Human Resources Administration Department of Social Services Staven Banks Commissioner 150 Greenwich Street New York, NY 10007 929.221 7315 wa Rev. 0115, February 11, 2016 Via electronic mail Sharon Devine Executive Deputy Commi: Office of Temporary Di 40 North Pear! Street Albany. New York 12243 Re: Fatalities at R: Dear Executive Deptity Commissioner Devine: The news Vesterday of the murder of'a mother and two of her children in a hotel in Staten Island was a tragedy for all New Yorkers. As you know, | called you in the early afternoon yesterday to advise the State of this horrific incident and to inform you that during the course of the day the Department of Homeless Services (DIS) was relocating all of the remaining families from the hotel where this occurred. the Ramada Staten Island (the Ramada), at 535 North Gannon Road in Staten Island. where Project Hospitality, a widely-respected Staten Island not-for-profit, had been providing social services to the families. As was widely reported, the Mayor subsequently announced at 2:30 PM that the City was taking this action, We were, therefore, surprised to receive your 4:15 PM letter ordering the City to do exactly what we had told the State and had already announced publicly we were doing. We were further surprised that the State then released the 4:15 PM letter to the media at 5:57 PM when the relocation process was well underway. By this letter, we are confirming that all the families who had been receiving temporary housing at the Ramada were relocated to alternative shelter space and the City does not plan to resume placements there. Going forward, we are again suggesting a collaborative approach to meeting the needs, of homeless New Yorkers, particularly as we are making reforms to the system that has been in place for several decades through multiple State and City Administrations. Working together, there is so much more that we can accomplish, particularly now during the 90-day review of all aspects of homeless services in New York City that the Mayor directed on December 15, 2015. Since the start of this review, we have made a host of major policy changes and improvements, including the implementation of HOME-STAT to address streethomelessness, the implementation of the plan to provide 15,000 units of supportive housing, the plan to add 500 additional Safe Haven beds, the doubling of funding for homeless drop-in centers, the plan to phase out the 16-year-old “cluster” program that uses apartments as shelter in private apartment buildings that would otherwise be used for permanent housing, the tripling of shelter beds for homeless youth, a new shelter repair initiative, reinforcement of the requirement that shelters provide 24-hour access and daytime programming. and enhancement of services and security in mental health shelters. In addition, as part of the review process, and before we received the State’s letter yesterday, the Mayor announced a new initiative to offer 24/7 stafling by licensed private security guards to the owners of the 40 remaining commercial hotels where DHS provides temporary housing to homeless New Yorkers. DHS contacted managers at all 40 hotels by phone and by email yesterday to offer this enhancement. The three remaining hotels on Staten Island accepted the offer and, pending placement of contracted security guards at those hotels today, staffing was provided last night by DHS’ Peace Officers. Please be advised that none of these commercial hotels are dedicated facilities that would require the certification that the State is now requesting. Since the provision of shelter to New Yorkers is a constitutional obligation that applies to both the State and the City, we will be submitting a request for reimbursement for the additional security expenses that we are undertaking while these commercial hotels continue to be used as shelter. ‘The Mayor also announced yesterday that phasing out the use of commercial hotels as shelter is one clement of the 90-day review. Ending the use of commercial hotels and, as referenced below, the 16-year-old cluster program, could be accelerated upon your prompt reconsideration of OTDA’s November 3, 2015 denial of our July 6, 2015 request to amend the State-approved 2005 Family Eviction Prevention Supplement (FEPS) program. Our requested amendment would have made this rental assistance available to help survivors of domestic violence and would have set rental assistance at a level consistent with that which the U.S, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has determined is needed to rent an apartment in New York City. For your convenience, our request and the State’s denial are attached again. ‘The State ageney has also advised us that vacant apartments are available in New York City al the current FEPS monthly rent level of $1,050 for families of three or four as opposed to the $1,515 HUD level. Pending your review of our reconsideration request. ‘we ask that the State agency provide us with a listing of any such vacant private apartments that we can rent to prevent or alleviate homelessness.With respect to the 16-year-old cluster program, as you know from previous correspondence and discussions, the City has begun to implement a plan to phase out the use of clusters over the next three years. With the State’s assistance, and consistent with the above, we can end use of the clusters more quickly. In buildings where a private landlord has rented all of the units to temporarily house homeless families, DHS has 24-hour security on site. DHS has also recently conducted a security survey of the ‘other cluster sites. As we have reported with respect to other security assessments, we will be seeking further recommendations from the NYPD for security pending the cluster phase-out, particularly for buildings where homeless families occupy more than 50% of the building. We will update you when this review and consultat NYPD have been completed. With respect to the Ramada’s security protocols, DHS conducted a review of its security on October 20, 2015, and subsequently met with the Commanding Officer of the local precinet and his team on November 10, 2015. The hotel is equipped with 32 CCTV cameras covering the exterior and interior common areas of the hotel. In addition, the hotel has a security officer on-site every day from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM. who conduets roving exterior and interior vertical patrols. During the hours of 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, when the tragedy occurred, the hotel has fifteen (15) staff members working on-site performing various operational functions and from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM there are five (5) staff on-site. Prior to this incident there were no incidents at the hotel involving violence of any kind reported to DHS. According to video footage from the site, the alleged perpetrator was seen holding the five-month-old baby shortly before he entered the family’s hotel room, and then left four minutes later. ‘There was no indication on the video of a dispute that would have alerted security or other residents in the building of a problem. The DHS CARES incident report, the ease summary as completed by Project Hospitality, and several NYPD incident reports are attached. The NYPD investigation of the incident is ongoing. Your letter indicates that the State agency has information that the woman who was murdered should have been provided with a domestic violence placement. That is contrary to the information that we have and we would like to review whatever information you have on this matter. As you know, for many years, the DHS Temporary Housing Application and intake process at PATH has included specific questions related to domestic violence (DV). On the Intake Questionnaire clients are asked, “Ias domestic violence contributed to your housing crisis?” On the Housing History tab for each address entered clients are asked “Have you or anyone in your family experienced domestic violence at this, residence? Describe the domestic violence issue.” If during the application process a family reports any issues or concerns that even allude to family violence. they are 3referred by DHS to the on-site HRA No Violence Again (NoVA) program for a safe, in-depth DV assessment conducted by highly-trained MSWs. As part of the NoVA, assessment, the social workers ensure that referred families are aware of their options for DV services, including DV shelter placement. If afer this assessment the NoVA. social work staff deems the family eligible and in need. the family is assisted with ‘obtaining a DV shelter placement. The opportunity to be assessed for DV shelter placement is also available to DHS clients at any time, including afier placement in a DHS shelter. In this instance, when the vietim initially came to PATH intake in October 2014, she reported DV allegations against persons other than the alleged perpetrator. She completed the NoVA assessment and was found not NoVA eligible. Most recently, upon presentation and assessment at PATH on December 4. 2015, the vietim did not report or allude to a DV concer and, therefore, was placed in accordance with DHS procedures in DHS family shelter. As documented in one of the attached NYPD. reports, on February 9, the victim called the NYPD to report that she had an argument with her boy riend, the father of her youngest child and the alleged perpetrator, who pushed her and took her cell phone without her permission. There is no indication that DHS was aware of this incident. We have a shared goal to ensure that clients in need of DV services can access them. ‘We note that reconsideration of the State agency's denial of our FEPS plan modification to provide rental assistance to survivors of domestic violence would help prevent and alleviate homelessness for substantial numbers of survivors of domestic violence in New York City, We do not agree with the State ageney’s conclusion that survivors of domestic violence have not been constructively evieted from their homes when they flee to avoid serious injury or death, As you also know, we have requested that the State Office of Children and Family Services ( shelter beds and are awaiting approval of this request. These beds will allow us to provide more domestic violence survivors with necessary shelter and stability. We are hopeful that we will receive a positive response soon and appreciate any assistance you can provide with this request. Finally, as we have conveyed to the State agency in previous correspondence. most recently last week, approving the City’s plan to spend the $220 million committed in the State budget last year for use over four years is critically important to enable the City to move forward with preventing and alleviating homelessness. As you know, that plan to expend funds in the April 1, 2015 State budget was submitted months ago and \we are still awaiting authorization to spend the funds with less than two months left in the current fiscal year. These funds are urgently needed to continue thisAdiinistration’s efforts to re-build rental assistance in New York City after the de- funding of Advantage in the 2011 State budget. Please feel free to contact me at any time if'you need any further information. I look forward to discussing these issues with you further. Sincerely, ‘Steven Banks