City Council Grills HRA
Advocates tell De Blasio to stand up for AIDS housing
AIDS advocates packed the City Council General Welfare Committee hearing Monday, holding up signs reading “De Blasio: Stand Up Against the Mayor’s AIDS Cuts.” Committee Chair Bill De Blasio and his colleagues on the City Council heeded the advocates’ words, grilling the Human Resources Administration for a good half hour about cuts to case management for people living in Scatter Site housing.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2010 budget proposes eliminating Scatter Site 2 (SS 2) housing and proposes $3.8 million in case management cutbacks in Scatter Site I (SS 1) programs. According to testimony by HRA Commissioner Robert Doar, “due to the redundancy of services provided by HASA case managers and contracted case managers we have decided that we needed to decrease the level of staffing within our supportive housing case management contracts.”
Advocates from Housing Works, Harlem United, New York City AIDS Housing Network and the Supportive Housing Network of New York all testified, arguing that Scatter Site 2 case managers provide a different role than HASA case managers, who primarily serve as benefit managers. “You can reach on-site case managers in the middle of the night, whereas HASA case managers are only available 9 to 5,” said Housing Works Director of Policy and Organizing Kristin Goodwin, who submitted testimony.
Doar and HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) Deputy Commissioner Matt Brune said during testimony that Scatter Site case managers and HASA case managers are both “social service case managers” that perform similar job functions, but that HASA case managers have more stringent job requirements and require a college degree and additional certification.
Although the training level of HASA case managers wasn’t questioned, both advocates and council members were skeptical that the HASA case managers could fill the same role as community-based managers.
“These are people who need a lot of support,” Council Member Gail Brewer said.
““This isn’t a garden-variety cut,” De Blasio said, “We all know when we cut services, there are more cuts in the long run.”
Other funding options
City Council members asked HRA if it can look into other funds to supplement the proposed cuts, which are minor in the scheme of the city’s total budget.
“I don’t think you’ve exhausted all the options,” said Council Member Robert Jackson, who suggested HRA look into funding for the Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS (HOPWA).
The city has extra HOPWA funding available that can be used to restore HASA cuts. However, because HRA oversees HASA, and the Department of Health oversees the federal HOPWA dollars, it’s a challenge to get the branches to communicate.
“Would you commit to look for money in the stimulus funds?” De Blasio asked Doar. Doar said he already had looked, but will “look at it again.”
A spokesperson for HRA said that the federal Medicaid stimulus money is “already in the City budget for its intended purpose to stabilize local government in this financially difficult time and is not available for this purpose.”
A spokesperson for the State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance didn’t return a call by deadline regarding whether the State will fund Scatter Site case management with stimulus dollars.
In response to another De Blasio question, Doar promised to “immediately change course” if the changes adversely affect people.
A complicated, flawed system
Both Scatter Site programs are funded by the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA). SS 1 programs are supportive housing where the rent is paid directly by the provider. SS 2 programs are maintained by community-based organizations. In SS 2 housing individual apartment leases are in the names of HASA clients, who eventually transition into independent living.
SS 2 housing was developed by the city in 2001 and was envisioned as a joint city/state program, in April 2007, after a lengthy audit the state issued a ruling that it would no longer pay for the case management in SS 2. For a year the city funded it entirely out of its own pockets, but when cut time came, they decided to eliminate the program completely.
The elimination of the SS 2 was not bemoaned since the program itself was flawed, with clients often going into arrears, and providers unable to reach the standards HASA has set. While no one wants SS 2 brought back, many HASA clients benefit from case management that shouldn’t be lost. HASA case managers’ chief priority is acting as welfare benefit counselors, while Scatter Site case managers are often on-site and play the role of psychosocial case managers. And the 600 units of supportive housing are no longer on the market.
“I assumed one day they would eliminate the program, but I figured they would replace it with something else,” AIDS Center of Queens County Housing Director Kevin Blank told the Update.
Posted on March 27, 2009 at 12:59 am
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