Forum Discussion a Roundtable Discussion on the Current and Future Issues and Concerns of Human Services Administrators, Advocates and Clients

Shelly Nortz 53 67 9 Executive Director for Policy

Coalition for the Homeless 10

Gerard Wallace 79 98 11 Attorney Director

NYS Kinship Navigator, 12 Catholic Family Center in Rochester 13 Marsha Basloe 109 116

Executive Director 14 Early Care and Learning Council 15 Sheila Harrigan 121 124

Executive Director 16 New York Public Welfare Association 17 18 * * * * * 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 SENATOR GALLIVAN: I'm Senator Pat Gallivan. 2 I chair the Senate Committee on Social Services. 3 Senator Diane Savino chairs a committee on 4 Children and Families. 5 And, our committees and the issues that 6 we face are so closely tied together, we are having 7 a series of these forums, or hearings, to gather 8 information. 9 And, we know that we face fiscal problems 10 in the state. We know the strains on budgets. 11 And what we're really trying to focus on, through 12 the series of these hearings, are some of the 13 other things where we can be helpful, as it 14 relates to legislation, and then use all of the 15 information that we gather to help form our 16 legislative agendas as we move forward into the 17 next year. 18 So, we do have a schedule of speakers. We 19 appreciate the fact that people took the time to be 20 here today and present us with information. 21 We will -- I don't know that everybody will 22 use the allotted time, so that, if you're here, and 23 we'll try to go in order. 24 Does -- I'm sorry I didn't look. 25 Does everybody have a schedule? 1 SENATOR SAVINO: They're in the back. 2 SENATOR GALLIVAN: I think there's -- I think 3 they're in the back. 4 Brian -- or -- are they -- is there a 5 schedule in the back, on the table? 6 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes. 7 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Okay. 8 That's the order that we will go in; and, of 9 course, we'll call you up individually. But, if we 10 have the opportunity to move things a little along, 11 if people are sitting here doing nothing, then we'll 12 do that. 13 But, thanks for being here. 14 And before we get started, let me ask 15 Senator -- 16 First, thanks, Senator Savino, for making the 17 trip up from Staten Island today. And, for 18 traveling across the state as we're doing this. 19 And, ask her to make some comments. 20 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you, Senator Gallivan. 21 So, I want to thank Senator Gallivan because, 22 two weeks ago, we were in New York City. He 23 traveled down to meet with some of the same 24 human-service providers in the city of New York 25 and the Downstate region. 1 And as he said, our two committees overlap 2 in so many ways, on so many issues. 3 And for those of you who are in the room, who 4 are here to testify, we don't need to tell you how 5 difficult it has been in the past couple of budget 6 cycles for you to meet the demand of your 7 agencies, and to meet the demands that the State has 8 placed upon you, and, at the same time, meet the 9 rising demand for human services in our economy 10 right now. 11 This year, we're kind of in a different 12 position as we go into the budget process. 13 The work that we did last week, with respect 14 to the new tax bill, has kind of set the 15 parameters for budgeting. The budget's going to 16 kind of write itself now. 17 And that's a good thing, and it's also a bad 18 thing. 19 So, it's become even more important that we 20 speak, and we outline what we think is important, as 21 we go forward, so that we don't have the same fight 22 this year that we had last year and the year before 23 around, human services, and Title 20 money, and 24 foster-care money, and child welfare, and, you know, 25 aid to families. 1 We also want to have the opportunity to look 2 at: What are some of the regulatory burdens that 3 the State places on human services that makes it 4 harder, that gobbles up some of those precious 5 resources that you have, that should be going to 6 direct service as opposed to administrative costs? 7 So, we're in a unique position. 8 And I'm very happy to, you know, work with 9 Senator Gallivan on these issues, and to work with 10 all of you, going forward. 11 So, all of that being said, we're going begin 12 with our first panel presenter -- or, testifier, 13 Harris Overlander, who is the CEO of 14 Trinity Alliance of the Capital Region. 15 Come on down. 16 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Welcome. 17 SENATOR SAVINO: Good morning. 18 HARRIS OVERLANDER: Thank you for the 19 opportunity to speak before you. 20 You should have packets that we are 21 presenting, and, everything that I'm about to say is 22 presented in those packets. 23 So, my name is Harris Overlander. I am the 24 CEO of Trinity Alliance of the Capital Region. 25 Trinity Alliance has been operating as a 1 multi-faceted settlement-house model, social-welfare 2 and community-based center within the south end of 3 Albany for the past 100 years. 4 We serve the entire family, and all ages, 5 with a variety of health, education, and 6 social-welfare programs, and a variety of 7 community-center programs. 8 Through our provision of cradle-to-grave 9 services, approximately eleven to twelve thousand 10 individuals and families utilize our programs 11 annually. 12 The Trinity Family and Neighborhood Resource 13 Center was opened in 2005 as a neighborhood 14 initiative funded by the Community Optional 15 Preventive Services funding mechanism. 16 The COPS funding formula entails a 17 68 percent share funded through the New York State 18 Office of Children and Family Services, supplemented 19 by a 32 percent share from the local county. 20 In this case, Albany County. 21 The model of the FNRC, as a front-end 22 preventive delivery system, has been a national 23 initiative also promoted by the United Way. 24 The FNRC brings together the individual 25 programs and services of the agency under a 1 seamless service delivery system, allowing for 2 front-end, immediate assessment of the presenting 3 problem, identification of ancillary needs, 4 designation of appropriate intervention, and rapid 5 provision of crisis-intervention services; followed 6 by, program-specific enrollment, referral to 7 supportive resources, or engagement in preventative 8 services. 9 These individuals and families coming to 10 access specific services are overburdened and 11 fragile; and, often, the high-end users of 12 health-care services, the mental-health system, or 13 experienced penetration into the juvenile-justice, 14 foster-care, or criminal-justice systems. 15 Many that we see are able to resolve their 16 issues before they turn to these other services or 17 are mandated by them, as we focus our leveraged 18 resources to meet their needs. 19 They are funneled through an array of our 20 program offerings and services, acutely diminishing 21 their burden on the broader and far more expensive 22 network of services in our county. 23 These consumers are encouraged to utilize the 24 programs that reach all members of the family, 25 from infants to seniors. 1 On any given day, over 150 members -- 2 community members will be engaged in various 3 community center-type programming. 4 As the resources provided through COPS 5 allow the infusion of resources into the agency, it 6 creates a network of community-based interventions 7 designed to strengthen families, individuals, and 8 the neighborhood. 9 The FNRC also delivers crisis and 10 intervention services, family education, and 11 health-and-wellness programs. 12 The FNRC reinforces and strengthens the 13 overall ability of families to cope and progress 14 while it delivers neighborhood-building technical 15 supports and empowers neighborhood volunteers 16 who are building their community. 17 Such community-empowerment efforts have 18 included the recent petition drive that led to the 19 CDTA, introducing a much-publicized inner-city 20 Number 100 bus line to service the south end 21 Arbor Hill and West Hill neighborhoods after a 22 20-year struggle. 23 COPS funding provides $168,000 to Trinity 24 for FNRC operations, supplemented by an additional 25 direct program funding of $52,000 from the 1 United Way of the Capital Region. 2 Trinity has also leveraged funds to draw in 3 new direct-service programs, funded at millions 4 of dollars, serving Albany County residents, as 5 a direct result of the comprehensive value-added 6 supports and services offered by the FNRC. 7 The existence of the FNRC has generated 8 in-kind contributions of approximately $45,000, 9 including items such as, furniture, food supplies, 10 children's holiday gifts, but most significantly, 11 volunteer services, from computer instruction, to 12 children's music lessons, all of which directly 13 benefit the families that we serve. 14 Last year, our VITA tax service returned 15 $370,000 in earned-income tax credits to 16 low-income patrons. These funds go directly back 17 into strengthening the community. 18 Trinity Alliance, along with the 19 Albany Housing Authority, recently successfully 20 competed for a $5 million HUD grant to build the 21 Capital South Campus Center, which will house 22 Hudson Valley Community College, Schenectady County 23 Community College, and others, just 24 three-quarters of a mile from here, on 25 Morton Avenue, because we were able to demonstrate 1 to HUD that we offered the comprehensive 2 community-based services and programs they sought 3 out as a requisite for this grant. 4 This past week, "The New York Times" ran an 5 article entitled "To Fix Health, Help The Poor," by 6 Elizabeth Bradley and Lauren Taylor. 7 In part, it says: 8 "America is one of only three industrialized 9 countries to spend the majority of its health and 10 social-services budget on health care itself. For 11 every dollar we spend on health care, we spend an 12 additional 90 cents on social services. 13 "In our peer countries, for every dollar 14 spent on health care, an additional two dollars is 15 spent on social services. 16 "So, not only are we spending less, we are 17 allocating our resources disproportionately on 18 high-end health care." 19 The article went on to say, quote: 20 "In a recent national study conducted by the 21 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, four out of 22 five physicians agreed that unmet social needs led 23 directly to worse health-care outcomes." 24 If New York State is serious about trying to 25 get a handle on the ever-escalating medical costs, 1 incarceration rates, the rate of out-of-home 2 foster care, and incarceration, as I said, then we 3 should be looking at the front-end objective of 4 achieving a healthier society by addressing these 5 subpar social conditions. 6 COPS represents a fundamental policy 7 decision to allow those on the ground to implement 8 the best strategies to create comprehensive 9 innovative pathways out of economic poverty. It 10 represents an unfettered front-end investment in 11 human capital through social-, educational-, 12 neighborhood-, and workforce-development strategies 13 that our neighborhood, almost micro, block-by-block 14 focused. 15 I urge you to adopt, and keep this funding 16 mechanism as a way of cutting across funding and 17 program silos, that, when implemented and fully 18 funded, are truly allowing us to rebuild decimated 19 inner-city neighborhoods and lives. 20 Thank you. 21 SENATOR SAVINO: Any questions? 22 SENATOR GALLIVAN: I don't. 23 SENATOR SAVINO: I just have one question. 24 Last year, was the COPS Program part of 25 that plan to scrap and replace it with the PIP? 1 HARRIS OVERLANDER: Yes. 2 SENATOR SAVINO: Okay, so we need to be aware 3 that that's another potential. 4 We were able to reject that in a lot of -- 5 that was because of the result of advocacy on the 6 parts of some of the people in this room. 7 And, I think we should be vigilant about 8 that. 9 I only have one question about the program. 10 How are your client -- how do people come to 11 you? 12 Are they self-referred, or are they mandated, 13 or are they -- is -- are they in preventive-service 14 programs? 15 Or is it all of the above? 16 HARRIS OVERLANDER: Well, just going back to 17 the funding, this was a $35 million program 18 3 years ago. It became a $29 million program 19 after Governor Paterson eliminated it from his 20 budget. 21 Trinity was credited with the statewide 22 advocacy effort that led to a rescission of that 23 decision, and a restoration to 29 million. 24 And then it became a $9 million Program last 25 year. 1 SENATOR SAVINO: I see. 2 HARRIS OVERLANDER: That's number one. 3 Number two, as to how they come: We just 4 completed our annual customer-satisfaction survey. 5 The majority of people who come to our 6 service are self-referred through word of mouth. 7 And, to me, that bespeaks the fact that 8 we're penetrating into these communities; that 9 people recognize that these are valued services, and 10 that people are talking about it. 11 This has been consistent for the last 12 six years. 13 I've been there for seven. 14 We instituted a satisfaction survey 15 six years ago. 16 SENATOR SAVINO: And do you -- do you keep 17 track of how many families are serviced -- 18 HARRIS OVERLANDER: Yes. 19 SENATOR SAVINO: -- in different categories? 20 So, have you seen a huge increase at the same 21 time as it -- a huge decrease in funding? 22 HARRIS OVERLANDER: What I would say is, 23 there's two things going on at the same time. 24 And I -- you know, I mean, it would require 25 further analysis; but, on the one hand, there's much 1 greater desperation and extent of need. 2 And, for instance: Our food pantry, for the 3 first -- we have the largest food pantry in Albany, 4 in Arbor Hill, in the south end. This, I believe it 5 was October, was the first time in seven years that 6 we ran out of food. 7 SENATOR SAVINO: Uh-huh. 8 HARRIS OVERLANDER: But, on the other hand, I 9 see a lot of discouragement. And people have 10 just -- there's such desperation, and people are 11 kind of discouraged. 12 And, uhm -- so, it's a mixed bag. 13 I think that people that come in are kind of 14 on their last legs in a lot of cases. They're 15 really desperate, they're looking for any kind of 16 help. They're down to their last dollar. They're 17 worried about, you know, closing, you know, 18 "NiMo" -- or, not the -- or, the utility company, 19 closing off their utilities, and so on. 20 SENATOR SAVINO: Wow. 21 Thank you, Harris. 22 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Let me -- as you're 23 approaching your 100-year anniversary? 24 HARRIS OVERLANDER: Yes, sir. 25 SENATOR GALLIVAN: So, you've served many, 1 many families and people over the years. 2 I'm curious, with all the people that you've 3 served and, you know, you've talked about your 4 observations -- more individuals, more 5 desperate -- it's amazing the variety of services 6 that you provide, I mean, across many different 7 service areas. 8 Have you tracked outcomes at all with the 9 people that -- specifically, with the people that 10 you've served over the years? 11 HARRIS OVERLANDER: Yeah, absolutely. 12 SENATOR GALLIVAN: You can speak to them? 13 In any area. 14 I -- obviously, I'm interested in all 15 areas, but -- 16 HARRIS OVERLANDER: The "LEAP" Program is, 17 the Life Employment and Advancement Program. 18 It was set up as -- it was funded through the 19 New York State Division of Probation and 20 Correctional Alternatives; now, I believe, merged 21 under DCJS. 22 It was one of five demonstration projects 23 around the state. 24 My understanding is, it's the -- it's one of 25 three that are left, that started from that first -- 1 that year of funding. It's been the most 2 successful. 3 We have an incredible -- 4 And, honestly, I don't have the figures. I 5 can certainly correspond with you. 6 -- but, success rate, as reflected by the 7 fact that we're able to -- we're actually 8 overperforming, and not able to -- we're topping out 9 on the contract, basically. 10 We -- our graduates are entering 11 Hudson Valley Community College, 12 Schenectady Community College. These are people on 13 parole, who have gone through every service 14 before -- before, as young people. 15 As adults, came out of the prison system. 16 They're referred by federal probation, and New York 17 State Parole, and the Albany County Probation 18 Department. 19 And it's a program that's in high demand 20 because of our success rate. 21 We offer a jobs' club, parenting, financial 22 literacy, anger management. 23 These, by the way, are all services leveraged 24 through the FNRC, through COPS, that go together 25 with the LEAP program, that enhanced the LEAP 1 program. 2 We offer ReadySetWork, and, Thinking For A 3 Change, which is a nationally-based, evidence-based 4 practice, helping people to turn their thinking, 5 from criminal-thinking to more pro-social-thinking 6 patterns. 7 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Could you -- I just 8 glanced at what you provided. 9 And, if it's not already in here, could you 10 provide us with any of the outcomes that you've 11 tracked? 12 HARRIS OVERLANDER: Yes, absolutely. 13 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Because, you're in Albany 14 and you're close enough to get it to us. 15 HARRIS OVERLANDER: I will do that. 16 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Okay, appreciate it. 17 HARRIS OVERLANDER: I -- just -- I -- it just 18 occurred to me; we have a -- we have an arrangement 19 with our -- the supplier of our cleaning supplies 20 has a -- his shop has a classroom in the back of his 21 building. And he, basically, takes students 22 from, literally, all over the world, for 23 $1,800 tuition, for an 18-hour course, that teaches 24 them the latest-and-greatest in cleaning 25 techniques. 1 So he really, basically, fell in love with 2 what we do. And -- at our 99th celebratory gala. 3 And, he came to me the next day, and said, 4 "I want to offer you that classroom at cost." 5 So, we took 25 of our graduates -- of our 6 participants in the LEAP program, as an example, and 7 he said, basically: If they graduate, I will get 8 them jobs, I will get them better jobs, because 9 I know all the cleaning outfits in Albany. 10 And, indeed, 25 of 25 of our referrals -- 11 referees graduated; and, indeed, they all 12 accomplished his goal. 13 So that's an example of an outcome that we're 14 able to achieve by leveraging the 15 public-private/private-and-business community, to 16 make a difference in these people's lives. 17 SENATOR GALLIVAN: And when we're talking, 18 that particular program, because it had to do with 19 an -- incarcerated young adults, I would be 20 interested, if you have it, and -- the recidivism 21 rate as it compares to a normal population 22 without. 23 HARRIS OVERLANDER: I will certainly provide 24 that to you for our jail transition and our LEAP 25 program. 1 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Okay, thank you. 2 HARRIS OVERLANDER: Thank you. 3 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you. 4 Next, Maclain Berhaup -- 5 Is Maclain here? 6 -- the statewide advocacy director for 7 Supportive Housing Network of New York. 8 Thank you. 9 MACLAIN BERHAUP: Good morning. 10 SENATOR SAVINO: Good morning. 11 MACLAIN BERHAUP: My name is Maclain Berhaup, 12 and I'm the state advocacy director of the 13 Supportive Housing Network of New York. 14 The network represents over 15 200 non-for-profit providers and developers who 16 operate over 43,000 supportive-housing units 17 throughout New York State. 18 Supportive housing; permanent, affordable 19 housing link to on-site services is the proven 20 cost-effective and humane way to provide stable 21 homes to individuals and families who have 22 difficult finding and maintaining housing. 23 The people we house and serve -- people of 24 mental illness, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, and other 25 barriers to independence -- are typically frequent 1 users of expensive emergency services, like 2 shelters, hospitals, prisons, and psychiatric 3 centers. 4 Because placement into supportive housing has 5 been proven to reduce use of these services, the 6 housing saves taxpayers money, often far more 7 than what was spend building, operating, and 8 providing services in the housing. 9 This has been proven time and time again by 10 dozens of peer-reviewed academic studies. 11 I'm here today to discuss the recent budget 12 cuts that the on-site support services and 13 supportive housing have endured over the past 14 two years, and to ask for the Senate's support in 15 restoring the funding to the OTDA New York State 16 Supportive Housing Program. 17 NYSHP is the mainstay of supportive housing. 18 It pays for critical on-site services that make it 19 possible to house multiply disabled and vulnerable 20 individuals, families and children, in permanent, 21 affordable apartments. 22 NYSHP funds the housing-based support 23 services for over 16,000 formerly homeless and 24 at-risk single adults, families, and children, and 25 youth throughout New York State. 1 NYSHP supports three different 2 service-funding streams: services for single 3 adults, families and children, and young adults. 4 The largest part of this funding is allocated 5 for support services for single adults. 6 For the past 30 years, every administration 7 has steadily invested State capital dollars to build 8 new supportive-housing units; then provided these 9 necessary funding streams to pay for the essential 10 services and operating costs when they open. 11 They did this because they understood that an 12 investment in supportive housing saves them money. 13 Supportive housing has helped us close 14 thousands of inpatient psychiatric beds, and has 15 made a significant measurable dent in the number of 16 disabled individuals living on our streets. 17 However, in the 2010-11 budget, the State cut 18 services for single adults by 13 percent. And 19 because of the deficit-reduction plan, and various 20 negotiations with the City of New York, 21 supportive-housing residents in the city received 22 a 17.2 percent cut. This led to immediate layoffs 23 of over 100 low-wage caseworkers, many of whom have 24 lifted themselves out of homelessness themselves 25 with these jobs. 1 It is greatly diminished how much support 2 services these tenants now receive from the 3 remaining caseworkers. 4 Equally chilling, not a single new building 5 that opened in 2010 received an SRO support-services 6 contract. These buildings, 15 in all, received 7 over $300 million in public and private capital 8 investment, not -- only to lose their small service 9 contract that makes all that investment work. 10 Non-profits use this funding to meet the 11 needs of their population and neighborhood. 12 Here are few examples of how non-profits 13 have budgeted their SRO funding before they were 14 told they were losing it: 15 A beautiful, new, mixed-income 16 supportive-housing residence in Harlem opened last 17 year, housing 64 low-income families from the 18 community, and 50 formerly homeless individuals. 19 This building lost their [unintelligible] security 20 funding. 21 In Brooklyn, a wonderful new 22 supportive-housing residence for the frail elderly 23 was just opened. For this building not receiving an 24 SRO contract means eliminating their daytime 25 security staff and half of their overnight security. 1 This year, in Rochester, the 2 Eastman Commons - Dewey Avenue supportive-housing 3 program is slated to open in May of 2012. This 4 project began as a local initiative, supported by a 5 commitment from the Rochester Monroe County Homeless 6 Services Network to fund the operations. New York 7 State Housing and Community Renewal contributed over 8 $11 million in capital funding and tax credits, and 9 the OTDA - HHAP program completed the capital 10 funding with $3 million. 11 Now, just the lack of $90,000 in NYSHP 12 jeopardizes this 80-unit project, by eliminating 13 services for its chronically homeless residents. 14 Today, OTDA support services funding is at 15 the same level it was in 2010, at 17 million, which 16 is $6.6 million short of what is actually needed. 17 The result is, thousands of units operating 18 without this funding, and non-profits struggling to 19 provide safe, secure housing with adequate services 20 to the tenants. Most of these units are occupied 21 by people living with a disability; again, mentally 22 ill, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, or mobility 23 impairment. Many have more than one disability. 24 More than a dozen national sites have 25 measured how important supportive housing is for 1 people with these disabilities. 2 For example: 3 Without this critical housing and services, 4 the study shows that individuals with HIV/AIDS would 5 quadruple their use of hospital care, or double 6 their use of nursing-home care; 7 Individuals with mental illness would double 8 their use of psychiatric centers, double their use 9 of emergency room care, and double their use of 10 inpatient hospital care. 11 So, if only 2 percent of the currently housed 12 individuals revert to homelessness, the State 13 savings from the cuts are wiped out. 14 The other piece of NYSHP's supportive 15 services for families and young adults is the only 16 statewide support -- supportive-housing service 17 funding for formerly homeless families and at-risk 18 youth. This funding currently pays for 19 counseling, job placement, and service linkages for 20 families. 21 It was, historically, a $5 million program 22 that was cut to $2.5 million in late 2010. This 23 erosion of funding for families means that 24 New York State is losing family supportive-housing 25 units, such as, [unintelligible], we have record 1 family homelessness. 2 In the recently announced awards, 557 units 3 that had been funded in past rounds were not funded 4 this year. 5 Non-profits, like, Chances and Changes, 6 and PathStone, in Livingston County, and, 7 Neighbors of Watertown in Jefferson County, have 8 been awarded family supportive-service funding as 9 part of an agreement to take over a struggling HHAP 10 building serving survivers of domestic violence. 11 These organizations stepped up to the plate, 12 only to be similarly defunded in 2011 due to 13 budgetary cuts passed in April. 14 Any savings from cutting these program has 15 been completely canceled out by the resulting 16 increase in the use of more costly emergency 17 services by families that have been served by this 18 program. 19 The annual cost of providing homeless 20 families with shelter is just over $38,000 in 21 New York City, and over $23,000 in Albany; far more 22 than it cost to provide families with the dignity of 23 their own home. 24 If just 4 percent of those families currently 25 housed by this program became homeless as a result 1 of the cuts, the increased costs in emergency 2 shelter alone would eliminate any savings achieved 3 by the reduction. 4 And, you know, just one example that we like 5 to give, from a woman named Rachel, here, who's a 6 single mother with two children, in Albany. And it 7 really is a nice example of the cost savings that 8 go along with the great services that are offered to 9 her. 10 She arrived at Support Ministries in 2004, 11 with HIV/AIDS. She just spent eight weeks at the 12 Albany Medical Center, where she cost 13 New York State, conservatively, $755 a day. 14 Meanwhile, Rachel's two daughters were sent 15 to separate foster homes, costing the State over 16 $2,400. 17 Because of her illness Rachel, wasn't allowed 18 to leave the hospital. She languished at Albany Med 19 for an extra six weeks, costing the State an 20 additional $31,000 -- $31,710. 21 Rachel's family's public cost for 22 eight weeks, while homeless, was an astonishing 23 $34,000. 24 However, everything changed when 25 Support Ministries intervened. They offered Rachel 1 an apartment for her family in Albany. State and 2 federal housing covered her rent, at $600 a month, 3 while the State paid for critical support services 4 through, what used to be the SHFYA program, that's 5 now NYSHP, at a cost of $3,300. 6 Support Ministries helped Rachel get 7 food stamps and public assistance, which she used 8 for two months, costing the State just over $400, 9 before the organization helped her find 10 full-time employment. 11 Within just a year of coming to 12 Support Ministries, Rachel became 100 percent 13 self-reliant. Her health stabilized and her 14 children entered school. 15 Today, six years later: Rachel is still 16 working. Her oldest daughter has graduated from 17 high school, and the other remains on track to do 18 so. Rachel hasn't been hospitalized for HIV since. 19 So, Rachel's family public costs, for 20 eight weeks, while homeless, was $34,000. 21 Her public cost for one year in 22 supportive housing was just under $11,000. 23 Her public costs after one year in supportive 24 housing is zero. 25 I feel like I could go on and on about the 1 cost savings, but, you know, I think another -- 2 another important point to mention, is that, you 3 know, this jeop- -- the cuts jeopardize over 4 $500 million in state and local capital investment 5 that have been made in the capital buildings. 6 For example: In Rochester, the Eastman 7 Commons - Dewey Avenue program, you know, that 8 jeopardizes, because of $90,000, over $11 million 9 in capital. 10 So, you know, I think it's the right thing to 11 do, but it's also the right thing to do, because it 12 saves the state money. 13 And, you know, we are here to advocate today, 14 that, you know, we would like to see the program 15 back to the level that it needs to be at, which is 16 at 28 million. 17 Currently, it's just a little over 20 18 million; so, $8 million short. 19 SENATOR SAVINO: Any questions? 20 I just have one question, Maclain. 21 I know that, uhm -- it's very difficult to 22 site and operate supportive housing in a lot of 23 communities, particularly for people who are 24 mentally ill. You know, have you to go through the 25 whole zoning issue and approval process, locally. 1 That's hard enough. 2 But, we -- we have a sense of how many people 3 could be serviced if we could create enough of a 4 supportive housing? 5 Do you have any idea how many? 6 MACLAIN BERHAUP: How many units? 7 SENATOR SAVINO: How many individuals, or 8 families, who are currently, either, living in a 9 shelter because there is no supportive housing in 10 their area? 11 And I know that -- 12 MACLAIN BERHAUP: Right. 13 SENATOR SAVINO: -- there's this struggle to 14 how to provide them? 15 Do we have a sense of how many people could 16 be served? 17 MACLAIN BERHAUP: We don't. 18 I mean, we know that 60,000 people, on any 19 given night, in state are homeless. 20 SENATOR SAVINO: But they're economically 21 homeless, as opposed to -- 22 MACLAIN BERHAUP: Right, right. 23 SENATOR SAVINO: -- as opposed to people 24 homeless -- 25 MACLAIN BERHAUP: With -- right. 1 SENATOR SAVINO: -- with particular 2 social-service needs. 3 MACLAIN BERHAUP: Right. 4 Sure, sure. 5 SENATOR SAVINO: Right. 6 MACLAIN BERHAUP: Sure. 7 As part of the Medicaid Redesign Team 8 efforts that have been going on over the last 9 several months, we've been involved with the 10 Affordable Housing Workgroup, on that team. And one 11 of our recommendations, was that the State do a 12 statewide need, to determine how many units were 13 needed, because we don't know that. 14 You know, we do know that there have been, 15 since the early '90s, over 43,000 units built of 16 supportive housing throughout the state, but we 17 don't know, you know, how many more units are 18 needed. 19 SENATOR SAVINO: So that $28 million that's 20 been reduced to 20 million, reflects the people who 21 are currently being served? 22 MACLAIN BERHAUP: That's currently, yes. 23 SENATOR SAVINO: Not future capacity? 24 MACLAIN BERHAUP: Currently being served. 25 Right. 1 Yeah. 2 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you. 3 MACLAIN BERHAUP: Sure. 4 Thanks. 5 SENATOR SAVINO: Next is Kate Breslin, 6 president & CEO of the Schuyler Center for Analysis 7 and Advocacy. 8 Good morning. 9 KATE BRESLIN: Hi. Thank you for having me. 10 Good morning. 11 Our organization, the Schuyler Center for 12 Analysis and Advocacy, was founded in 1872. And, we 13 are a statewide non-profit policy analysis and 14 advocacy organization, working to shape policies, to 15 improve health, welfare, and human services for all 16 New Yorkers, especially those who are poor or 17 vulnerable. 18 So, I'm in a little bit of a different 19 situation than some of my colleagues here today. 20 We're not -- we do not provide direct services. We, 21 uhm -- we work very closely with our friends out in 22 the field throughout the state who do provide direct 23 services, because, what they're experiencing helps 24 to inform what we're thinking about, and what we 25 come to you with. 1 And I want to thank you for having us here 2 today, and for having this dialogue. 3 As you're aware, the demand for services has 4 really grown in the last several years at the same 5 time that programs have been cut. 6 So, the kinds of things that we're hearing 7 from the, kind of, multi-issue, multi -- funded from 8 a whole different bunch of different places, 9 community-based organizations, is -- are things, 10 like: They're getting killed with a million paper 11 cuts. 12 And, that -- that -- especially those that 13 are funded by several different agencies, there's 14 not always a consistent, or an overarching, approach 15 to thinking about what's really happening to those 16 agencies. 17 And, then, some of those agencies are telling 18 us that their staff, that they've had to lay off, 19 have now become their clients. 20 So, you know, that, for me, frames some of 21 the way we're -- some of the way we think about 22 this. And what -- it very much frames the way we 23 come to you, to say: Please think about these 24 things, kind of, from a systemic perspective. 25 From a, what are the many different things 1 that a family or a child needs to support them in a 2 community? 3 So, that's -- that's kind of the framing for 4 where we come from. 5 We are very much focused on issues relating 6 to poverty. And, we know that it's taking its toll 7 right now, while parents are struggling, thinking 8 about whether they're going be able to pay for food 9 or rent or -- or heat. 10 Their children are at high risk for cognitive 11 delays, behavioral-developmental delays, because 12 of the stress of the families, and because of the 13 needs that aren't being met. 14 So, we know that children who grow up in 15 poverty are more likely to have a lower educational 16 attainment, and a harder time finding a job in the 17 future. 18 So, we really feel like that's not good for 19 us, and it's -- it's not good for us as communities, 20 and it's not good for us as a state. 21 And you'll see in my testimony -- I won't 22 read the testimony -- there's a lot of budget stuff 23 in there. And I -- I tried to take to heart your 24 request that we not focus too much on budgetary 25 issues, but, we know that there is a -- there's 1 growing poverty in our state, and that the statewide 2 numbers really mask the severe, severe poverty in 3 our cities. New York City; and even worse, in our 4 Upstate cities. 5 So, that's kind of the frame that I come 6 from. 7 And, then, I also want to echo 8 Harris Overlander, who spoke before me, about, kind 9 of our -- the understanding that all these unmet 10 social needs contribute to the higher health-care 11 costs, and other costs, down the line. 12 So, as I said, I -- I -- I've tried to focus 13 on -- on some non-budgetary issues; although, I 14 think everything -- everything that we come to the 15 Legislature for usually has some budget impact. 16 We strongly believe that we need to take a 17 systemic approach that crosses committees, 18 agencies, and areas of expertise. And it really 19 drills down on, what children, families, and 20 entire communities need. 21 And, we need to put our state back on track, 22 and provide a path out of poverty for the working 23 poor and their children. 24 So, a couple of things that the non-partisan 25 Brookings Institution recommends for combating 1 poverty are initiatives that are underway here in 2 New York. 3 These are also initiatives that move forward 4 in improving the economy, either, because they build 5 a stronger workforce, or because they help 6 strengthen adults' abilities to go to school or 7 work. 8 And the two that I'll talk about are: 9 high-quality early childhood education; and, 10 maternal and infant and early childhood 11 home-visiting. 12 And, we know that high-quality subsidized 13 child-care benefits both children and working 14 parents. 15 And, study after study by developmental 16 specialists, and there's research coming out every 17 day, shows that early childhood education is one of 18 the most effective investments we can make in 19 children, and, in their economic future. 20 And research shows that high-quality 21 programs benefit all children; but, especially, 22 are important for children in low-income families 23 who experience higher rates of difficulty in 24 school. 25 We also know that, if we start thinking about 1 third-grade reading in first grade, it's too late. 2 We need to invest very early in kids. 3 So, we urge you to look at finding ways to 4 increase the number of licensed and regulated 5 child-care slots in the state; so, increase the 6 availability of licensed and regulated care, and 7 ultimately improve quality. 8 And we have, kind of -- we work with a 9 coalition called "Winning Beginning NY," around ways 10 to improve quality. 11 And, one of the first steps is licensed and 12 regulated care. 13 And another is, explore -- explore how to set 14 consistent and statewide standards for child-care 15 subsidies. 16 So, New York is one of the few places where 17 there's a lot of county-level discretion about how 18 subsidies are provided. 19 The other thing that you'll see in our 20 agenda, is that we -- we strongly believe New York 21 needs to invest more resources in early childhood 22 settings, just to get -- just to get more slots. 23 As we -- I mean, there are reports coming out 24 today, I think it was in the, uhm -- on the front 25 page of "The New York Times," about the loss of 1 slots for subsidized child care. 2 And, then, we also wanted to talk about 3 maternal-infant and early childhood home-visiting 4 programs. They promote sound prenatal care, 5 healthy development of kids. 6 And, also, the programs that we are 7 supportive of, also show -- they show great outcomes 8 that strengthen families. 9 That, some of the programs that are 10 underway in New York State: Improve adults' work 11 effort. They improve children's educational 12 attainment. They improve their health and 13 development. 14 And we strongly believe that New York should 15 invest in developing a strong and well-organized 16 system of home visiting. Right now, we have a 17 patchwork of programs that kind of get funded here 18 and there. 19 And, a couple of the things that we should 20 do, are: Include home-visiting services for 21 Medicaid-eligible individuals. 22 Which is a recommendation of the 23 Medicaid Redesign Team, that they approved 24 yesterday; and, so, that will now go to the 25 Governor. 1 So, we -- that's one that, although I think 2 it will have a budget impact, we think it's not -- 3 we are hoping that it won't be a huge lift for 4 legislators, because our hope was that, since it's 5 moved through the Medicaid Redesign Team process, it 6 will happen. Or, it will get into the budget, we 7 hope. 8 And, uhm -- and, also, maintain the funding 9 for the Healthy Families New York program, which is 10 another evidence-based home-visiting program, had 11 been proposed for a cut last year, got restored. 12 And, we think that funding should be maintained. 13 And maintaining it also allows us to bring 14 down federal funds. 15 And, then, I wanted to comment on a couple of 16 things that I think you will be thinking about: 17 reauthorization of the Child Welfare Financing Law. 18 One of our big priorities, and I think 19 there's strong consensus about this, is, uhm, 20 maintaining the open-ended preventive services. 21 So, those are the types of things that 22 focus on families and children before they enter the 23 system; and, so, keeping people from entering the 24 system. 25 And, we strongly support maintaining those 1 funds as open-ended to counties, so that, you know, 2 if they're willing to invest in them, the State 3 will -- will invest the money too. 4 And, then, I also wanted to alert you to an 5 issue around foster care. 6 And, as you know, the 23,000 kids in 7 foster care are some of the most vulnerable children 8 in our society. 9 And data show that they have poor health, 10 poor education outcomes, high rates of 11 mental-health problems, high rates of chronic 12 conditions, and high rates of developmental 13 delays. 14 And, that, we don't do a great job making 15 sure that they get the health care that they need. 16 And, so, a law that you passed last year will 17 move all of those kids to Medicaid-managed care in 18 the next few years. And, those kids could really 19 benefit from well-managed care, but we really 20 believe it has to be very thoughtfully done, and 21 really carefully done, because it's such a 22 vulnerable population. 23 So, I'm not -- I'm not suggesting that 24 there's necessarily legislation out there, but we 25 urge you, you know, having passed the law that 1 moves them to Medicaid-managed care, that you're 2 attentive to making sure that that really -- that it 3 works for these vulnerable kids. 4 And then, finally, we know that many working 5 families, and formerly working families, have lost 6 health-care coverage as they've lost jobs or as 7 their employers have scaled back on coverage. 8 And I understand that this is not a 9 Health Committee meeting, but we also know that it's 10 really important that children and families have 11 access to health-care coverage. 12 And, frankly, we have some good news: 13 Poverty has gone -- poverty has gone up, the number 14 of uninsured have gone up, but we've -- New York has 15 managed to not see an increase in the number of 16 uninsured kids. 17 And that's because we've been good about 18 investing in Medicaid and Child Health Plus, and 19 making sure that kids, at least, have coverage. 20 So, it's important, though, that families 21 that aren't -- might not be eligible for that 22 coverage, and parents that might not be eligible for 23 that coverage, we know that kids are more likely to 24 get care if their parents are covered too. 25 So, we have the opportunity this year to 1 implement a health-insurance exchange, through the 2 federal law. 3 And I understand that, last year, we were 4 really close. And, we know that this is an issue 5 that affects kids and families, particularly those 6 who are just over the income levels for Medicaid 7 and Child Health Plus. 8 So, we urge you to pass a health-insurance 9 exchange so that middle-income families are able to 10 access health-insurance coverage. 11 And, that's all. 12 There's a lot more in my testimony. 13 SENATOR GALLIVAN: I'm not sure I'm able to 14 frame the question the right way, but, when we 15 were -- we're talking about child care. 16 And, in that particular area, you encouraged 17 us to -- encouraged the State to set certain 18 standards -- eligibility rates, payment 19 standards -- and the State to get involved so it's 20 consistent -- 21 KATE BRESLIN: Yeah. 22 SENATOR GALLIVAN: -- across the state, all 23 62 counties. 24 And, then, under -- where, child welfare, the 25 open-ended prevention services, there's so much of 1 a -- what I have been getting, through this 2 Committee, and the people coming forward, is, people 3 at the local level wanting to make the local 4 decisions because they say they know what's best for 5 their community. 6 Are those two things at odds with each? 7 On one hand, setting state standards, as 8 you're encouraging us; and, then, in an area that's 9 not the direct same, but it's closely related, to be 10 hands-off? 11 KATE BRESLIN: Fair enough. 12 I think that the -- that I would say that 13 the -- the difference is, that, uhm -- you know, the 14 word that's coming to mind is "arbitrary" -- and I 15 don't know that that -- that might be too strong -- 16 that, when it comes to setting child-care policy, 17 that -- that there should be clear and consistent 18 standards, but maybe not necessarily the same. 19 So, that, uhm -- 20 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Can you give me an 21 example? 22 KATE BRESLIN: Yeah, and I have to be honest, 23 the child care -- the intricacies of child-care 24 financing is not my area of expertise. 25 But, that a person who lives on the 1 boundary of one county, let's say -- 2 You know, that's kind of the example I think 3 of. 4 -- might be eligible for child care at a 5 certain income level. But if they were to walk 6 across the street, into another county, they -- they 7 would be eligible if they -- even if they -- or 8 would not be eligible, even if they made a $1,000 9 more. 10 So, it's -- so it's arb- -- it's somewhat 11 arbitrary in how people are eligible. 12 SENATOR GALLIVAN: So, maybe, would -- would 13 this be a way for me to understand it, and look at 14 it? 15 What you're asking is, to -- the standards 16 would set, essentially, minimum standards. 17 Counties, then, could go beyond that if they 18 wanted to provide additional services beyond the 19 same standards that everybody has to meet to be 20 eligible for? 21 KATE BRESLIN: Yeah. 22 And I think one of the big differences, and 23 it's interesting that you -- the example you chose, 24 one of the big differences is, how those programs 25 are funded so open-ended. 1 Open-ended funding is for child preventive -- 2 for preventive services is different than how 3 child care's funded, which is, the counties are told 4 they get a certain amount of money. 5 And, so, even if they wanted to fund more, 6 they don't get the help. 7 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Right. Understood. 8 Thank you. 9 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you. 10 On Monday, the Committee on Children and 11 Families had a hearing on child care; the 12 challenges in child care down in New York City. 13 And this was an issue that came up over and 14 over from many of the child-care providers, 15 particularly outside of the city of New York. 16 The City of New York is more concerned about 17 the implementation of this new Early Learn model, 18 which merges the funding of Head Start. 19 Yeah, I see your face. 20 Exactly. No problem. 21 But their -- we heard this consistently 22 during the course of the day, that there isn't a -- 23 inconsistency in how counties handle child-care 24 eligibility, and how much money parents can be 25 required to contribute. 1 So, you're right: If you live in, this town, 2 you may be eligible for full subsidy. And if you 3 live in, that town, you have to contribute $200 a 4 week. 5 So, there doesn't seem to be any sense. 6 So, the easiest way, I think, to explain it 7 would be, if we were to develop some sort of a 8 prevailing-wage mechanism. 9 You're taking into consideration area 10 standards, and what the -- you know, the cost of 11 living is in a particular part of the state compared 12 to another. 13 But, it is something that we will work on. 14 But I want to take you to something that you 15 mentioned about the Medicaid managed care for 16 children in foster care. 17 You might be the only person who doesn't 18 think it's a bad thing. 19 And, when I was a case -- when I started as a 20 caseworker 20 years ago, when kids would come into 21 foster care, even if it was just temporary, we'd 22 immediately, you know, issue them a Medicaid card, 23 which, most of time, was useless. It didn't work 24 anywhere. 25 And because children didn't have a medical 1 home a lot of time, we would have to take them to 2 emergency rooms, and try and, you know, get them 3 cleared, if we were going to place them. 4 And, every time you moved a kid, you had to 5 get another physical. 6 And, so, you were constantly trying to find 7 services. 8 One of the good things, I think, that's come 9 about in the past 10 years in child welfare, 10 especially in the city, is, the agencies have 11 developed their own comprehensive medical services 12 for these children. 13 And it's critically important so it follows 14 them everywhere they go. 15 They've registered a lot of concern about the 16 idea of moving to managed care, because it's going 17 to disrupt the services that they put in place that 18 seem to work really well. You know, we now have a 19 medical home for so many of these kids. 20 So, I'm a little concerned about moving away 21 from what finally works for children. And, so 22 much is unknown about this managed-care model for 23 them. 24 KATE BRESLIN: And I -- I share that concern. 25 And I think -- you know, I -- kind of in the 1 health-advocacy world, there are folks who are 2 kicking and screaming, and saying "no, no, no" to 3 managed care. 4 And I happen to be kind of in the group that 5 feels, like, that train has kind of left the 6 station. 7 So, you know, there's now a law that says 8 we're going to move those kids to managed -- not 9 managed care. Not -- now, it doesn't mean you 10 can't change it, but, that the way -- the way things 11 are moving, is to move toward managed care. 12 So, frankly, our decision has been to say: 13 Okay, let's figure out how to make it work better, 14 and let's figure out how to use it as an opportunity 15 to shine the light on what does work. 16 And, so, for example: I know that a lot of 17 the agencies have developed their own internal 18 capacity. 19 We have no records on the number of visits 20 that any of those kids have had. 21 SENATOR SAVINO: Well, wouldn't that be easy 22 to track? 23 I mean, children who are placed in foster 24 care are required to have a certain amount of 25 medical visits, you know, that the State 1 requires, that the federal government requires. 2 So, those records should be readily 3 available. 4 You know, you're -- they have to have their 5 annual physical, they have to have their -- 6 KATE BRESLIN: Right. They should -- 7 SENATOR SAVINO: -- Vaccinations updated. 8 I mean, there is a whole host of requirements 9 that the agencies are -- have to provide for these 10 kids. 11 KATE BRESLIN: They should be. 12 SENATOR SAVINO: And you're saying that you 13 can't obtain that information? 14 KATE BRESLIN: Yes. 15 SENATOR SAVINO: Are they -- is there a 16 reason? 17 Are they saying -- are they using 18 confidentiality rules, or, they don't want to 19 release the data? 20 KATE BRESLIN: I think what -- one of the 21 challenges, and this kind come backs to where we 22 started, which is, some of the toughest issues are 23 the ones that cross agencies, and that -- you know, 24 that kind of try and get at what are -- what's the 25 issue for this kid? Rather than, how does this 1 agency or that agency deal with it? 2 And, so, for foster kids, um -- for the 3 health-care of foster kids, they're intersecting 4 with the policies of a lot of different State 5 agencies. 6 So, they're in the care of the Office of 7 Children and Family Services. The Department of 8 Health is responsible for Medicaid. The Office of 9 Mental Health is responsible for mental-health-care 10 facilities. 11 And -- and, frankly, I think that our 12 challenge is, to -- to figure out how to make sure 13 that the data is actually following the kid, so that 14 we do get the right -- that -- the right data. 15 I mean, and I don't -- I'm -- this is not 16 meant to criticize any particular agencies. It's 17 more to say, we need to really develop an approach. 18 And we have the opportunity, with electronic 19 health records, to really do that in a -- in a good 20 way, in a way that we're -- it's, really, just not 21 happening. 22 SENATOR SAVINO: Maybe. 23 But, again, I would be -- I'm a little 24 concerned about moving to this model without, you 25 know, really exploring it. 1 On the maternal-infant and early childhood 2 home-visiting, I would -- is there -- do we have any 3 evidence-based data to show that, with medically 4 fragile children, or families who are, you know, at 5 high risk of neglect, are we able to intervene and 6 prevent placement? 7 Or, do we have information about that? 8 KATE BRESLIN: We do. 9 And -- so, in particular, two of the 10 programs for which there's pretty strong evidence 11 in New York State, are: 12 The Healthy Families New York program, which 13 operates through the Office of Child and Family 14 Services, and they've done an evaluation. 15 And I'm happy to share that with you. 16 And, it has some pretty clear outcomes, 17 including, around things related to child welfare; 18 And, the Nurse-Family Partnership, which is 19 funded through -- partially funded through the 20 Department of Health, and also has some pretty clear 21 outcomes. 22 One -- we're -- one of the challenges is, 23 all the different programs have different outcome 24 measures, so, they each measure different things. 25 But they do -- the one -- these two, in 1 particular -- and there are others out there as 2 well -- but these are the two biggies in New York, 3 that have pretty clear outcomes' measures. 4 SENATOR SAVINO: And I would think it's 5 important. 6 And you're right; the amount of money that we 7 spend on preventive services is directly related to 8 the savings we'll have on the protective side, 9 especially in the child-welfare arena. 10 I want to thank you, Kate, for your 11 testimony -- 12 KATE BRESLIN: Thanks. 13 SENATOR SAVINO: -- and some of the 14 suggestions. 15 We will definitely be looking at them as we 16 go forward. 17 Thank you. 18 KATE BRESLIN: Thank you. 19 SENATOR SAVINO: Next, Shelly Hertz [sic], 20 the executive director for policy for the Coalition 21 for the Homeless. 22 SHELLY NORTZ: Hello. 23 Thank you for inviting me to testify. 24 My name is Shelly Nortz. 25 It's wrong on the -- 1 SENATOR SAVINO: Oh, they spelled it wrong. 2 SHELLY NORTZ: -- on the page. 3 SENATOR SAVINO: Sorry. 4 SHELLY NORTZ: That's okay. 5 And I represent, for the last 25 years, the 6 Coalition for the Homeless, which is the original 7 Coalition for the Homeless, based in Manhattan. 8 We serve 3,500 homeless people a day through 9 a dozen programs. And, we also serve as the 10 court-appointed monitor of the Municipal Shelter 11 System in the city. 12 We operate housing. We do not operate 13 shelters because we're the monitor of the system. 14 We feed a thousand people a night on the 15 streets of Manhattan and the Bronx. 16 We provide eviction-prevention services. 17 We have a walk-in crisis service that, in the 18 last several years, has been substantially funded 19 with OTDA funding, but, that has pretty much been 20 eliminated with the loss of the Emergency Homeless 21 Needs Program that was funded with TANF money, and 22 also with General Fund money. 23 I brought with me our most recent briefing 24 paper on New York City policy with respect to 25 housing for homeless families with children, and 1 single adults, and the loss of the 2 Advantage Program, and kind of the background on 3 that, that has led us to the greatest record level 4 of homelessness ever in New York City: 41,000 men, 5 women, and children in shelter every night. 6 Another 6,000 or so are in shelter throughout 7 the rest of the state. 8 I've just received data from OTDA, and I'm in 9 the process of analyzing that. 10 You may have noticed a report that came out 11 yesterday, out of a national group, that says there 12 are 142,000 homeless children in New York State in 13 2010. 14 That number, undoubtedly, includes families 15 with children who are living in doubled-up housing 16 situations. 17 So, it goes beyond the shelter data that we 18 customarily refer to. 19 But, nevertheless, those numbers are now 20 being tracked by the education system, under federal 21 law, so we have a much better grasp of the degree to 22 which families are at risk of entering the shelter 23 system as a result of their being homeless and 24 doubled-up, and kind of, potentially, in the shelter 25 system. 1 Our organization has lost about 2 a million dollars in the last few years, on an 3 annual basis, in State aid, principally for the 4 Emergency Homeless Needs Program that was funded 5 through a combination of TANF and General Fund 6 money. 7 At its greatest appropriation level, there 8 was a $2 million TANF appropriation for the program. 9 It was never annualized at that program level. 10 One year, the second million was extended into a 11 second year. So, it was really operating at a 12 million dollars a year. 13 But, that program pays for the meals that 14 we serve on the streets of New York City. It 15 pays for eviction-prevention and 16 crisis-intervention services for those 50 to 17 75 individuals that walk into our office every 18 weekday, looking for help, either, overcoming a 19 denial of shelter; or looking to prevent an 20 eviction; or looking for things, like, financial 21 assistance, to help them obtain a partner -- 22 domestic-partnership documentation, or a marriage 23 license, or work boots. 24 So, the loss of that funding is really -- 25 it's, roughly, 10 percent of our budget. And I 1 can't impress upon you how important it is to have a 2 safety net to the safety net in New York City, given 3 the breadth of all of the other budget cuts. 4 Senator Savino, you mentioned, specifically, 5 the question of regulatory burdens, and things that 6 could be done to make things better for our field. 7 And, we've been asking, for several years 8 now, for the repeal of a regulation at OTDA which 9 limits temporary housing assistance, and creates 10 a set of obstacles to accessing and retaining 11 temporary housing assistance from local districts. 12 It actually commands social-service 13 districts to deny shelter, or cease providing 14 shelter, to individuals and families who fail to 15 complete a long list of administrative 16 requirements. 17 In October, that caused 300 households 18 outside of New York City to lose their benefits. 19 We don't have that volume quite yet in city. 20 And, in some communities, that means the 21 person has no shelter, and they're sleeping outside. 22 In some communities that may have a city 23 mission that doesn't receive reimbursement for 24 social services -- from social-services districts, 25 they may be sleeping on a mat on the floor at the 1 mission. 2 But, in many cases, the non-profit shelters 3 that are helping these individuals throughout 4 Upstate New York continue to shelter the person; 5 but, now, they're having to privately raise money. 6 So, all it does is cost shift to the local 7 shelters and services providers. It doesn't 8 really address the problem of homelessness; it 9 doesn't address the problem for the person. 10 And, very often, every single one of the 11 cases that's come through my office, where there's 12 been a termination in New York City, the person has 13 had a disability. The disability has been 14 documented in the case record of the department. 15 And, we win the Fair Hearing because you're 16 not supposed to terminate temporary housing 17 assistance for a person with a disability whose 18 disability caused their noncompliance. 19 And, in every case, we were able to show 20 that. 21 So, I think repeal of this regulation would 22 go a long way to some regulatory relief for the 23 non-profit shelters outside the city, and to 24 helping disabled homeless people in the city. 25 Another regulatory issue that is also 1 legislated, but, for some reason, the Office of 2 Temporary and Disability Assistance, and its 3 contractors, haven't been included, is the -- the 4 issue of employing licensed social workers by 5 human-service agencies, which now requires an 6 application to the Education Department for a waiver 7 of the corporate-practice restrictions in order to 8 allow us to employ social workers. 9 Yes, it's -- it is not permissible, under 10 current law, after social work was licensed as a 11 profession, for my organization to employ a 12 social worker -- a licensed social worker without 13 the permission of the Education Department. 14 And the waiver procedure that they've 15 established exceeds the statutory requirements in 16 such a way, that, I either have to ask my CEO to 17 sign a paper, that commits to not employing other 18 professions that are also regulated by State Ed, or 19 to lie; because, if we apply for a waiver from 20 State Ed, to be allowed to employ social workers, 21 the form asks us to state that we don't employ any 22 other professionals. 23 The Health Department regulates our summer 24 camp for homeless children. And they tell us to 25 have a health director who can be a nurse or a 1 doctor. 2 We employ a nurse. 3 SENATOR SAVINO: I -- 4 SHELLY NORTZ: I agree. 5 SENATOR SAVINO: I'm confused. 6 What's the -- why would State Ed -- why would 7 they require you to have a waiver, though, to hire a 8 social worker to work in a social-service program? 9 SHELLY NORTZ: Because it's a profession. 10 And all professions in New York are not allowed to 11 be employed by a not-for-profit or a for-profit 12 business without this waiver. 13 And that's a statutory requirement that has 14 then gone even further. 15 And there -- you may remember -- there was a 16 bill that you passed this year, that extends the 17 deadline for applying for the waiver, until 18 February, because there was a lot of push-back about 19 it from our field, among many others. 20 But, one of the things I learned in studying 21 the issue -- and this is a Higher Education 22 Committee issue. I understand it's not your 23 Committee's issue, but it is, to the extent that it 24 also affects OCFS and OTDA contractors and 25 programs. 1 The agencies that have been involved in this, 2 from the State perspective, in a big way, have been 3 the agencies that operate themselves, or have 4 contractors that provide licensed services, to 5 people with mental illness and developmental 6 disabilities and in health-care settings. 7 And, those agencies have received a statutory 8 waiver so that they don't have to comply with the 9 corporate-practice restrictions on employing 10 social workers until July of 2013. 11 But, OTDA isn't included in that list. 12 So, that's an issue for those of us that 13 employ social workers, for obvious reasons. 14 So, it's a tension between, wanting to have a 15 licensed profession, but a corporate-practice 16 restriction -- or, yes, a corporate-practice 17 restriction that is relatively arcane, in my 18 opinion. Lots of not-for-profits employ lots of 19 professionals, but this is all kicking in because 20 of social work. 21 So, I can explain it to you in more full 22 detail. I don't want to use up all of my time 23 talking about social work, but, it's a problem, and 24 it can be solved through a combination of statutory 25 and regulatory changes that would -- 1 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Can I just ask one 2 question about that? 3 SHELLY NORTZ: Yes, sir. 4 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Is that something newly in 5 place, or that's been in place for a long time? 6 SHELLY NORTZ: Well, the scope of practice 7 for social workers has been in place since 2002, I 8 believe. Licensure for social workers. 9 The waiver program was initially adopted in 10 2010, through a chapter, and a chapter amendment. 11 It had a deadline that hit in 2011. 12 We pushed the deadline back, statutorily, 13 with a very simple bill, because of the fact that it 14 was -- it wasn't end even well advertised to the 15 field; that, social workers were notified by 16 social-work schools, but employers were not. 17 And the vast majority of not-for-profits 18 weren't notified about this. 19 SENATOR GALLIVAN: But the root goes back to 20 2002? 21 SHELLY NORTZ: The social work -- 22 SENATOR SAVINO: Yes. 23 KATE BRESLIN: As licensure, goes back to 24 2002. 25 And all -- and the corporate-practice 1 restriction on employing professionals -- 2 doctors, nurses, CPAs, architects; the whole 3 nine yards -- goes back to the origins in the early 4 1900s, from what I understand, with respect to 5 physicians. 6 But, as each profession becomes regulated 7 as a profession by the Education Department, they 8 fall under that corporate-practice restriction. 9 And, it's just arcane, in my opinion. It's 10 not a way to operate in the modern era, when we have 11 fairly sophisticated business models, both in the 12 non-profit and for-profit sectors. 13 One of the documents that I shared with you 14 speaks to solutions. 15 And I just want to let you know that 16 everything in "blue" on these pages is actually a 17 hyperlink to the actual document. 18 So, if you go to our website at 19 CoalitionForTheHomeless.org, you can read about 20 solutions to address the broad issue of 21 homelessness. 22 And, with record homelessness, these 23 solutions are things that should be considered as a 24 part of policy by the Administration and by the 25 Legislature. 1 Certainly, fundamentally, affordable housing 2 assistance reduces family homelessness. 3 The research is very clear on that. And it's 4 one of the reasons that we are so troubled by the 5 Bloomberg Administration's policy now of 6 five years, that, not only denies referral of 7 homeless people to public housing in Section 8, it's 8 the only county -- or, the only place in the state 9 that actually does not affirmatively refer homeless 10 people to public housing and Section 8, as a matter 11 of policy. 12 But, also, the New York City Public Housing 13 Authority no longer prioritizes households that 14 are homeless for admission to their waiting list. 15 And, again, that's really, kind of, 16 completely counterintuitive to what actually works 17 to solve homelessness. And, it's refuted by the 18 research, which is linked to in this document. 19 The next major policy recommendation, is that 20 permanent supportive housing for people living with 21 mental illness and other special needs solves 22 homelessness for them. 23 We know that from the New York/New York I, II 24 and III Agreements. 25 We are very pleased, as Maclain mentioned, 1 that there is consideration of a 2 New York/New York IV Agreement; as well as the 3 notion of the State partnering with other 4 jurisdictions outside New York City that may want 5 to build permanent supportive housing for people 6 with mental illness and developmental disabilities 7 and other types of disabilities. 8 It actually saves money, because the people 9 who are very expensive users of Medicaid reduce 10 their use of Medicaid, in particular. 11 The Housing First approach reduces street 12 homelessness. 13 Very clear, that if you help a very seriously 14 chronically homeless person living on the street, 15 first, and foremost, by helping them into an 16 apartment, to which you deliver services, it really 17 interrupts that cycle. 18 And -- and people who are then brought into 19 that kind of environment tend to have -- begin the 20 process of stabilizing psychiatrically, and 21 stabilizing with their addictions. 22 Even wet supportive housing -- housing where 23 people with active addictions are admitted but not 24 allowed to use substances on site -- actually 25 results in people finding recovery and reducing 1 their use of substances; and, therefore, their use 2 of things like emergency room, et cetera. 3 And, then, permanent affordable housing is 4 something that we're just lacking. 5 And, we just recommend doing greater volume 6 of it, targeted to lower-income people than has been 7 the policy, both in the city and statewide. We need 8 to do more of it, we need to do better with it, at a 9 time of record homelessness. 10 Senator Gallivan, you asked about success 11 rates of programs earlier, with someone else. 12 And I'll just mention: That our programs 13 to prevent eviction, highly successful. 95 percent 14 of the people that we do eviction-prevention 15 casework with, end up not coming back into the 16 shelter system, and not coming back in with an 17 emergency housing need, coming to our organization. 18 Very important. 19 But, we've had a 40 percent cutback in 20 federal emergency food-and-shelter money that 21 helps to pay for that. 22 We've had an 85 percent cutback in the TANF 23 emergency homeless needs that helps to pay for that. 24 So, we're preventing many fewer evictions, 25 and that directly contributes to the trend lines on 1 the charts that you're seeing there. 2 Our community -- our Client Advocacy Program 3 provides case management and legal services, to help 4 disabled homeless people obtain social security 5 benefits, and housing placements suitable to 6 their needs. 7 That program obtains those benefits much 8 quicker than the government programs that have 9 customarily helped people with social security. 10 We have long recommended that it be 11 replicated. It was originally first created in a 12 funding stream that the State Legislature supported. 13 It went out as an RFP. 14 It should be something that's offered 15 statewide, to help disabled homeless people obtain 16 the benefits that help them to get into housing and 17 leave shelter. 18 And, Senator Gallivan, you also asked the 19 question about the number -- the need for supportive 20 housing, of Maclain. 21 And I'll just say, that the last of the 22 New York/New York agreements was 9,000 units. It 23 was about $1.2 billion dollars spread out over 24 10 years. It probably should have been spread out 25 more over 5 years. 1 But I would say, you could easily do that 2 volume again, for New York City alone, and probably 3 several thousand additional units for the rest of 4 the state, and still have unmet need at the end of 5 the day. 6 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Thank you. 7 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you. 8 Wow. 9 I have a couple of questions, Shelly. 10 I -- I'm stunned by the increase in the 11 homeless population in New York City. And, I've 12 been around long enough now to have seen the system 13 kind of completely come full circle. 14 20 years ago, you had -- you would go to 15 the local Public Assistance Office at night, and 16 that was, you know, the emergency assistance unit 17 for families seeking shelter. And then they 18 narrowed it, and everybody had to go to the Bronx. 19 You know, and really the goal was, if you 20 make it hard enough, people just won't come back. 21 And I think some of that is still happening 22 now. 23 On the -- on the number of families who are 24 denied on -- you know, when they first apply, what 25 I'm curious about is -- because I've heard the same 1 statistics. You guys win every Fair Hearing. You 2 know, DHS has never sustained a Fair Hearing 3 decision on their behalf. 4 Never. 5 That -- I don't think they can even produce 6 evidence that one decision they made on the first 7 time out, they were actually able to sustain. 8 So, that shows that they're really just 9 trying to prevent people from accessing. 10 But, on average, how many nights does a 11 family then get displaced without being serviced? 12 I'm trying to figure out, like, is it -- if 13 it's two -- on average, two or three nights 14 before, you know, you're able to get that 15 Fair Hearing, and have a decision in your favor? 16 Or -- 17 SHELLY NORTZ: I think the procedure has 18 changed since you -- 19 SENATOR SAVINO: How do they do it now? 20 SHELLY NORTZ: -- so it -- I think some of 21 the litigation put an end to that "sleeping on the 22 floor," or being put out the door and not allowed to 23 reapply for days on end. 24 There was a period, and we actually worked 25 with a local church, to help accommodate people when 1 that was happening. 2 But, now, the procedure is, you may be denied 3 on the spot, or you may be denied after a 10-day 4 conditional placement -- 5 SENATOR SAVINO: 10 days. 6 SHELLY NORTZ: -- but, you may also reapply. 7 SENATOR SAVINO: Uh-huh? 8 SHELLY NORTZ: And, so, the Fair Hearing 9 process doesn't necessarily result in a family 10 having to go stay on the subway in the city. 11 Outside the city, most definitely, people 12 lose access to shelter in some communities. 13 I had a call about a young man, yesterday, in 14 Schenectady County. There's no shelter bed 15 available in that -- in county. 16 He's on parole. He's not allowed to leave 17 county. He's on the streets, kicked out of a drug 18 treatment program because his unemployment makes 19 him ineligible for Medicaid, so there's no money to 20 pay the drug-treatment program. 21 Terrible bind. 22 Last thing I knew, he was on the street. 23 SENATOR SAVINO: Uh-huh. 24 SHELLY NORTZ: And, he was sanctioned by the 25 social-service district, so he's not allowed to -- 1 he's not allowed to have a hotel/motel placement 2 from them. 3 So, this happens. 4 In the city, not so much. And, certainly, 5 less so with families. 6 I have had reports, anecdotally, over the 7 last couple of years, very disturbing, of families 8 actually spending the night on the subway after they 9 got turned away. 10 And usually what's happened there, is they 11 haven't gotten in touch with us, or with Legal Aid, 12 soon enough to be able to have us do the advocacy to 13 get them a place. 14 But City policy is, if you come in to apply 15 for shelter, you get placement if you're in before 16 midnight. 17 SENATOR SAVINO: Uh-huh. 18 One of the other issues that I've been 19 concerned about is the rise of homelessness among 20 single males. That's been a chronic problem. And 21 a lot of them are, also, mentally ill. 22 You know, in my district in Bay Ridge, we had 23 a real problem with a group of men living underneath 24 this big apartment complex, the Bay Ridge Towers. 25 As you know, it's very dangerous. The 1 Buckeye Pipeline runs right through there. 2 There's a train yard. 3 It was always a problem to kind of move them 4 out and get them into shelter; but that's an been 5 historic. 6 And what I've always been curious, is: What 7 happened to the old SROs, or the rooming houses? 8 You know, has gentrification of a lot of the 9 parts of New York City affected that? 10 Because, there was a time where you had 11 low-income housing for single men who didn't 12 necessarily need an expensive shelter, or what they 13 couldn't afford is a studio apartment. 14 Has there been any discussion about going 15 back to that type of housing for people in this 16 position? 17 SHELLY NORTZ: Well, certainly, 18 gentrification was rampant in the 1980s. 19 We were actually party to litigation that 20 sought a moratorium on the conversion of SROs to 21 things like, parking lots, and condominiums, 22 that failed at the court of, appeals if I recall 23 correctly. 24 But, in any case, there was a great effort, I 25 think, really, heavily pointing to the Koch period, 1 and, subsequently, through the various mayors, 2 to -- both, through affordable-housing development 3 plans, and through the Supportive Housing 4 New York/New York I, II, and III Agreements. 5 A lot of that money went into restoring and 6 preserving the old SROs that remained in the stock 7 in city, and turning them into supportive SROs. 8 But -- and that's why I say, we could easily 9 double what we did with New York/New York III, and 10 still have unmet need at the end of the day. 11 The truth is, that a lot of those folks that 12 you're talking about are, both, seriously mentally 13 ill and, sometimes, chemically dependent. 14 It's why we say, here, that a Housing First 15 approach, which can be done, either, on a 16 single-site basis in an SRO; or, as 17 Sam Sambaras [ph.] does, on a scattered-site basis, 18 move the person directly off the streets when 19 they're in that condition, and then deliver, what's 20 called an "Act Team" in the Mental Health's budget, 21 where, a team of psychiatrists, social workers, 22 maybe psychiatric nurses, makes sure that the 23 person gets access to psychiatric service and crisis 24 intervention. It's a rent subsidy with a service 25 wraparound. 1 I think the stock of SROs is pretty much 2 consumed, with the exception of a few of those 3 illegal hotels, which I think, eventually, may end 4 up getting converted as well, as supportive housing 5 goes. But a lot of the supportive-housing that's 6 being built now is being built as new construction 7 on vacant lots or City-owned lots. Or even in 8 closed school buildings. 9 SENATOR SAVINO: And on the subject of rent 10 subsidy, the elimination of the Advantage Program, 11 have you guys been able to determine how many 12 families are at risk for displacement? 13 SHELLY NORTZ: Well, the -- so here's what 14 happens with Advantage: The City paid November 15 Advantage rents again. There is not a lifting yet 16 of the order to pay rents, even though the 17 appellate division sided with the City in the 18 lawsuit, and said that it's a benefit program, not a 19 contract. 20 So, we eventually expect that the current 21 recipients of Advantage are going to end up losing 22 Advantage assistance. 23 There are no new families obtaining 24 Advantage. 25 SENATOR SAVINO: No. 1 SHELLY NORTZ: And I think, something like, 2 49 percent of the families entering the shelter 3 system now, have been previously homeless, which is 4 the highest rate we've ever seen. 5 And it's because Advantage is structurally 6 flawed. It's a two-year, time-limited 7 rental-assistance program that doesn't provide a 8 glide path at all to public housing or Section 8. 9 So, now, the question is, every month, there 10 is a number of households that are expiring their 11 Advantage under the one- or two-year time limit. 12 And if -- when they face eviction, they may 13 qualify for something called "FEPS"; 14 Family Eviction Prevention Subsidy, or something 15 close to that. 16 And, that is a court-ordered subsidy that is 17 going to take over, in lieu of Advantage, for some 18 of those families if they're facing eviction. 19 And there's details about the rules of 20 that game on our website. 21 SENATOR SAVINO: Uh-huh. 22 SHELLY NORTZ: So, many of the families are 23 going to go into FEPS, which is -- not got a time 24 limit on it. And -- so -- or, it's got a 25 5-year time limit on it. 1 SENATOR SAVINO: What's the dollar amount 2 that FEPs will provide? 3 SHELLY NORTZ: So FEPS rent levels are -- 4 rent-subsidy levels are lower than Advantage. 5 SENATOR SAVINO: Uh-huh. 6 SHELLY NORTZ: But, we've had a conversation 7 with the State. There seems to be a willingness for 8 the level in FEPS, if we get to this point where 9 we're going to have an influx into FEPS, for -- 10 to -- to have it brought up to the level of 11 Advantage. 12 SENATOR SAVINO: And is this -- if you're a 13 family on public assistance, is this in addition to 14 the shelter allowance? 15 SHELLY NORTZ: Yes. This is a -- a kind of 16 court-ordered rent-supplement program. 17 Advantage is an administratively ordered 18 rent-supplement program that is proposed by 19 jurisdictions. 20 But, as far as I know, New York City's the 21 only one that ever put a time limit of one or 22 two years on their rent-supplement program. 23 The other jurisdictions aren't limiting it 24 that way, and they're not having the same problem. 25 SENATOR SAVINO: They had a similar program 1 in the Child Welfare System for families whose only 2 barrier to return to placement was homelessness, 3 because homelessness is not a parental-deprivation 4 factor. And we can't -- 5 SHELLY NORTZ: We still have it. 6 SENATOR SAVINO: -- so we -- they created 7 this housing-subsidy program, which was, three years 8 or $3,600, whichever came first. 9 Well, you could blow through $3,600 in 10 two months, renting an apartment in New York City. 11 It's not -- the Advantage Program is very 12 similar, in that, it's, really, almost set up to 13 fail. 14 SHELLY NORTZ: Yes. 15 SENATOR SAVINO: The other -- the concern I 16 have, though, I'll tell you, is, because it is a 17 program that's almost set up to fail, it's going to 18 continue to discourage landlords to be willing to 19 provide housing to families who are at risk; because 20 landlords, at the end of the day, have to pay 21 their mortgage, and they have to pay their property 22 taxes, and they have to pay all of the other things. 23 And if the money's not coming in, the next 24 time around, when a family comes in, that's just, 25 you know, getting themselves back on their feet, 1 they're going to say no. 2 This is a -- this is going to create a real 3 problem for families, going forward, because, as you 4 pointed out, we're no longer opening up public 5 housing, because there's just no apartments 6 available. And, Section 8 has, essentially, dried 7 up. 8 SHELLY NORTZ: Well, there is a turnover in 9 public housing in New York City. 10 And, we're recommending that one in 11 three units be set aside for homeless households, 12 to help us bring this shelter census down. 13 I agree with you about discouraged 14 landlords. 15 As a matter of fact, they're party to the 16 litigation on the Advantage issue. 17 And, at this point, I think what I would 18 recommend, from a State-policy perspective, is a 19 serious consideration about investing in longer-term 20 rental assistance, to help bring the shelter census 21 down, and permanently house the families. 22 It's -- you know, there is, as you say, very 23 little Section 8 coming out of Washington right now. 24 I think it should be on everyone's legislative 25 agenda to get Washington back in the housing 1 business. It's always been difficult since we've 2 had less effort coming out of Washington on 3 permanent affordable housing and rental assistance. 4 SENATOR SAVINO: Uh-huh. 5 SHELLY NORTZ: As to the foster-care program, 6 it still exists. 7 I agree, that, uhm -- it's actually 8 two types of subsidies: One to prevent placement, 9 and one to reunite. 10 Our bridge building is an 85/85 project that 11 serves, in a permanent housing fashion, formerly 12 homeless family with children; and, typically, is 13 reuniting the parents with the children who have 14 been in foster care. 15 The Rental Assistance Program serves those 16 families in our program; but, it is $300 a month. 17 And it would be much better if it were $600 a 18 month. 19 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you. 20 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Thank you. 21 SHELLY NORTZ: Thank you very much. 22 SENATOR SAVINO: Marsha Basloe, Early Care 23 and Learning Council. 24 [Comment from the audience.] 25 SENATOR SAVINO: I beg your pardon? 1 SENATOR GALLIVAN: She's not here yet. 2 SENATOR SAVINO: Oh, she's not here yet? 3 Okay. 4 Next is, Gerard Wallace, the director of the 5 New York State Kinship Navigator, Catholic Family 6 Center in Rochester. 7 Come on down! [Laughter.] 8 GERARD WALLACE: Good morning, 9 Senator Gallivan, Senator Savvy. 10 I appreciate, very much, the chance to be 11 here today, and to talk about Kinship Care. 12 I'm Gerard Wallace. I'm the attorney 13 director of the New York State Kinship Navigator. 14 This is the only statewide program serving 15 the kinship community, administered by OCFS, and 16 operated by Catholic Family Center in Rochester. 17 I'm also the chair of the New York State 18 Kincare Coalition, which is sponsored by AARP, which 19 is a coalition of over 60 organizations that have a 20 long-term interest in our population. 21 And, on the aside, for fun, I run a national 22 Grandparent Committee that works in 37 or more 23 states, to try and assist kinship families. 24 My first, and most important, emphasis is to 25 make sure that we recognize that kinship care 1 applies to both foster-care and to non-foster 2 kinship caregivers. 3 Oftentimes, kinship care is a euphemism for 4 kinship foster care; and, yet, that population is, 5 actually, significantly smaller than those kinship 6 caregivers outside that system. 7 I'm just going to briefly run through this 8 testimony, and point out some of the highlights. 9 And the first thing to do is the usual 10 statistical dance. 11 According to 2009, American Community survey, 12 141,000-plus grandparents are responsible for 13 grandchildren in New York State. 14 "141,000." 15 This does not include the estimated 35 to 16 40 percent of aunts and uncles, adult siblings, 17 other relatives, and even family friends, who 18 provide a resource for their kinship -- for kinship 19 children. 20 In contrast, the foster-care system, and I 21 have been able to find two sets of figures for this 22 presentation, the first comes from the 23 "Legal Services Journal," December 2011 Edition, in 24 which it says, that: 25 "Approximately 6,000 children are in kinship 1 foster care, placed with their relatives. Most of 2 them in New York City, 87 percent." 3 That means 13 percent, according to him, 4 outside the city. 5 Other figures, which are attached to the 6 testimony, which came from OC -- Office of Children 7 and Family Services' database, for the year 2010; 8 and they list, by county: 9 The number of children in licensed, pending, 10 and emergency foster care; 11 And, the number of children in relative, 12 licensed, pending, and emergency foster care. 13 The numbers are summarized below, if I can 14 find it. 15 And, 8,063 kinship foster placements in 16 New York City, and 1,664 around the rest of the 17 state. 18 The figure is not summarized here, but there 19 are, according to these stats, about 20 33,000 placements during the year 2010, of which, 21 roughly, 22,000 were in New York City; and, roughly, 22 11,000 were more Upstate. 23 To put it more simply: 24 35 percent of the kinship placements in the 25 state are, uhm -- 35 percent of all the foster care 1 in the state is outside of New York City. 2 And, yet, according to these stats, 3 somewhere between 17 and 8 percent of the 4 placements with kin are outside the city. 5 In other words: If you summarize it up, 6 there is, for some reason, very few children, 7 proportionally, being placed with kinship families 8 outside of New York City, compared to New York City. 9 Okay? 10 And, also, the second summary factors, is 11 that we have an enormous population of kin who 12 are -- don't even -- are not foster parents. They 13 take care for children on their own. 14 So, that's the description of the population. 15 The realities of kinship care, are that, 16 children come into, either, what we call "the 17 private system," or the public foster-care system, 18 for many of the same reasons: abuse, neglect, 19 abandonment, mental-health issues, drug abuse, 20 alcohol abuse, incarceration, and death. 21 There are, sometimes, more benign causes; 22 but, in general, in my experience, having talked to 23 over 8,000 kinship caregivers in the past 24 15 years, the causes mirror those which could 25 place a child in foster care. 1 Okay? 2 And these children have special challenges: 3 bereavement, trauma, stress, loss, disabilities due 4 to drugs at birth, to abuse and neglect. 5 And the caregivers themselves have special 6 challenges. They tend to be older. The average 7 age is 56; with a population over 60, of 20 percent 8 or more. 9 They're disproportionately poor. And, of 10 course, you can just imagine what this causes; what 11 the circumstances are that these families face. 12 They face barriers in benefits, services, 13 and custodial rights. 14 For instance, I'll give you a story. 15 Typical story: Maternal aunt -- mother is -- 16 grandmother is deceased. 17 Maternal great-aunt, she gets a call from 18 CPS, that her niece is -- was caught in a drug 19 house, and is going to be arrested. And would she 20 be a resource for the children. 21 And, "Yes, of course," she says, "I want to 22 do this." 23 And, CPS brings over two children -- one, 24 two, or three; ages 3 to 10, typically, and says, 25 "Here's the kids." And walks out the door. 1 The aunt, or the grandmother, whoever the 2 relative may be, wakes up the next day, and says: 3 Oh, my God. My life is turned upside down. 4 I have to get these kids in school. I need to get 5 them medical care. 6 How do I get child care? 7 What do I do about financial assistance? 8 Where is the mother? 9 Do I have the right to take care of these 10 kids? 11 And the call is made to the local 12 child-welfare agency, who says, essentially: It 13 ain't their job. 14 The child has been placed informally, 15 pursuant to regulations. It's called "an 16 alternative living arrangement." It's perfectly 17 legal. 18 And, now, the grandmother, or aunt, is 19 completely on their own. 20 As the director of the Navigator, I can 21 attest to you that I hear this story constantly. 22 Previously, when I was at Hunter College, we 23 heard it all the time. 24 I spoke to Keith Morganheim yesterday, at 25 Neighborhood Legal Services in Erie County, in 1 Buffalo. 2 And, Keith and I reviewed some of the 3 circumstances similar to this. And he agreed, at 4 the end of the call, that he would consider that 5 there were more of these alternative living 6 arrangements done, plus some other alternatives 7 to foster care, than there are children in his 8 county in foster care. 9 It's just an enormous issue for us, in terms 10 of serving our clients, because we just -- you 11 know, ACS is a little bit different in 12 New York City. 13 SENATOR SAVINO: Uh-huh. 14 GERARD WALLACE: And I remember when the 15 numbers were much higher -- 16 SENATOR SAVINO: They got sued for this. 17 Remember Eugene F.? 18 GERARD WALLACE: Yes. 19 But, the -- well, this is before the removal. 20 Note the difference: They have not made the 21 removal; so, therefore, because there's no removal, 22 there's a lot of largesse in what they want to do. 23 Regulations allow them to do it. 24 SENATOR SAVINO: Parsing words there. 25 They've taken from a biological mother, and 1 they have removed those children. They may not have 2 gone to court and gotten a remand -- 3 GERARD WALLACE: There's no -- yes, there's 4 no court order -- 5 SENATOR SAVINO: -- and haven't begun the 6 process, but they removed those children. 7 GERARD WALLACE: The regs say, that if 8 there's no court order or no voluntary surrender, 9 this is perfectly legal. 10 And the reg is quoted in here. 11 Okay? 12 SENATOR SAVINO: I saw that. That may be a 13 regulation we might want to take another look at. 14 GERARD WALLACE: I would appreciate that. 15 There's -- this is an issue, and I've jumped 16 right into it, but, again, I've alluded to many 17 other issues that confront these families. 18 Why I've given you this compendium of data, 19 is that, we've had three New York State Kinship 20 Summits, dating back, 2005, 2008, and last year, 21 and we've made recommendations. 22 And following up, in this testimony, are the 23 recommendations that apply to social services. 24 There's a strike-through in those that we've 25 had enacted or implemented. And, there are many 1 others that could use with some attention. 2 So, I'm hoping that the staffer might look at 3 these documents and see the range of issues that 4 these families face. 5 Some of the things we've gotten done were 6 back in 2000. We had the Standby Guardianship 7 Statute amended, to include legal custodians and 8 caretakers who can't find relatives -- find the 9 parents. 10 In 2003, we had, really, one of our most 11 significant wins. We amended 1017 to include: 12 A search for all grandparents; 13 To mandate that they -- any contacted 14 relative be told their options, and to be warned, 15 that if they don't act, the child may be, 16 eventually, adopted by a foster family. 17 That provision actually morphed into 18 Senator Clinton's Kinship Caregivers Support Bill, 19 which she and Senator Snow sponsored in 2005; and 20 later became federal law in the 21 Fostering Connections Act, which was enacted -- 22 signed into law in 2008, and contains a 23 notification provision that even adds, 30 days to 24 do the search, and due diligence in finding 25 relatives. 1 The other part of that law, in 2003, which 2 relates to the testimony also, is an amendment to 3 Domestic Relations Law 72, which was the 4 Grandparent Visitation Statute, which added a new 5 extraordinary circumstance, at least in statute, 6 that said: 7 That if a child has been residing with a 8 grandparent for two or more years, the -- a court 9 could not just automatically knee-jerk return that 10 child to an absent parent. 11 It demanded a best-interest analysis before 12 they could be returned. 13 That law, which I worked very hard to get 14 both of those laws back then, was, singularly, for 15 grandparents. 16 And we have, since then, been recommending in 17 these reports, that it be expanded to include the 18 other 30 to 35 percent of relatives who were 19 providing this kind of care. 20 You know, all the Kin-GAP provisions talk 21 about relatives, very broadly, including even some 22 non-blood relatives. 23 And, down the road, once they have gotten 24 relative-guardianship payment, and been cut loose 25 from the foster-care system, they enter our 1 population and become part of that private kinship 2 community. And they, too, because there's been no 3 termination of parental rights, will have to deal 4 with errant parents who want to regain custody of 5 their children. 6 This is one of the laws that protects 7 grandparents in that instance, and it certainly 8 should protect all other relatives. 9 In the attachments, there's a suggested 10 statutory language to amend DRL 72. 11 The reports are too compendious to talk 12 about here. 13 Our second recommendation -- our first 14 recommendation, is to please look at them for 15 relevant information, and possibilities for 16 enactment or regulation. 17 We think that 70 -- DRL 72 needs to be 18 amended. That's been consistently reported in our 19 summits. 20 The issue that I alluded to earlier, that 21 really has pained me personally, for 15 years of 22 kinship care, is diversion. 23 "Diversion" is -- the proof of the pudding is 24 the statistical evidence that Upstate New York does 25 very, very little kinship care in certain counties. 1 One county, for instance, Monroe County; 2 Monroe County has over 655 children placed with 3 non-relatives, and 10 placed with kin. 4 "10." 5 You can see it in the data there. 6 In contrast, Nassau County, which is similar, 7 Downstate, in practice, which has about 8 680 children, has placed 173 with kin. 9 10 versus 173, with a similar population. 10 The stories are all anecdotal. We've heard 11 them for 15 years. 12 And one of our recommendations is, that, 13 these diversion practices need to be looked at 14 more thoroughly by the Legislature. 15 There is some reporting going on, pursuant to 16 the enactment of Kin-GAP, but it's pretty minimal. 17 The practice that I alluded to before, is 18 prior to removals, and there may be some 19 technicality there. But, certainly, the practice 20 is: The call in the middle of the night, and the 21 resultant assumption of care, and the loss of the 22 opportunity for the benefits of foster care, 23 Kin-GAP, and, eventually, those stipends. 24 The second practice, which is post removal, 25 is that, pursuant to Family Court Act 1017, there 1 are three options that must be presented. 2 And, OCFS and two ADMs has written 3 publications that they indicate must be given to the 4 caregiver. 5 The three options are: 6 You can take the child personally, and we can 7 turn this into an Article 6, and you can have 8 private custody; 9 You can take the child directly, pursuant to 10 the Article 10. This is called "N Docket"; or, 11 "direct-custody placements." 12 We have asked -- this -- this direct-custody 13 placement, in the enactment of Kin-GAP, they're 14 finally going report on the number. And you will be 15 getting a report April 1st, partially, on number of 16 children placed pursuant to that option. 17 We hear, anecdotally, and there is some 18 evidence in one of the codings, that, last year, 19 there may have been as many as 3,800 voluntary 20 placements. 21 We call them "foster care on the cheap." 22 You get all the regular -- all the 23 supervision, all the efforts at reunification, but 24 the caregiver does not get the payment. And, 25 they're at risk of removals, and the scrutiny. 1 And, along this route, there are lots of 2 persuasions done by local departments, to have 3 families choose one of these two options, rather 4 than continue to work on becoming a foster parent. 5 One of the other persuasive techniques is: 6 Oh, we won't use the emergency placement because 7 it's optional. 8 Germaine [ph.] -- there's a case in 9 Matter of Germaine on that, as cited in the 10 document. 11 "We won't place with them until you 12 accomplish the training. The training will take 13 four months to get done, and you're going to have 14 to travel. Until then, the child's got to be with 15 strangers." 16 You know, what would any relative say? 17 "Give me the child." 18 So, we think this is an area that needs 19 scrutiny. And, there's a little that has begun, 20 pursuant to Kin-GAP, but much more needs to be done. 21 If we're actually placing more children via 22 alternative living arrangements, via voluntary 23 placements, and private custody, pursuant to 24 Article 10, than there are children in foster care, 25 I'm not even saying that that may not be appropriate 1 in most instances, but, how are we assessing what is 2 the right place for these kids? 3 Clearly, we don't want to break the bank. 4 But, clearly, these willy-nilly county de facto 5 policies that, oftentimes, are based on dollars 6 rather than the well-being of children, are, uhm -- 7 it's a tough call. 8 Some scrutiny needs to be done of it; and 9 that's our recommendation. 10 We also think that, 1017, the most-amended of 11 all Article 10 statutes in the universe, needs to be 12 continued to be amended. 13 Some of the other cases cited here are: 14 Debra V. Johnson [ph.], an older case in 15 Albany County; 16 And, a recent case called, In The Matter of 17 Dionana [ph.]. 18 Debra V. Johnson is about the Albany 19 practice. An Albany CPS worker who actually told 20 kin, "There's no such thing as kinship foster care 21 in Albany County." 22 And, Dionana, is about ways in which the 23 search is not reported, and not really diligent, and 24 doesn't uncover kin, and then doesn't really inform 25 them of what their options are. 1 I'd recommend that a staffer take a look at 2 those cases. They'll give you more fully flush-out 3 some of the practices here. 4 Lastly, I'd like to say that I'm not alone in 5 this opinion. Having been in kinship care for a 6 long time, I can go back to Carl McCall's 1995 7 report on kinship foster care, in which he 8 complained, "I can't find it, I tried." 9 But, I remember reading it back then: "I'll 10 try a little harder." 11 Okay? 12 I wrote on this in 1998. I've been the 13 co-chair of three summits. Another conference at 14 Albany Law School. 15 Recently retired Jamie Greenberg, who was 16 director of policy at OCFS, has written an article, 17 this summer, in "Legal Services Law Journal," that 18 concludes, with complaints about these 19 practices. 20 And, Professor Sobe [ph.], in his commentary 21 to 1028-A in the Family Court Act, talks about the 22 ruses, quoting him, that Upstate counties use to 23 prevent kin from becoming foster parents. 24 Incidentally, 1028 is another statute that we 25 got enacted a number of years ago. 1 I could talk about one other subject here, 2 and it's not really on point. I didn't really come 3 to talk about it, because I felt we were here about 4 non-funding issues. 5 But, the budget cuts last year slashed to the 6 bone, and eliminated, an enormous amount of services 7 for this informal kinship community in the state. 8 At its height two years ago, we had 9 2.75 million. Unfortunately, a good part of that 10 was TANF money. 11 The, uhm -- now we're down, last year, the 12 Legislature put in about $385,000. And, OCFS itself 13 kicked in 400,000. 14 What was the result of that cut, was that, 15 luckily, the Navigator is an independent funding 16 stream in the Governor's budget last year, in the 17 aid to localites. And, we're hoping it's going be 18 there again this year. 19 But, the other programs funded with 20 2.75 million, were 21 programs serving 21 32 counties. 22 The cutbacks left eight of them funded, as 23 of June 1 last year. Those 8 served only 24 11 counties. 25 And of those 11 counties, it's really worth 1 noting, a majority of them are rural counties, or 2 almost the majority. 3 Oneida, Herkimer, Schoharie, Columbia, 4 Greene, and Duchess, are funded out of those eight. 5 The only other counties funded by the 6 remaining kinship program, 390,000 from the 7 Legislature, and 400,000 from OCFS, were 8 Westchester, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and 9 Nassau, County. 10 There no longer is a program in Suffolk, 11 Richmond, New York County itself, Albany, Monroe, 12 Buffalo, Binghamton; and, about 21 other counties no 13 longer have programming. 14 So, the need to do -- to shine a spotlight on 15 this population, and to work to improve their access 16 to existing services, and to cure some of their 17 barriers to success, is now even more important than 18 ever. We do not have the opportunity to intervene 19 the scale that we had before, to advise and to 20 advocate, and families are increasingly left on 21 their own. 22 Lastly, in the latest report that I gave you, 23 the one, the 200 -- the "2011, Kinship Care in 24 New York: Keeping Families Together," Appendix H, 25 and I, are a cost-benefit analysis of the value of 1 kinship services compared to -- the cost value -- 2 the cost value of kinship services compared to 3 foster-care services. 4 And, roughly speaking, for even the most 5 expensive -- inexpensive kind of foster care, 6 regular foster care, and even assuming that every 7 kid in kinship care is getting a child-only grant, 8 there still is a fifteen to sixteen thousand dollar 9 difference per child, and what it costs to put a 10 child in foster care, as opposed to, keeping them 11 with kin, and provide them with some assistance case 12 management. 13 This is the most marginalized of 14 populations. 15 I worked on the national level. I worked in 16 other states, too. And it is incredible how much 17 focus there are -- is on kinship foster care, and 18 how little focus there is on this larger population. 19 So, I would hope, today, that I kind of 20 raised up the issue successfully, and that you would 21 look into the many issues, the many concerns, and 22 problems facing the population. 23 Thank you. 24 25 1 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you. 2 I've got a whole lot. 3 [Laughter.] 4 Uhm, it seems like the rest of state is 5 living in 1985, when it comes to dealing with 6 children who are removed, and dropped off with a 7 relative. 8 I'm very happy to see New York City doesn't 9 do this, and I didn't think that they did. 10 I mean, I came into the system as a kinship 11 caseworker. 12 GERARD WALLACE: Right. 13 SENATOR SAVINO: So I'm, you know, kind of 14 baffled as to how the rest of the state is looking 15 at this. 16 So, you respond -- obviously, there must be 17 an initial complaint that's filed, that triggers a 18 visit by a CPS worker. 19 And, so, they make that decision that, at 20 this point in time: This child's life is at risk -- 21 you know, at risk to life and their health if I 22 leave them here. 23 So, they've begun that process or removing 24 that child. 25 GERARD WALLACE: That's right. 1 SENATOR SAVINO: And then they go and find a 2 relative. 3 GERARD WALLACE: Pursuant to the regulations. 4 The second case that I ever came across, in 5 1996, when I first did this, was in Rensselaer. And 6 it was a woman who had a daycare center, and was a 7 social worker, who got a call from Rensselaer County 8 CPS. 9 And I think, and if I -- it was a newborn, 10 and they wanted to remove the child from the mother 11 because of drug addiction. 12 Enormous amount of it falls on the mother 13 because the fathers aren't there to begin with. 14 So, it's the mother that you hear about when 15 these situations occur. 16 And, she ran down, took that child, and woke 17 up the next day, and, bingo, she was told, you know: 18 It's not my job. 19 SENATOR SAVINO: Well, and that's what 20 happened, you know, in New York City for a long 21 time, until, you know, Rose Firestein [ph.] and -- 22 I wonder where she is now. She's somewhere. 23 -- and several other attorneys brought the 24 infamous Eugene F. case, which established kinship 25 foster care in New York State. 1 That changed the practice. And, in fact, 2 most judges, um -- once you removed a child, and, 3 you had to go into court, and you had to, you know, 4 get a remand, and prove that you had made reasonable 5 efforts to prevent placement, unless the child was 6 at risk to -- you know, imminent risk to life and to 7 health, most of the judges began saying: Find a 8 relative; find them now. 9 You know, and we understood what that meant. 10 It was within the third degree of consanguinity: 11 find a grandparent, et cetera. And you would do 12 that. 13 And, then, you would place the children, and 14 ask them if they were willing to take the child, as 15 a foster parent; begin the process of approving 16 them. 17 GERARD WALLACE: Very quickly. 18 SENATOR SAVINO: Right. 19 And you would -- you know, you would 20 assign -- listen, things didn't work as fast as we 21 liked, but there was a process. 22 So that process, apparently, doesn't exist 23 outside the city of New York. 24 GERARD WALLACE: I -- you know, I verified 25 what you're saying is correct. 1 I spoke to Wallace C. [ph.] the other day, 2 Albany Guardian Society -- I mean, Catholic Guardian 3 Society in New York City. 4 And, he described just what you're talking. 5 I was trying to verify the existence of the 6 practices. 7 And, you know, the numbers back it up. 8 Going further, New York City uses MiniMap, 9 or, Caring For Your Own, available even on I-Link, 10 which is OCFS's online training system, to permit 11 relatives to move through the training quickly. 12 They even have an agreement, so that the 13 child welfare agencies in the city, interchangeably, 14 offer this. So, that, if you're in Brooklyn, and 15 you can get to one place, and it's offered to them 16 now, even though this it's not the agency who's 17 going to be in charge of the child, you can go there 18 and get it -- accomplish the training. 19 Nothing like that goes on Upstate. 20 I mean, I'm not saying there aren't good 21 counties Upstate. Orange County's a good one. 22 But these practices are intractable. 23 The reporting on it, I think Professor Sobe's 24 comment of "ruses" sums it up wonderfully. 25 And, the other week, Susan Antos [ph.] gave 1 testimony to the New York State Bar Task Force on 2 Family Court, which is something new going on. 3 And, Sobe was on that panel. And he, you 4 know, expressed his complaints about, you know, 5 the ongoing practices. 6 SENATOR SAVINO: And, look, this is not to 7 say that foster care should be the only option 8 available. 9 GERARD WALLACE: I don't think so either, 10 yeah. 11 SENATOR SAVINO: In fact, once, you know -- 12 just because you're a grandmother who is a kinship 13 foster mother, doesn't mean that you have autonomy. 14 And you have to answer to the agency, and you have 15 to answer to the court system. 16 And, in fact, the agency can come and remove 17 the children from you, and place them somewhere 18 else. 19 So, there's value to having the idea of 20 kinship -- 21 GERARD WALLACE: Independence. 22 SENATOR SAVINO: -- kinship independence. 23 What I would be concerned about, though, is 24 that, if we're going back to, you know, what we did 25 in the 1980s, where we just simply would drop a 1 child off, and say, "You're on your own," that's a 2 real problem. 3 There's no protection for that grandparent, 4 aunt, uncle, older sibling -- whatever the 5 relationship is -- from -- there's no protection 6 from the parent coming forward, and saying: That's 7 my child. 8 You know? 9 So, if we would -- if we could -- 10 GERARD WALLACE: [Unintelligible.] 11 SENATOR SAVINO: -- if we could establish a 12 mechanism that would make it easier for relatives 13 who want to care for their family members, but 14 don't necessarily want to become foster parents, 15 don't want the children to go through the system and 16 place them at risk, but, would give them access to 17 the services that these children probably need, that 18 would certainly be preferrable. 19 But, it doesn't sound like that's happening 20 either. 21 GERARD WALLACE: I don't -- certainly, 22 voluntary placements. 23 If you get a removal, and you go into a 24 direct-custody placement, you're getting the 25 services. So, it's more akin to what we want to get 1 without the stipend. 2 But, the private custody arrangements, the 3 call in the night, you know, those people are 4 pretty -- they're reliant on the kinship-services 5 programs that have just been, you know, so 6 dramatically cut back. 7 I did speak, in the past -- about a year and 8 a half ago, I spoke to CPS workers in 9 Niagara County, some from Erie County, and also in 10 the Clinton-Washington area. And both of them 11 suggested the same thing that you're saying; you 12 know, that they are concerned about the 13 decision-making about, which kids go to families 14 without scrutiny, oversight, and benefits, and 15 which -- which don't. 16 And, uhm, they worry about the intrusive 17 parent. The relative's inability to control that 18 parent. 19 We hear it all the time. It's one of the 20 biggest complaints we have. 21 SENATOR SAVINO: They should worry about the 22 dysfunctional grandmother too. 23 GERARD WALLACE: Yeah. 24 SENATOR SAVINO: Since so many of these cases 25 that come to the attention of the Child Protective 1 Services Division, you have problems of abuse, and 2 of -- you know, children are at risk for abuse and 3 neglect, because, yes, they've come through the 4 system themselves, but, you have a high degree of 5 people who suffer from substance abuse. 6 There are: Alcoholism, substance abuse, 7 mental illness, mentally ill, chemically addicted, 8 people. And, unfortunately, these are family 9 diseases. 10 You know? 11 So, we may -- you know, you run the risk that 12 you're taking a child from -- 13 GERARD WALLACE: And dumping them. 14 SENATOR SAVINO: -- a drug-addicted mother, 15 and bringing to an alcoholic grandmother, and no 16 services and no oversight and no continued visits. 17 GERARD WALLACE: I certainly agree that those 18 cases do occur. 19 I would like to point out: In the materials 20 is -- there's a reference to an archive -- a study 21 done by -- published in the archives of 22 "Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine," on the 23 outcomes of children in kinship care versus the 24 outcome of children in foster care. 25 And, in almost every category surveyed, the 1 outcomes were better. 2 We do, certainly, have dysfunctional 3 grandparents. And I run from them like crazy, 4 because I talk to a lot of them. 5 Okay? 6 But, in general, having interviewed seven, 7 eight thousand, I may find poor folks, I may find 8 folks who are not well educated, but a high degree 9 of maturity, partially of which, is, the older you 10 get, the more you have been through; the more you've 11 had a chance to rectify your life, and know what's 12 important. 13 So, I can't -- you can't say every family 14 walks on water, but, the idea that 15 dysfunctionality is perpetuated is true, but it is a 16 small portion of the population that I have been 17 able to work with. 18 You know? 19 SENATOR SAVINO: A little bigger than you 20 probably think. 21 But, again, my concern is, the idea that 22 we're -- you know, we're just leaving children -- 23 GERARD WALLACE: I agree. 24 SENATOR SAVINO: -- essentially, in legal 25 limbo, and not addressing their service needs, and 1 not addressing the potential needs of the kinship 2 care providers. 3 That's something that we need to really take 4 a look at. 5 And, again, foster care should not be the 6 option -- the only option for families. 7 You know, being in the foster-care system is 8 awful. You know, requiring grandparents to decide 9 whether they want to adopt their grandchildren, in 10 some ways, is, you know, just a very bizarre 11 practice. 12 And, we need to have all the options, but 13 we need to make sure that, at the end of the day, 14 children who have been removed, because they're at 15 risk, who've been living in -- you know, in a 16 neglectful environment, get the services they need. 17 GERARD WALLACE: Uh-huh. 18 SENATOR SAVINO: And some of them have real 19 services needs. Just leaving them with someone, and 20 walking away, is not the way to deal with that. 21 GERARD WALLACE: I totally agree. 22 And I don't see, and I've never felt 23 strongly, that foster care should be the, uhm -- 24 the, kind of, hard route; the route that -- of 25 choice, for all these families. 1 They do better off. They don't want to go in 2 foster care, but, they are dealing with children who 3 are -- oftentimes, have disabilities, parents that 4 are really, really troubled, and they themselves 5 need a parenting education frequently, and a range 6 of services. 7 And, it's tough. 8 You know, from their perspective, it's very 9 tough. 10 And I would like to say one last thing. 11 I did some filming last -- over Thanksgiving 12 weekend, on Long Island; where, I went down and 13 filmed some grandparents. 14 And, the idea, usually, is that they're poor. 15 But, the grandparents that I met that 16 weekend, one of them owned a printing company. The 17 other one was a nurse. 18 And, you know, I -- I'm working at the 19 national committee with the retired BOCES executive 20 who has an 8-year-old. 21 And these are functioning families that just 22 wind up, for one reason or another, that the 23 parents have gone south, and they wind up with the 24 kids. 25 You know? 1 Thank you. 2 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you. 3 That would be Marsha? 4 Marsha Basloe; she is with the Early Care and 5 Learning Council. 6 Go ahead. 7 MARSHA BASLOE: Okay. 8 Good afternoon. 9 And, first, I want to thank you for the 10 opportunity to provide testimony. 11 My name is Marsha Basloe, and I'm speaking 12 today on behalf of the Early Care and Learning 13 Council, where I am the executive director. 14 The Early Care and Learning Council is also a 15 co-convener of Winning Beginning NY, the state's 16 Early Care and Learning Coalition. 17 The Early Care and Learning Council is a 18 statewide not-for-profit organization, whose mission 19 is to promote excellence in early care and 20 education, with equal access for all families. 21 We do this primarily through the support of, 22 and in partnership with, a strong network of 23 community-based organizations that provide 24 child-care resource and referral services across the 25 state. 1 We work in collaboration with other 2 early care and education professionals and 3 organizations, toward the establishment of a 4 comprehensive system that responds to the needs of 5 all families, regardless of income, cultural 6 background, or family composition; adequately 7 prepares, and compensates, the early childhood 8 workforce, and involves all segments of the 9 state and local community in the planning process. 10 Quality child care is a necessity for both 11 children and their parents. 12 New York State falls short in meeting the 13 need for financial assistance with child care, with 14 tens of thousands of income-eligible families on a 15 formal, and an informal, waiting list for subsidies. 16 In the last year, local counties faced 17 increasing demand for care. And with limited 18 resources that they had, were forced to continue to 19 further reduce eligibility and raise fees, placing 20 even greater stress on working families across the 21 state. 22 Child-care funding for the fiscal year 23 2012-13 budget will be affected by Congress's total 24 elimination of the federal TANF Emergency 25 Contingency Fund. 1 New York State has the capacity to provide 2 child-care subsidies for 128,000 low-income children 3 from working families and families receiving public 4 assistance. 5 However, cuts to New York State Child-Care 6 Block Grant have impacted the ability of these 7 families to work and to provide high-quality care 8 for their children. 9 Counties are continually being forced to 10 lower income-eligibility levels and raise co-pays. 11 Winning Beginning NY has asked Governor Cuomo 12 to, first, restore $37 million lost in child-care 13 subsidy for our New York State children, and to 14 commit to a New York State investment of 10 percent 15 increase in total child-care funding. 16 This ask is important to our economy to keep 17 people working. 18 I want to mention the need for reform. 19 And the need for reform is most evidenced in 20 our county-administered child-care system. 21 Eligibility levels for a child to qualify 22 for subsidy vary from county to county, as does the 23 amount a parent must pay. 24 Consistency of care is affected. 25 Family share or parent fees determined by 1 the local service -- social-services districts 2 result in an inequitable system, where a parent in 3 one county may pay as much as five times more than 4 a parent in a neighboring county, despite the fact 5 that both parents have the same income, same 6 child-care requirements, but simply based on the 7 higher co-pay multiplier the county has chosen. 8 Numerous low-income families rely on 9 subsidized child care to maintain employment and 10 guarantee their financial security. 11 The State of New York has a goal of equal 12 access to care for all children; thus, the 13 subsidy-allocation formula needs to be examined. 14 It needs to be examined, with a focus on 15 maintaining and enhancing services to those young 16 children and their families that are most in need. 17 Until we have a statewide system that 18 addresses eligibility, co-pays, and provider 19 reimbursements, families and children will suffer 20 from unfair and inequitable treatment. 21 The State should also explore setting 22 consistent statewide standards for eligibility, 23 co-pays, and provider-reimbursement rates. These 24 statewide standards would provide equity for all 25 New York State children and families. 1 New York's economy depends on quality child 2 care. 3 In fact, the regulated child-care sector in 4 New York State is a $4.7 billion industry. It 5 provides nearly 120,000 jobs. 6 And the statistics tell us, that for every 7 dollar spent on early care in education in New York 8 State, it creates $1.86 return on investment that 9 goes back into the local economies, creating jobs 10 and supporting working parents. 11 The W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment 12 Research provides an overview of the economic 13 development impact of early childhood programs. 14 There's an economist named Tim Bartik, who 15 recently presented at the 19th Annual State Fiscal 16 Policy Conference in D.C. 17 And I won't give you all of his report, but 18 what I can tell you is, that there are two key 19 pieces that he talks about: 20 Early childhood programs boost adult 21 earnings, by getting children off to a good start, 22 in terms of developing both academic skills and 23 social skills. 24 And with this good start, former 25 participants do better in kindergarten, which 1 further increases their skills. And then they 2 do better in first grade. And then they do better 3 in third grade. And then they do better in 4 adulthood. 5 In other words: When we develop a broad 6 enough set of skills at an early enough time, such 7 skills do not depreciate over time, but, rather, 8 appreciate; 9 And, secondly: Early childhood programs 10 can boost local economic development, because 11 two-thirds of all participants in early childhood 12 programs will spend most of their working career 13 in the state in which they spent their early 14 childhood. 15 Therefore, a state or a local area's 16 investment in early childhood programs will affect 17 a local economy's long-run labor-force quality. 18 In today's global economy, higher local 19 labor-force quality is, perhaps, the most important 20 competitive factor affecting an area's 21 attractiveness for location and growth. 22 At this time, in New York State, 23 approximately 42 percent of all the children in 24 New York State that receive subsidized child care 25 are currently in a program that is unlicensed. 1 Family, friend, and neighbor care, known in 2 New York State as "legally exempt care," now 3 accounts for a large portion of the system; yet, 4 it is not part of our regulations or efforts for 5 quality care. 6 There is very little oversight in legally 7 exempt care. 8 In particular: There are inconsistent 9 standards for health and safety inspections. 10 Background checks are not required. 11 And, furthermore, in a legally exempt 12 program, a small amount, 10 hours, of training 13 allows a provider to receive an enhanced rate of 14 State dollars. 15 Ten hours can hardly provide what's necessary 16 for quality. 17 Most importantly, by continuing to invest in 18 unregulated care, we are undermining the entire 19 system of regulated and licensed child care. 20 Efforts -- I would like to recommend that 21 efforts be made to look at building our regulated 22 system that supports quality, and slowly reducing 23 the number of children that are in legally exempt 24 care. 25 We must work across systems and agencies to 1 do what's best for our children in our state. 2 The Early Care and Learning Council will 3 continue to work to assure that all families have 4 access to information to make the best child-care 5 choices to meet their family needs. 6 And, the Early Care and Learning Council 7 looks forward to working with you to address them. 8 I would be happy to answer any questions that 9 you have. 10 SENATOR SAVINO: I have a couple. 11 MARSHA BASLOE: Okay. 12 SENATOR SAVINO: On Monday, I held a hearing 13 down in New York City, on the challenges for child 14 care. 15 And, a lot of the issues you addressed did 16 come up; one of them, of course, being, the 17 inconsistency in funding, and eligibility, and what 18 parents are required to pay. 19 But one of the other big concerns that 20 I have, and I share with you, is this move towards 21 the exempt child care; or, with the old family 22 providers. 23 Towards that end, I was a sponsor of the 24 bill that allowed -- that gave collective bargaining 25 rights to those workers, for the express purpose 1 of them being -- you know, where the unions -- 2 In the City of New York, it's the United 3 Federation of Teachers; outside the city, it's CSEA. 4 -- that they could reach out to them, and, 5 not just organize them for purposes of improving 6 their standards and their working conditions, but, 7 also, to improve the likelihood that they will 8 become part of the supervised care system, and that 9 they will get the training that they need. 10 In New York City, what I've been told, is 11 that, their -- ACS, which oversees them down 12 there, they notify the United Federation of 13 Teachers when someone becomes a -- a -- 14 MARSHA BASLOE: Legalized. 15 SENATOR SAVINO: Right. 16 -- legal provider. 17 I don't know whether they do that outside the 18 city. 19 And to -- do you have any independent 20 knowledge, are the counties doing that? Are they 21 notifying CSEA? 22 And, later, I'll ask CSEA myself. They're 23 not testifying today, but they are here in the room. 24 Are they being given that information, so 25 that they can reach out to those home-care 1 providers, so that they can speak to them; find out: 2 Are they licensed? 3 Can they be licensed? 4 Are they, you know, appropriate settings? 5 Are we putting children, you know, in an 6 appropriate place? 7 MARSHA BASLOE: First, thank you for having 8 the hearing on Monday. 9 We did submit testimony, as well, on Monday. 10 Our child-care system is very complicated. 11 And, so, what I can tell you is, that we have 12 licensed child-care centers; we have regulated 13 family child-care homes; and then we have the 14 registered license-exempt. 15 I know that it takes all of us to build a 16 child-care system. 17 And you were part of helping the union to be 18 able to provide those services for the legally 19 exempt, with the goal that they would be able to 20 raise their quality, and become part of the 21 regulated system. 22 I think that that goes along with what I'm 23 saying as well; is that, our efforts and our focus 24 needs to be on the regulated system, because 25 that's the system that has regulations, and is 1 dealing with quality, as well as health and safety. 2 The Early Learning Challenge Grant that was 3 just submitted by the State of New York, and we will 4 hear shortly whether we have received those funds, 5 focused almost exclusively on the regulated system, 6 because, the statistics and the research shows 7 us, that, in order to have high-quality foundation 8 for children, it must be in a high-quality setting. 9 The problem with a legally exempt family -- 10 family, friend, and neighbor care, is that we don't 11 have any regulations for them, and we don't know 12 what the quality is. 13 So, I think it will take all of us working 14 together. 15 Ideally, what other states have done when 16 they have pushed for quality, is that they have 17 said, that: With our State dollars, we are going 18 to use these State dollars in our regulated 19 system. If there is not a slot available in our 20 regulated system, then we will move to the legally 21 exempt. But, that there's a return on investment 22 and an accountability piece to using our State 23 dollars. 24 SENATOR SAVINO: The only other thing is, I'm 25 happy to hear you say, and I've heard this from 1 several other people, and I've been singing this 2 song for a while now: We have to begin to look at 3 child care and early childhood education as part of 4 our economic development policies; because, you 5 cannot -- you can't talk about job creation on the 6 one hand, and then pull out the supports 7 underneath that makes work pay. 8 You know, many of these jobs are going to be 9 targeted at low-wage earners, particularly women. 10 And, the existence of quality, subsidized, 11 affordable child care is going to be the difference 12 between success or failure for many of these 13 programs. 14 So, I know all of you will be submitting your 15 own requests to the Governor when he puts his 16 budget out. 17 Advocate strongly for child care; restoring 18 the $37 million. 19 And, in addition, I'm going to put a plug for 20 my own legislation: The exemption for women on 21 public assistance with children under the age of 1, 22 so we can preserve the available slots for working 23 women. 24 So, that's my little plug for my own bill. 25 I'm still working on him. He's close. He's 1 really close. 2 SENATOR GALLIVAN: I'm still learning. 3 SENATOR SAVINO: Yes. 4 Thank you. 5 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Thank you. 6 SENATOR SAVINO: We have one more -- 7 One more? 8 -- one more person that's going be 9 presenting. 10 Sheila Harrigan, the executive director of 11 the New York Public Welfare Association. 12 Come on down. 13 SHEILA HARRIGAN: Thank you very much. 14 I think you know the New York Public Welfare 15 Association represents the 59 local Departments 16 of Social Services around the state. 17 There's a lot of issues on their minds, 18 and, I've just picked two to focus on today. 19 These are two areas where there's been a 20 great deal of success; and, we have some cautions 21 for where we go forward. 22 The first is, welfare reform. 23 And, as you know, there's much lower 24 caseloads today than in the past. 25 And, we really seek your continued support, 1 as you review budget proposals and legislation, to 2 keep the focus on employment goals, and the type 3 of services that support employment. 4 Since TANF is a block grant, we've been able 5 to use additional funding when the caseload is down, 6 to support these services. But, we do expect a TANF 7 shortfall, going into next year's budget, so there 8 will be a lot of competition for those dollars. 9 Today, most assistance is actually going to 10 working families, in the form of, food stamps, 11 Medicaid, HEAP, and, transportation, child care, 12 other services. 13 So, welfare reform has been a success. We 14 don't want to lose ground with that, and we're 15 really counting on the Senate, once again, to help 16 with that. 17 During a weak economy, there's always 18 pressure to back away from some of those 19 principles, because we know it's harder for people 20 to find jobs, but, we want to keep the focus on 21 employment. 22 There will be funding in the coming year, 23 such as the Flexible Fund, which is, primarily, a 24 child-welfare funding source. And it's become very 25 difficult to keep any employment dollars as part 1 of that. 2 The other area where we feel there's been 3 success, is mandate relief. 4 Starting on a local level, one of the things 5 our association does, is work with the Departments 6 of Social Services. They share all their ideas for 7 efficiencies and effectiveness, and are constantly 8 looking at ways to organize, and change processes, 9 to be more efficient. 10 And, we've worked with OTDA and OCFS, and 11 with the Legislature, on ideas for mandate relief, 12 that have really helped on the administrative side. 13 But, the big cost of mandates is the 14 benefits. It's public assistance, it's food 15 stamps, on a federal level, but, mainly, it's 16 Medicaid. 17 So, really, if the State is going to embrace 18 mandate relief for counties, it is, some plan, to 19 take over the cost of Medicaid benefits. 20 And, as you know, under the property tax cap, 21 that's become very important to counties. 22 So, I think we've had a lot of success in 23 mandate relief on an administrative end, but, 24 New York State has a very strong commitment. 25 We have the constitutional commitment, we 1 have the commitment of the Legislature to provide 2 care for the vulnerable and needy. 3 And, that's costly. And a lot of that is the 4 cost of medical insurance. 5 So, those two areas -- your continued support 6 for welfare reform, and, a look at Medicaid and 7 mandate relief -- are the issues that I wanted to 8 bring to you today on behalf of the Departments of 9 Social Services. 10 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you. 11 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Thanks. 12 Just a comment. 13 Now it's time to plug my bill. 14 [Laughter.] 15 SENATOR SAVINO: Which one? 16 SENATOR GALLIVAN: We actually have a mandate 17 relief bill, that we have 64 legislators on board. 18 SHEILA HARRIGAN: That's wonderful. 19 SENATOR GALLIVAN: And, it deals 20 specifically with -- with freezing; and, then, the 21 State taking back over, a period of years -- 22 eight years -- the local share of Medicaid, to try 23 to address that, and take some of that off of the 24 counties. And not just in a pure cost shift, but 25 relying on some of the things that will result -- 1 the additional revenues that will be realized from 2 the federal -- from the federal health-care 3 legislation, some efficiencies with the State 4 takeover of the administration of Medicaid, some 5 medi -- and some of the savings and efficiencies 6 realized from the Medicaid Redesign Team. 7 So, we have our sight set on that. 8 We have a number of people on board. We have 9 20 in the Senate, so far. 10 Hopefully, 21 by the end of today. 11 But, we do have a lot of momentum with that, 12 so we're trying to address that one specific area. 13 SHEILA HARRIGAN: They're very enthusiastic 14 about that, and they support that bill. 15 SENATOR GALLIVAN: And doing it at the same 16 time, to make sure that the services continue to be 17 provided, and not cuts to services. 18 SHEILA HARRIGAN: Absolutely. 19 SENATOR SAVINO: The only question that I 20 have: Are we going to start printing money here in 21 Albany? 22 How we going to make up, that -- that, you 23 know, Medicaid takeover? 24 That's the real big question, because it's 25 not like the cost is going to go down. 1 So, the State's going to have make it up, 2 which means, it's going come out of somewhere 3 else. 4 And in my experience -- I totally agree with 5 you, Pat, we have to find a way to do it. 6 But in my experience, when the cuts have to 7 be made, they wind up falling on the very programs 8 that you're concerned about. 9 They're going to come out of child welfare, 10 they're going to come out of preventive services, 11 they're going to come out of child care, because, 12 that's where they always come out of. 13 So, I don't know -- I don't know how we do 14 it. I agree that it's something we should look at. 15 Certainly, the cost of -- the counties, or 16 the local portion, of Medicaid that New York City 17 has to pick up is strangling them. 18 But, I'm not sure what it is. 19 And, then, we also have to be concerned that 20 we don't fall for, you know, the demand that we have 21 to reduce benefits for the workers, we have to, 22 you know, do pension reform; because, none of 23 that's -- none of those savings that could be 24 realized, we'll see in our lifetime. They're way 25 off in the future. 1 So, we should have this conversation, and 2 figure out how to do it. Just make sure that we 3 don't, you know, cut all the other programs. 4 SHEILA HARRIGAN: And that's all we're 5 looking for. 6 We fully appreciate that, because it's the 7 same on a county level. They're cutting other 8 services to the same vulnerable populations. 9 And, it's -- it's -- it's a problem, because 10 we do have that strong commitment to be helpful to 11 people, and make this happen. 12 So, thank you. 13 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you. 14 SENATOR GALLIVAN: Thank you. 15 SENATOR SAVINO: Is there anybody else? 16 Anybody have any opinions? 17 Anybody want to testify about anything else? 18 No? Okay. 19 SENATOR GALLIVAN: All right, thanks, 20 everybody. 21 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you. 22 (Whereupon, at 12:13 p.m., the 23 joint committee hearing, held before the New York 24 State Senate Standing Committees on Social 25 Services, and, Children and Families, concluded.)