June 28, 2017

BROOKLYN COMMUNITY BOARD 6

YOUTH/HUMAN SERVICES/EDUCATION COMMITTEE MEETING

June 28, 2017

Attendance:

P. Bellenbaum P T. Jackson E F. Brown A F. Jean A E. Felder A J. Li A R. Freeman P B. Solotaire A K. Gurl A S. Turet A L. Hill A R. Underwood A

P = present, E = excused, A = absent

GUESTS:

A.KRASNOW R. RACCOGLIA J. BASS

***MINUTES***

Presentation and discussion with District 15 Community Superintendent Anita Skop, and representatives for Council Member Brad Lander, on various initiatives designed to enhance the diversity of the student population at local schools within Community School District 15.

Presentation and discussion with District 15 Community Superintendent Anita Skop, and Vicki Sell, representing NYC Council Member Brad Lander on public education issues.

Superintendent Skop and Ms. Sell led a lengthy discussion on the topic of segregation in NYC public schools. They discussed a goal of having students who qualify for free or reduced lunch make up 30% of enrollment in several schools. Some schools have implemented that initiative with greater or lesser success, and the possible mitigating factors were debated.

Other topics discussed included: • Complex needs for vulnerable communities who may prefer not to participate in school desegregation initiatives—undocumented immigrant families may prefer to be in a school with other families, close to home, who are dealing with similar circumstances. • The DOE’s intention to release a plan in June for how segregation might be addressed city-wide.

1

• Middle School choice and admissions procedures, and how they’re more problematic with challenges that differ from the issues faced by zoned elementary schools. • New construction in Gowanus and how the city is planning to deal with rezoning to accommodate families in new housing along the canal. • The work of such community groups as the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice and ASID—NYC Alliance for School Integration and Desegregation. • An animated conversation between concerned parents, committee members, and guests looked at the crucial topics of race and school equity, and debated how best to ensure access to quality schools for all children citywide.

Other business: Committee did not have a quorum to approve minutes from the April 26, 2017 meeting.

Meeting was adjourned.

2

NYC Department of social services “Turning The Tide on Homelessness in NYC” • 2 paths o 1) Proactively think about things that would work for the community  Will give community more of an opportunity to work with DHS before a site is chosen o 2) if not, at some point DHS will come back and let the community know that they have chosen a place for the shelter and there won’t be a lot of time before the shelter opens • Dan Tate-Chief special services officer at HRA o DHS and HRA have come together for social services. Oversees the shelters o Jonathan Henry CPD- part of DHS- handles the procurement process on any new shelters coming into the city • Turning the tide report lays out what the city has planned o Shelter population grew from 2011-2014 by 38% o Late 2014 the city made changes by creating new rental assistance programs and have now leveled out from the highest point o All efforts have helped to keep the numbers from becoming much worse • Want to get people out of the kinds of shelters that the city does not want them in o Cluster sites are difficult to provide services to people o Hotel rooms are not ideal also because they’re not the right settings for families and difficult to provide services and are also not cheap • Goal is to close 360 sites that account for cluster and hotels and build 90 new shelters and renovate and expand shelters to be able to meet the expected need in the best way possible o Want people to have opportunity to return to the boroughs and communities that they came from • Cb6 has one traditional shelter operated by camba with 100 beds for women “Park Slope women’s shelter”and also have hotels in the community

Criteria for finding shelters

• Must comply with state and city regulations • Prefer mixed use locations o Single adults locations have shared spaces • For families - each unit must have a kitchen and a bathroom, on site programming and offices for staff to be on site o Accessible to schools and public transportation o Adult families does not have to have kitchens

3

• Follow an open ended RFP on a rolling basis. Non profit provider will find a site and then will propose to DSS to show that their plans are and it goes under a review and evaluation. This process is 6-9 months. o Here they are looking for purpose built sites that are ground up or a rehab of a building that was not intended for shelter. o Could be a site that was intended for use and then it came to them as a shelter which is a mixed use setting • Beds are for single adults and units are for families • There are 262 individuals who are being sheltered in cb6 vs 308 individuals who are sheltered somewhere else in the city • Idea is not to do a mechanical matching but want to make sure they are returning individuals back to their communities

CAMBA

• Provide various services as well as housing. Have been in the community for 40 years and have been running the park slope shelter for 21 years. Always wanted to be a part of the community, add to the community and take the positives of the community and put it into the shelters • Stand by quality services and have a responsibility to the people they serve • Believe in being a good neighbor including having community advisory board meetings so people can get information about shelter operations and address any concerns from the community • Neighbors have been terrific between volunteers and donations • Dialogue in the partnership has been there as they continued to expand the number of beds for the shelter o There were concerns at the beginning but then people have been part of the process and it is one that has worked • Sr. VP- focus on the services provided to the individuals in the shelter o Work to build and operate permanent and supportive housing o Want to be a part of the solution o Full compliment of social services consisting of social workers to address the psycho social issues driving the homeless into shelters and out of housing o Have on site medical and psychological services o Have security to help inside and outside the building o Provide the basics for those in the shelter including linens, food and personal care items o Work on individual plans to move out of the shelter

CB6 members questions

• New plan will increase the locality of individuals into their original neighborhood? o Where there is a need and the undesirable places where people are living, they want to replace the capacity and may not choose to replace it at the same location.

4

There are some places that are going to be taken down and others are going to be increased in areas where they may not already have capacity. • How often are sittings of new locations going to be reviewed ? o This is a 5 year plan but it is returned to and thought about all the time. o It is up to the non profit and developers to meet and propose ideas o Community can also offer areas to the DHS and current providers and propose it to DHS o The plan does not propose significant in the total number of those in shelters o Do not know what will happen 5 years down the road but do not know what the federal govt is going to look like. There are a lot of variables here and there are many things that cannot be controlled.  Best guess is this is a doable goal at this time • Questions on sitings- are there opportunities within cb6 that can be converted into something long term ? Is this an easier approach in some situations? o There has been no proposals to have the hotels be converted to permanent o There are requirements that OTDA requires for permanent housing and some hotel conversions are easier and others are not o If a landlord or provider wants to propose them they are free to but have not yet • Is DHS looking at specific areas within the community boards to look for opportunities? o DHS does not look they only review what is proposed to them. o Have already provided their criteria and so it is worthwhile for community boards to volunteer to have these conversations to determine how best to help o It is likely that the places that have no shelters are going to have siting within the next 5 years and they will not have as much input of the decision is already made o It is important to DHS to fit a shelter in to the community as best as it can - have the conversation about locations • Will the city contribute a cost factor to providers or developers for a new space? o DHS does not take anything or to find anything o Owners and providers do all the findings to determine the deals o A vacant lot could be turned either into ground up or tear down for a shelter - the timeline is fairly long- could be the owner leases in a long term lease or the provider purchases the property with a special type of mortgage  Either DHS pays the rent or pays towards the mortgage o City and tax payers pay the bill- OMB and the comptroller works diligently on how the money is spent  Work hard to make this work and that money is spent wisely • How long should a family stay in a shelter when getting these services? o Average is 400 days for those in a family shelters- about a year- that is the current system, including clusters where it is more challenging to provide services o Aim is to try to get those in need as quickly as possibly and moved to permanent housing as quickly as possible • The rezoning planned in gowanus with mandatory inclusionary housing, why is there not more discussion about transitional housing as part of the rezoning plans? o To date, it has never been the case that DHS did not get proposals from non profits and developers and it has not been an issue o DHS pays market rates and comparables for property markets

5

o Owner is not going to be without money and are an acceptable business for developers and land owners • What kinds of sites is DHS looking for? o 10-25 individuals in one location is not something that will pass approval- hard to get a full time job for someone and the cost per family would not work o Up to a few 100 becomes more difficult to manage and a bigger presence in the community o Park Slope women’s shelter at 100 is reasonably sized for a single individual shelter o There is not one ideal- it is not an uncommon size for single adults- have shelters in the 80-120 theme but could also go up to 150 and down to 50. Providers feel this is workable. • There was once a requirement to vacate during the day but now that has been eliminated and there is programming held during the day and now that requirement is no longer in place. • The notification is something that they give now so they can get community involvement and balance the need to open a shelter o It is a minimum of 30 days but notice has been given with much more time because they are just not ready o Have changed programs based on community input and have responded to these concerns or questions

Community questions

• 30 day notices o They will not give notice until they are fairly certain they intend to go forward and approve it. o It is a series of written notifications and phone calls to elected officials, city council, senate, community boards • Is there an inherent tension after the decision has already been made and the community brings their concerns to them? Wants it early enough in the process so it can be changed o State is not the same as DHS. It is a notification of intention to move forward with a project. It is different than asking for permission, however DHS is saying that in places in the city where there is greater need and no current shelters, looking to equitably distribute shelters across be city. Hell DHS to make these decisions by proposing areas that are more to the liking of the community • Scenario where several proposals come in , could there be an informal conversation about these proposals which would be more acceptable to the community? o It is worth contemplating by DHS if it happened that way they would not rule it out. • Could those that are applying agree to meet with community board to open a dialogue with them? o Procurement policies have limitations on how much DHS can get involved on the front end. They cannot do matchmaking of providers and developers. The providers are having these conversations and will have already considered if they think this will be approved by the community before the notification is made.

6

They’re not going to expend time and energy on something that will not be approved. DHS does not approve everything and things are regularly ejected • How bad must a provider become after they’ve been approved to offer services for the homeless where DHS steps in and stops them from being providers? o There are contract obligations that lays out what providers must do and there are corrective action plans if they are out of compliance enforced by DHS and comptroller o Some providers are replaced due to poor performance. Have performance measures and standards and failure to comply could result in them not being renewed • Is it realistic that the locations within cb6 are going to voluntarily offer up their expensive land? Can it work in this district? o To date this has not been an issue. OMB looks at comparables and they are willing to pay market ranges. Landlord does not lose it works. These budgets can work. o

7