family members in shelter now have jobs. They leave shelter and they go off to a job and they come back at night. And many others have had jobs recently or are looking for work.

So, we – of course, we have a lot of focus. We hear a lot of concerns about the 3,000 or 4,000 people who live on our streets. We’re going to certainly talk about that today too – all the ways we want to help them turn their lives around. But for the tens of thousands of people who live in shelter, you may not think you see them the way you do someone who is on the street, but they are very much a part of our lives because it’s the person next to you on the subway; it’s the person in line at the cart to get coffee; it’s the person who maybe works in the same building as you; or the child that goes to the school that you teach in. If you think about it, those tens of thousands of people who are trying to do the right thing and because of economic reality ended up in shelter, they are part of the every-day life in this City. Our job is to help people out of shelter; help them realize the fullness of their potential – not let the economic reality of their city overcome them.

So many people like Keisha are not only doing the right thing now, but are trying to better themselves and find a way to a long term great job. And, by the way, Keisha is going to be a great registered nurse. I told her she is never going to lack for employment as a registered nurse. So, the fact is, the reality of homelessness in this city changed profoundly. It became much more an economic reality. But the City’s approach to homelessness didn’t change; didn’t recognize these new realities. But we realized it was time for a much deeper overhaul of our approach. We had to modernize; we had to reform; we had to create an approach to homelessness that reflected today’s reality. And that’s why today we announce a new vision for fighting homelessness in this city and a new structure and approach for which to do it. This is a result of the 90-day review we undertook of all of our homelessness efforts, and that review was done with great energy and focus by many, many members of our administration to get us to a very different place. And I’m going to talk about the changes we’ve made.

But first, let me thank and acknowledge some key members of my administration who have been part of this process:  Dr. Herminia Palacio, our Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services; our Chief of Department at the NYPD, Jimmy O’Neill; our Director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations Mindy Tarlow.

I want to thank all of the people here who work for so many good organizations – all the service providers and the case workers who are part of this work and our allies in this essential work. I want to thank many of the clients who are here today – folks who have worked with their case workers to turn their lives around. We thank them for their strength and their persistence.

I also want to thank from our administration the Deputy Commissioner for Enforcement and Neighborhood Services at HPD, which does a crucial job helping to defend tenants’ rights to keep hot water at all the basics – thank you Deputy Commissioner Vito Mustaciuolo. And then some of the elected officials – or elected official, who is here – some are going to speak, some I want to announce now. I want to thank Councilmember Ben Kallos for being with us. Thank you for your support. You’ve been very focused on these issues, and we appreciate your support. I want to thank from the labor movement who represents so many of the workers who do this important work for the city – the President of DC 37 Local 371 Anthony Wells, thank you very much. I want to thank the service providers who we work with every day – some of whom are represented here today. I want to thank George McDonald, the founder of the Doe Fund. I want to thank Muzzy Rosenblatt, the Executive Director of the Bowery Residents’ Committee. And here from BronxWorks, the Executive Director Eileen Torres – thank you so much. 

[Applause]

And someone who has been working on these issues for a long time and works with us every day on so many issues – the President of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies Jennifer Jones Austin – thank you so much.

We undertook this 90-day review with a goal of making all of the agencies that address homelessness as effective as possible. This was guided by a fundamental truth – every New Yorker deserves a home – a brick-and-mortar place, a place they know they can depend on. We know that makes such a big difference for our families, and they need that consistency. They need that rock in their lives. And without that, we know that many additional problems start to emerge for families. So this is the right thing to do and the humane thing to do – to help people get to a home each and every time. Now, this reality of homelessness, as I’ve said, has changed in so many ways. And the numbers tell us so much of the story. This is a problem we all know goes back 30 or 40 years. But let’s look at how the numbers have changed as our economy has changed, as the cost of living in this city has changed.

On the first day of the Giuliani administration, there were 23,500 New Yorkers in shelter. On the first day of the Bloomberg administration, it had risen to 33,100. On the first day of my administration, it was already over 50,000 when we walked in the door. And today, there are some 58,000 men, women, and children in shelter. Now, this is a trend that is so unmistakable and has to be addressed in such a profoundly different way. Twenty years that I just went over with you – an increase of 115 percent – the number of people in shelter, which means we can’t do things the way they were done in the past. We have to do them very, very differently.

So, we know that the tale of two cities I’ve talked about so much is part of what happened here. The rich got richer. Everyone else started falling behind economically. Too many people had low wages and low-benefit jobs. And just when you would not expect that to come with a huge increase in the cost of housing – guess what? The cost of housing skyrocketed. Even after the Great Recession, the cost of housing kept skyrocketing in this city. Those unfortunately were the building blocks of this crisis. To affect the underlying reality, we’ve come up with a series of measures to increase wages, to increase benefits – things like paid sick leave, to create more affordable housing for our families, to take expenses off families like what we do with pre-K and after school. We’ve always said that this city alone cannot solve all the problems, but that if we consistently try to raise wages and benefits and reduce the costs of struggling people and working people, we can make a difference in their lives. And we’re going to keep doing that to make it possible for everyday people to live in the city.

Now at the same time, to fight homelessness, we knew we needed to fundamentally approach the strategy differently. Some of those pieces we announced previously – ten-fold increase in the amount of legal aid and legal services, a commitment to getting out of the clusters that have been the kind of housing that have not been acceptable for families, and to get out of the hotels ultimately. We’ve announced number of initiatives previously. Now, we’re going to add a number more. We know that prevention works. We know that we can keep people from ending up in shelter if we get to them in time, as is true in Keshia’s case. 

Since this administration began, we’ve reached 107,000 people with our prevention efforts. 107,000 New Yorkers have been reached, and many of them were kept out of shelter. We’ve helped now 32,000 people out of shelter and to real housing over the last two years and three months. And evictions by City marshals have gone down 24 percent in the last two years because people had a lawyer to defend their interests.

[Applause]

Now, here is a number you have not heard before, to the best of my knowledge. I mentioned we have about 58,000 people in shelter right now. By our projections, had we not put the legal services in place, and preventative efforts in place, if we had not consistently given people the subsidies and the support to get out of shelter – instead of 58,000 in shelter today – today, that number would be over 71,000. So, that is the sobering look at what would happen if this City government doesn’t keep intervening evermore deeply in this situation to turn it around. So, we’re resetting the equation with a series of additional reforms we’re announcing today. Our plan has 46 individual new reforms that will add to our efforts to address the homelessness problem foundationally. There are four main goals in this effort. 

First and foremost, preventing homelessness – this is something I believe in going back to the years I spent in the City Council. This is what I advocated for the most – stopping people from becoming homeless while we can. That is the smartest strategy and we’re going to do a lot more on that front. 

The second goal is to get people out of shelters and into permanent housing. As you’ve heard, we’ve been successful with 32,000 New Yorkers, but we want to go a lot farther, a lot faster. 

The third and fourth goals are improving the shelters we have and addressing street homelessness with an entirely different approach. So, we had an approach – decades-old – that was not working for today’s reality. We also had organization structures that are decades-old and not working for today’s reality. We’re changing that today. 

Beginning today, the Human Resources Administration and the Department of Homeless Services will report to a single Commissioner of Social Services – HRA Commissioner Steve Banks. 

[Applause]

I think the election was unanimous. 

[Laughter]

Second, we’re creating an inter-agency Homelessness Accountability Council, because all agencies are a part of this effort. And I want to particularly thank Chief Jimmy O’Neill. And as a great example of this – NYPD has been an extraordinary partner in the efforts that we put together with HOME-STAT. Every agency – HPD is a crucial piece of it, Operations is a crucial piece of it. This is something that’s going to have to be done not just by HRA and DHS, but by a variety of agencies. 

Dr. Herminia Palacio will be the leader of the inter-agency council, and I have seen already, in the few months on the job, she’s been a tremendous leader and she is going to be able to get these agencies on the same page. 

We’re also going to continue to urge everyone in Albany to institute reforms we need. The issues of homelessness were not addressed in the State budget that was announced over a week ago. There’s still a chance to do it in the legislative session, and we’re going to work very hard to get the many reforms that are needed to fight homelessness achieved in Albany by the end of June. 

So, we believe in the fundamental changes we’re making. We believe they are the right answers to a problem that was not addressed properly for too long. But we have no illusion that this is going to be easy. It will be a very long battle. It will be a tough battle. We believe that these new initiatives will work, but they will take time. But it is our responsibility to own the situation. I want to be very clear – the buck stops here on this issue. I’ve been personally involved on issues of homelessness going back to 2002, when I became a City Council member – even some before that when I worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. So, I am taking responsibility for all of these initiatives, because we need them to work. Just like before, we’ve set very high goals. We need this very ambitious effort to work so that we can change the reality of homelessness in this city once and for all.

We know the status quo has not been working. We don’t accept that status quo. Today begins a very new approach. 

[Applause]

And just very quickly in Spanish before bringing forward Commissioner Banks –

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, it my pleasure to bring forward HRA Commissioner Steve Banks.

[Applause]

Commissioner Steven Banks, Human Resources Administration: Anytime we get applause before you say anything, you’re doing well.

Mayor: Quit while you’re ahead. 

[Laughter]

Commissioner Banks: I think I’ll sit down right now. Listening to Keisha’s story reinforces the importance of the programs that we’ve already put in place, reinforces the importance of the new reforms that the Mayor’s approved and we will be putting in place, and also makes it clear how much more we have to do. Her story and the story of her children really highlight the importance of home in your life. Look at all the instability that she had and her children had when it was unclear that they would have a roof over their heads, let alone actually losing it. And so, the programs the Mayor has put in place are having an impact and the programs that we will be putting in place will continue that impact. When the Mayor appointed me to be the HRA Commissioner, I said any Legal Aid lawyer, or life-long Legal Aid lawyer – it was a dream to run an agency to provide services in the administration dedicated to fighting poverty and income inequality. Not sure what to say today now being responsible for HRA and the Department of Homeless Services, but I want to thank the Mayor for your confidence in me.

[Applause] 

Mayor: Well-deserved, well-deserved.

Commissioner Banks: I want to highlight a couple of the important reforms that we have put in place, and I want to harken back to what the Mayor said when he ordered us to undertake a review of Homeless Services in the city – something that really hadn’t had a fresh look in 20 years. He said we really have to focus on client services. Are they timely and are they effective? And that was the guiding principle when looking at our delivery of homeless services from the client’s perspective – are services timely and effective? To get to the reform process, we ran focus groups with clients, conducted surveys of clients, we spoke to clients on the street, we spoke to clients in shelters. We interviewed more than 26 different government agencies who were involved in the interview process. We surveyed DHS staff, more than 60 not-for-profit and other organizations providing services were involved in the process. We cast a very wide net because that’s what the Mayor wanted us to do to take a fresh look at everything. And we think that the structure that the Mayor is putting in place today will enable us to make the kind of progress that we need to for clients. We found that for many years it was our friend in alphabet soup of services with clients having to navigate through that. And the structure that the Mayor is putting in place today is essentially a no-wrong door structure to ensure that it can connect people to services and provide those services.

The structure streamlines our operations, and you’ll see in the report that there is a substantial savings that we’re repurposing into the programs – there’s $38 million worth of savings that we’re repurposing into these reforms in order to both make government as efficient as we can be, and also deal with the fact that human beings need these services, and that’s what the repurposing of the dollars and the services are all about. In terms of prevention, we’re very much focused on that old outage that the ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure but we are going further than that. Agencies like Bronx Works and CAMBA and the other partners in our Homebase have really shown the way over the years that if you can reach people before they need shelter, you can keep them in a stable situation and keep them out of shelter. So, we will be expanding the scope of the services through home base to address the kinds of problems that they are seeing on the ground. We are going to be working with Homebase to really emphasize a prevention first strategy. We are also going to be using data analytics which we have been experimenting with to identify clients that are at risk of homelessness before they apply for shelter or after they’ve already applied for shelter and have had difficulty in terms of access. We will be focusing on rehousing and streamlining the rehousing process, consolidating and making improvements in our rental systems programs – taking additional actions. We’ve had terrific partnerships with thousands of landlords, but there are some who have refused our programs and we will be increasing our source of income discrimination enforcement. This is an important law that the Mayor drafted and enacted when he was in the Council, and it’s a tool that we want to make sure that it’s available to address those landlords that may not want to accept the programs. 

We will be focusing on street homelessness. And we talked last week about HOME-STAT and the importance of the case management approach to provide the kinds of outreach services that we have provided for years, but created in the Mayor’s vision a city-wide case-manager approach to know everyone on the street and develop an individualized plan to help people get off the streets, because that’s clearly what the review showed that one-size-fits-all doesn’t work. You need an individualized plan. And we’re very focused on improving conditions in the shelters and a number of the reforms address safety and security and conditions. And I am very grateful for Chief O’Neill and the NYPD for their review that will be coming out in terms of what we need to do to address safety and security in the shelter beyond that which we have already done in terms of adding additional security personnel. We also are very focused on conditions in the shelters.

We reported last month on our shelter repairs squad, reducing substantially the numbers of violations in shelters. As some of you know, we are taking new action because we want to ensure that our clients are in appropriate circumstances. First, we have reached out to all shelter providers asking them whether or not they will work with us to replace operators who are deficient in providing services based upon our findings in the shelter repair squad. And providers who are not willing to work with us to make those repairs. So we are asking those providers that have a good track record to be available to work with us to substitute for those that are sufficient. Number two, we have addressed a number of deficient operators with some new action that we are taking. First of all, there is the LCG Provider shelter in the Bronx at 92 different sites, 424 units. They have 5,956 violations. They’re 1,620 people in their units. We are having them come in. We expect prompt action and if it is not taken we will replace them and take further actions to ensure the safety of our clients.

[Applause]

Synergia, a small organization – only three clients, but 75 violations in those units, large and small – we expect people to provide decent shelter and decent services. These actions that we are taking now as part of moving forward with reforms build upon actions that we have already taken during the 90 days. Remember that the Mayor said we weren’t going to wait until the end of the period of time and so many of the reforms like the 15,000 supporting housing units like the additional security and shelters – all of those things have been rolling out well. We announced last month that we were eliminating 260 of the cluster units where there were serious conditions problems including more than 200 at the We Always Care units, primarily in Brooklyn and those will be ended by the end of this fiscal year.

We also reached an agreement with Children’s Community Services. There are 59 sites; 396 occupants; 2,525 violations. We’re taking these actions because during the review period, we inspected, we made repairs and we’ve identified places where there needs to be improvements and we expect our providers to work with us. If not, we will replace them. Moving forward, we know that the situation that we are working on has been built up over many years. But we have terrific partners in labor, terrific partners in not-for-profit community, terrific partners in the electeds, and terrific partners in the agencies that work with us and we are confident that working together that we can improve lives just as Kesha’s life and her family’s life was improved by the services that we provided. 

Thank you.

[…]

Mayor: Okay, we are going to take questions on the 90-day review; the reforms and changes we’re making with [inaudible]. Anything related to homelessness then we’ll open up to all other questions. Okay, first on today’s announcement – questions on today’s announcement. 

Yes?

Question: Are you adding resources to the [inaudible]?

Mayor: We are both adding resources and we’re realizing savings. Steve will go over the details, but because we are putting these two agencies under a joint operating agreement – let me emphasize because some reports have called this a merger in the traditional sense. It’s not that. They are two distinct agencies, but they will respond to one leader. And we’re going to create efficiencies by joining together some of their back officer operations and other areas where we can save money. Steve can describe that. So, we save money, but we’re also investing as a result of a number of these initiatives. I think it nets out to $28 million in new investment that will be reflected in the Executive Budget, but Steve can go into a little more detail.

Commissioner Banks: One of the aspects that we looked at was – if you look at the two agencies and you have multiple back office functions – legal, finance, communications, program integrity, contracting. If we can streamline all of those procedures we can save money and then repurpose those dollars into the very kinds of programs that people like Keisha need. And that will help us move forward; for example, in addition to prevention of helping keep people out of shelter, we emphasizing employment programs in shelter. And that’s going to help people to move out. But the resources for that are coming from – as the Mayor described it – the reorganization will result in savings that will end up supporting these reforms. It’s $38 million in savings against the total cost of the programs at $66 million. So, we are investing substantial resources in savings that will support the kinds of life-changing reforms that Keisha described.

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Banks: Well certainly, there is a consensus in the City that has developed among providers and government that for many years the focus on shelter models used hotels or used building s that should have been used for permanent housing like the clusters and instead when shelters are developed they really ought to be able to fit in the community; and combine a combination of transitional housing with permanent housing; with community space. And so there are a number of very creative [inaudible] that are working on a proposals. And we expect to receive some of those proposals. There’s already one underway. The BRC is doing here in the Bronx in partnership with HPD to really look at transitional housing as just that as opposed to free-standing shelters that are in buildings that really weren’t built for that purpose. So, as part of our changing of the shelter system – in some cases we’ll be able to simply relocate people to permanent housing and eliminate the use of that shelter or prevent people from coming in and eliminate these types of shelter. In other cases we want to replace it, but as [inaudible] said, one of the big focuses we have had over the past winter and we’ll continue to have is bringing people in off the streets. So, you may see some increases at different points in time as move forward with this reform approach.

Mayor: Can I speak to that for a second? This is a very important point. And [inaudible] and I don’t agree on everything, but I am going to give her a shot out on this point – that if we have an increase in shelter population of single adults who came in off the streets and went into shelter and went into Safe Havens, that’s a blessing. We would happily take that reality. So, we will be reporting regularly on the street numbers and the overall numbers. But in fact a sign of success would be a certain amount of increase in shelter because of people no longer being ion the streets.

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Banks: The structure that was set up is with a single social services commissioner and tow operating parts of the social services delivery system. One is the social services agencies that have been part of HRA – cash assistance, food stamps, domestic violence services, [inaudible] for people with HIV-AIDS, and so forth – and then the homeless agencies. So, we’ll have two administrators – one in charge of each reporting to the commissioner for the Department of Homeless Services. We will identify those individuals when we’re ready to make a decision. But what is most important about the structure is it is going to allow us on the homeless side to focus on shelter operations work with innovation – with the providers to streamline the operation on the shelter side and move prevention and rehousing back to HRA where it historically had been before the separate agency was created and resulted in the duplication of some of these services and some inefficiencies across the agencies. So, we’re going to have streamline focus on prevention, rehousing and a very singular focus n shelter conditions and so forth on the homeless services side.

Mayor: Explain your [inaudible].

Commissioner Banks: The commissioner of the Human Resources Administration is also the commissioner of the Local Social Services district in New York City – the Department of Social Services, Homeless Services is a social service. And the structure that we’re moving forward with is essentially is bringing homeless services with other social services under a single commissioner structure.

Mayor: So, just to make sure everyone understands that, that is something I guess the decades the HRA commissioner has also carried that total as the commissioner for Social Services in the eyes of the State. 

Yes?

Question: What community notice will be given to the community about a new shelter in that community because I know on February 8th you signed into law that community boards must be notified when a new shelter or [inaudible]. But a three-family home here in the Bronx on Eighth Avenue has been changed to a shelter and no community notice was given. Why was that?

Mayor: I don’t know about that specific situation, so Steve can follow up. I don’t if that’s DHS or some other type of entity, so let’s follow up on that one. It’s a State facility?

Unknown: [inaudible]

Mayor: Alright, we’ll follow – we’ll get you an answer on what that is and whether that’s ours or the State’s or whoever. But, on the broader point, we want to give notice whenever we can to the maximum extent. We’re always going to give notice, but we want there to be as much time as possible. But here’s the reality – we have an obligation to house people and we are working hard every single day to get people out of shelter, to keep people from going into shelter. But we also know that month by month the realities change. When people are in need, we have to get a roof over their head, and sometimes that does take creating new facilities. Further, we’re trying to get people off the street and into shelter. We’re trying to, as quickly s possible, close down the clusters. We’re trying, as quickly as possible, to get out of the hotels. These are all things that have been around for years and decades but we want to get out of them. As you know, we shut down the encampments where, all over the five boroughs, hundreds of people were living in open-air villages. That’s been stopped thanks to the good work of the NYPD, and DHS, and the providers. All of that – we shut down the three-quarters houses that were substandard housing. That all brings people into shelter, which means that we have find shelter capacity at any given moment. So, our goal is to always give the community as such notice as possible, but job-one is to put a roof over people’s heads. 

Yes, in the back?

Question: [inaudible] 

Mayor: Yeah, Steve will speak to that.

Commissioner Banks: Through a combination of the housing strategies and the rental assistance, we’ve been able to either prevent entry into the shelter system, or help move out of the shelter system 32,000 people since we’ve put these programs in place in 2014. The rental assistance programs really started in earnest almost in 2015 – that includes relocations through the various programs the Mayor’s authorized with City-only funds, some Section 8, and some Housing Authority relocations. But it really shows you the kinds of programs that help keep someone like Keisha out of the system and has enable us to move people who already in, out to stabilize the numbers.

Question: [inaudible]

Commissioner Banks: That measure that was provided was certainly provided in good faith and included people who left for permanent housing and people who simply exited the system on their own. As part of the reform process, and in consultation with the Mayor, we really want to focus on people that we know are leaving permanently with one of our rental assistance programs, or have been able to keep them out permanently through one of our rental assistance programs. So, it’s a different matrix, which we think is an important one to use. The other one’s valid because, of course, someone leaving on their own – they may be able to live with friends, they may be able to move out – that’s good, we want to encourage that. But we also want to focus on our very specific programs – what impact we’re having for families like Keshia’s.

Mayor: Right, and I’ll add to that, that people can leave temporarily and come back – that’s obviously no the goal. The goal is to get people out of shelter, into permanent housing where they can be there for years and years and not end up back in shelter. So, this is the measure we think is the one that really gets to what we’re trying to achieve. 

On this topic – yes?

Question: [inaudible] 

Mayor: Say again? Louder?

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: So, let me separate those pieces – very good question. Let me separate the pieces. On the  supportive housing initiative, the City’s 15,000 apartments that we announced last year – 250 will be up and running this calendar year; 500 in the course – you can clap for that.

[Applause]

Thank you. 500 in the course of the upcoming fiscal year – that means taking to June of ‘17 – and we’re going to always try and speed those numbers up even further, but that’s what we’re guaranteeing to begin with – 250 by the end of this calendar year; an additional 250, taking us up to 500 by June. In – the second part of your question on NYCHA – on NYCHA, what we’ve said is, we are going to balance he needs of survivors of domestic violence, and folks who are homeless, and other folks with special needs where you have a substantial number of NYCHA units that will developed – excuse me, will be made available for all of those needs. But we also obviously honor the fact that there are tens of thousands of people on the NYCHA waitlist, trying to get apartments. So, we’ve taken a balanced approach where we divide what we have between those two realities – people on the waitlist already and people who have, you know, real needs that we have to address. And we’re going to stay consistent with our current approach. 

Your other part was?

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: We’ll get you an updated number because that number moves a little bit, depending on availability. But it’s basically, you know, a split of the existing approach with folks on the waitlist versus the folks who have needs based on either domestic violence, homelessness, etcetera. 

But you had another part of your question?

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: So, this gets back – I appreciate that question because it gets back to the fundamental reality of homelessness today – that those 80,000 units, which are part of the overall supply of affordable housing we’re creating for the City, in addition to 120,000 apartments that we’re going to be preserving – for many, many people, that’s going to be why they don’t become homeless to begin with, or that’s going to be one of the options that gets them out of shelter. It’s not set aside specifically for folks in shelter, but it’s another one of the tools, another one of the sources we turn to to get people to a home that they can, you know, find permanently. This is that crucial distinction between supportive housing and affordable housing. The affordable housing program writ large goes to the heart of the homelessness crisis because the homelessness crisis more and more is about economics, therefore affordable housing helps to address that problem. The supportive housing goes to what we might consider the more historic or traditional challenge we’ve faed with homelessness, which is folks with mental health challenges and substance abuse challenges, and it’s specifically for their needs. 

On this topic – yes?

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Banks: We will be out with the executive budget very shortly so all of the kinds of things you’re asking will be addressed there, but remember the total number is 66 million not 28 million because we have repurposed dollars of savings. So the total cost of the reforms is only $20 million because we are reinvesting dollars that we already have so it is a total allocation of dollars. Some of the things that are important tools for us, don’t forget, are things like the 15,000 units of supportive housing that the Mayor described and the rental assistance programs that were already in the budget. So these dollars are in addition to the things that we have already been doing to be more effective in preventing homelessness, to be more effective with services like employment services, and be more effective in moving people out in – in addition to the programs that we put in place to help bring people off the streets.

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner Banks: I’m sorry, I wasn’t following your question. That’s an issue in which other centers for Medicaid services has said federally that you can use Medicaid dollars for an apartment search. That would allow us to do more than what we’re currently doing and it would depend on what the approval is going to be. We think it’s a promising area to help people with disabilities to get apartment search assistance to be able to find housing in the community.

Mayor: Explain what apartment search assistance is.

Commissioner Banks: It involves, particularly for individuals with disabilities, giving them extra help in terms of looking for housing. It’s sometimes called in other jurisdictions or referred to as rapid rehousing, attaching social services providers to work with individual families to connect them to housing in the marketplace and we think the Medicaid funding stream is a potential available way to do that as the federal government said it could be. This is not for rental assistance but it’s for helping people find apartments and pay for security deposits and brokers fees and other kinds of relocation assistance.

Mayor: And that is a particular challenge given what’s happened with the rental market given how much there are fewer available apartments, particularly if someone has disability and need support in terms of getting the apartment and solidifying the lease and everything. That becomes really, really important. We see this as person by person – family by family. So whatever will help a family get to that apartment and if they have for example a voucher or some other support, making sure they actually can use it in the time limit they have. That’s a very important part of the equation and we think that is an appropriate use for those dollars.

Just want to remind you these are media questions only, so I’m looking for media questions.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Louder

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Look, the way I would say it is this – we have tools that we think will change the equation. HOME-STAT is going to be very, very focused – an assertive effort to engage anyone who is on the street constantly to get the help they need. We understand there are seasonal differences of what the numbers look like on the streets but our goal is to put new approaches in place that change the overall dynamic.

Mayor: Yes.

Question: If I’m correct, you said that there would be $38 million in savings achieved – and then something was said about back-office duplication. Does this mean people will be losing jobs –

Mayor: No. No layoffs whatsoever. Look, we’re going to create savings within the agency, but those individual employees – we have lots of different ways to use their services in different agencies of the City government – so, no layoffs whatsoever. 

Commissioner Banks: I’ll just add to that – and I know that Chair Levin is here from the City Council – in terms of overseeing our budget – that when we implemented a series of reforms at HRA, beginning two years ago, one of the things we did do is repurpose administrative positions in order to be able to provide the kinds of services we wanted staff to be able to do. And we worked through a process through redeployment, so we affected savings in one place and were able to repurpose the dollars and the staff to provide the kinds of services we need to be more effective in preventing homelessness, more effective in helping people move out of the shelter, and so forth. 

Mayor: On this topic – last call. Media questions – yes?

Question: [inaudible]

Commissioner Banks: There are a range of reforms – some that are already in place and some that will be put in place to assist survivors of domestic violence. One is the expansion of the domestic violence shelter system that the Mayor authorized. We’re going to be increasing the numbers of units with 400 tier-two units and 300 emergency beds – that’s more than – or, essentially, that was what was added. During 2002 to 2010 – there hadn’t been any added after that point in time, so we’re adding enough to accommodate another 300 emergency beds and 400 tier-two units. It’s a substantial increase in our ability to provide those services. We have – we’re redeploying staff to provide greater screening to the single-adult shelter system for domestic violence that had not been done historically – the focus was on the family system only. As part of the partnership with the NYPD and our focus on safety in shelters, we’re restoring a program that had been cut a number of years ago to have [inaudible] domestic violence services in the shelter system. The CITYFEPS program that the Mayor authorized, as well as the LINC program that the Mayor authorized specifically have components for survivors of domestic violence to help them get out of shelter quickly, or avoid moving between domestic violence shelters and Department of Homeless Services shelters. And within the numbers of Housing Authority units that are given – that are allocated on an annualized basis – literally hundreds of the units have been allocated to survivors of domestic violence last year, and we’ll continue to do that. Domestic violence is obviously one of the drivers of homelessness, and so the preventative services, the supportive services, and the housing services are all aimed at addressing domestic violence. 

Deputy Mayor Herminia Palacio, Health and Human Services: Thank you. The only thing I wanted to add was this illustrates an example of the inter-agency council of the Mayor’s Office of Domestic Violence. You’ve heard about NYPD – folks have referenced NYCHA, you’ve heard bits of it throughout the entire conference, but this is why it’s so important to bring all of those agencies together, to bring the resources of the City to bear – not just the outstanding resources in HRA and DHS, but to really combine city-wide – because people’s lives don’t happen in the categories of our City organizational boxes. 

Mayor: Okay. On this topic – going once, going twice. Last call – okay, thank you. We are going now to off-topic – Andrew? 

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: So, I’m going to start by saying – I’m happy to take questions today, but I’m not going to be speaking about this after today. I have answered a number of questions already. I’ll answer more, and then let’s leave it there. The first thing I need to tell you is hold myself and my administration to the highest standard of integrity. I have been in public life for a long time. I am considered a reformer for a reason. I believe in making fundamental changes. And I have made that very, very clear to all the members of my administration, and I am very proud of the way that they have comported themselves. So, you know, from my point of view, I look at all the work we do as making decisions based on the publics needs and the public’s interest. That’s the standard I hold. In terms of these two individuals, as I said, I met them around the time of the general election – had not known them previously – have spent very little time with them in the scheme of things and not much at all in the last year. And, you know, I’m obviously sad to hear all this has happened. It doesn’t sound like it’s appropriate. There’s an investigation going underway. We’ll wait to see what comes of the investigation before making our final judgement. But the two individuals I just don’t know well. Yes?

Question: Who appointed them to the transition [inaudible]?

Mayor: I don’t know the specific process of how each name was determined. There was a group of leaders involved in the transition effort. Over the course of the transition they brought forward different names to add to the committee. We can get back to you about, you know, how that works specifically. But I don’t know the exact tick-tock of that.

Question: Can you say definitively at this point that these two individuals and the companies that they are affiliated with never got any kind of favorable municipal action in the time that you’ve been in office?

Mayor: I know of no favorable municipal action [inaudible]. 

Yes?

Question: There’s been a steady drip, drip, drip of stories about this for about the last two weeks. I wonder if there is something that you would like to say to New Yorkers about the integrity of your administration.

Mayor: I hold myself and my administration to the highest standard of integrity. And whenever anything happens I make very clear my view. If I think my administration hasn’t handled something well, or any other part of my operation, I will say so. But when I think we have one things appropriately I’ll also say that. We are very, very careful about doing things in a legal and appropriate manner. We’re very, very careful about disclosing the support we get. We believe in that. We know there’s lot and lots of money that flows into the political process that’s undisclosed. I find that reprehensible. We disclose everything. And we welcome questions about it. That’s part of what the kind of transparency all of you in the public deserve. But we hold ourselves to a very high standard.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Well, hold on now. I don’t know all their business associates and family members by name. So, you’d have to get me a whole list and I can tell you. But I’m telling you very clearly, I met a lot of people over the years, and then – I hope you’re all ready for this, it may shock you – at the end of the primary election process when it became apparent I was the likely next mayor of New York City, a lot of people wanted to meet me who previously had shown very little interest in meeting me.

[Applause]

Some of the most famous names in New York City suddenly wanted to meet me. So, that’s how I met them – only at that point in time – did not know them from anything I can remember previously. I remember a lot of people I know from Borough Park. I don’t remember knowing those two individuals. 

Yes?

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Say it again.

Question: [Inaudible] Have you spoken with any kind of counsel yet with regards to [inaudible]?

Mayor: Nope because I have no outreach from any federal or any other agency. And I am confident that we have done things correctly and appropriately and legally. So, the answer is no.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: I’m sorry.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Theoretical. I have not done anything in terms of reaching out for counsel because there is no reason to reach out for counsel. We’re going to do a few more, Karen, just so you know. I’m waving off the catcher this time. Thank you, Karen.

Question: You have said that you have not heard from federal officials about any investigation.

Mayor: Correct.

Question: So, in the wake of these stories, have you reached out to ask [inaudible]?

Mayor: I assume they have my phone number if they want to talk to me.

[Laughter]

Question: The Campaign for One New York [inaudible]?

Mayor: Do continue, please.

Question: Do you think that shutting it down gives the impression that you felt like it was problematic? There are obviously a lot of questions involved here about the tactics of people raising money for the Campaign for One New York [inaudible].

Mayor: Look, I would urge a single standard. Let me be very clear about this. I am the [inaudible] and I don’t mean to assume for the media, but a I expressed on Saturday night I really do appreciate the role the media plays as a watchdog in our society. The first question is undisclosed donations, which are rampant in our political process. And we should put a lot of attention on that because that is tremendously problematic that people are trying to affect the process when we don’t even know who they are. Second, there are all sorts of vast donations that are legal under our existing laws. And they should be looked at. And there should always be a question to ask about whether there was any impact. But here we have in the scheme of things, very limited amounts of money – fully disclosed. For two purposes that are not exactly about reinforcing the power interest and the status quo. Universal pre-K and affordable housing including a affordable housing program that required developers to have to create affordable housing in major developments for the first time in New York City history or any other city’s history. So, everyone has a right to judge, but I want you to look very carefully at what these resources were supporting. They were supporting progressive change. There’s a lot of money out there that’s trying to hold back progressive change. I have been the recipient of negative advertising of over $10 million directed at me by moneyed interest – very moneyed interest; attacking my administration. We felt from the beginning that when we were trying to achieve a progressive policy initiative to have resources that would fight for this vision were important and were fair. The good news, from my perspective, is we achieved some of the foundational things we came here to do. Everyone knows pre-k was the number one goal of my administration. The affordable housing program was one of the biggest. And everyone knows the biggest vote that we were going to see in the City Council in this entire term was on MIH and ZQA. Those things are done; the work is done. There’s no reason for such an entity at this point. And the bottom line is I’m going to continue doing my work. I’m not going to be surprised when powerful and monied interests attack us again, but we, unlike those interests that won’t disclose money – if anyone’s supporting my efforts, we’ll tell you who they are, and we’re very proud of that fact.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Again, you know, there’s only one law. So, this is where I’d ask everyone to check their facts. Everything we’ve done is legal and appropriate. If you believe there should be a different law, well, then advocate for a different law. But this is the post-Citizens United dynamic in America. I don’t think it’s right. The candidate I’m supporting for President would like to see a repeal of Citizens United – I support that fully. That would change things fundamentally. But, again, as someone who has experienced over $10 million of advertising against me and my agenda – let’s be clear, I don’t know if you guys have spent a lot of time looking into that, and what that meant, and what those interests were, and why they were doing it. So, the law is law – what we did – everything was very carefully and scrupulously checked for consistency with City, State, and federal law for absolute consistency with any other standards that had to be held. We didn’t do any of this lightly, and the people who were working on Campaign for One New York didn’t do it lightly. But again, we believe that the work that was necessary to do, got done – we’re very proud of that fact – and there’s no need for that entity at this point. 

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: I don’t know if I agree with your premise, but continue. 

[Laughter]

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Look, I think there is such support in this city for mayoral control of education across the spectrum. You know, a lot of folks who I don’t agree with on other things in the business community believe fundamentally that mayoral control of education is necessary. You see it from people who are progressive, you see it from people who are conservative, because it’s the only system that’s ever worked, and it starts with a democratic premise – the people vote for a mayor with a vision for the school system and then the mayor’s held accountable. There’s no other system that works. I believe, in the end, the State Senate will see that, but I’m sure it’ll be a process between now and then. I’ve made very clear – I’m happy to participate in any hearings they want to have to talk about why mayoral control is a system that works for our kids. 

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: I don’t predict. My job is to show that this is a system that works for New York City.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: You’re a fine actor, by the way.

[Laughter]

Question: [inaudible] take a pie in the face is what you’re saying, right?

Mayor: I thought you handled it with dignity, Rich.

[Laughter]

Question: Can you explain – what is the calculus behind announcing to us that you aren’t going to speak about this topic again?

Mayor: Because the question have been asked and answered about something that, from my experience, is absolutely theoretical at this point, and there’s nothing else to say. We’ve comported ourselves with the highest standards of integrity. Everything we’ve done in my administration has been open and transparent, and any of the organizations supporting me have been open and transparent. There’s just nothing else to say. 

We’re going to do a couple more and then we’re going to shut it down –

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: I don’t agree with that premise either, but go ahead. I think it’s more than that.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Listen, it comes down to something that’s being discussed on the national level too. First of all, if you have integrity and you know your job is to represent the people’s interests, you’re going to make a decision based on what you think is right for the people. I gave the example of our affordable housing plan that requires developers to create affordable housing. They never were required to do that before. A lot of them won’t enjoy that reality, but it was the right thing to do, and I can go through many, many other instance where we’ve changed the status quo. But I think the underlying premise here – what I think we should have – we should repeal Citizens United, we should have full public financing of elections, as is done in other countries. I mean, it’s troubling that in so much of this country, we don’t even have partial public financing. At least here in New York City, we have our Campaign Finance Board, and we have some public financing. But if we really want to get serious about changing the overall structure – well, get all private money out of the situation. But – that would be a goal worthy for this country. Here we are in a system that requires campaigning to get a message out, that requires going out and seeking contributions. Thank God in New York City there are limits and there are disclosure realities – we also have that at the State level. We stay within the appropriate requirements, depending on which kind of committee we’re talking about. Those are the laws. Now, what’s ironic – and my friends from the labor movement will appreciate this – a labor union can give in a New York City election $4,950. They may represent 50,000 or 100,000 people – they can give $4,950. A single law firm – a single real estate firm could bundle hundreds of thousands of dollars under our law. No one makes a big noise about that. So, when you think about it, even with the more progressive laws we have in this city, there’s still all sorts of ways for wealthy people to have an impact on the process. Again, the solution is full public financing – that’s where we should go. But until that day, all of us should be held to a single standard. Are we staying within the law? Are we disclosing everything? And are we making our decisions based on the public interests? That’s what we’ve done.

Thanks, everyone.