Brooklyn, New York Human Services Committee Meetings, 2 Jun 2022

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From YouTube: CB14 Human Services Committee meeting (6-2-2022)

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DATE: Thursday, June 2, 2022
LOCATION: Online meeting, 6:30 PM
*View here or email info@cb14brooklyn.com to request WebEx link.

AGENDA
1. DSS Aged, Blind & Disabled program presentation – Audrey Diop, Managing Executive Director, Office of External Affairs/Citywide Health Insurance Access (OCHIA), NYC Department of Social Services (DSS)
2. Tenant & legal counseling services presentation – Brianna Soleyn, Community Organizer, IMPACCT Brooklyn
3. NYC Health + Hospitals - Coney Island Hospital presentation – Bridgette Ingraham-Roberts, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Public Affairs, NYC Health + Hospitals - Coney Island
4. Other business

A

Are the co-chairs of this committee um and tonight we have a very interesting program. We have three presentations, um the first by audrey diap and her supervisor, who is here, um that's dawn, shook. I got your name right.

B

Yes, but you got it backwards, she's, my supervisor. Oh I'm sorry.

A

I'm sorry executive director.

C

D

Okay, all right, so we have.

A

Audrey's, uh uh the supervisor and and uh uh dawn the uh her uh person who works under her so anyway, uh audrey is from the department of social services uh she's the managing executive director of the office of external affairs um and citywide health insurance access with an acronym o-c-h-I-a.

A

um So without further ado audrey uh the floor is yours.

A

If you're still with us, you're.

B

There are you, muted, audrey,.

A

E

I'm ready now I'm good. Thank you. The the powerpoint was hiding it. Thank you, joe for the introduction and thank you all for having us here today. We are very excited to share information um about how uh new yorkers, who are 65 and older living with a disability or visual impairment, access health insurance in new york.

E

So um I am going to uh reopen the presentation because of course I had to close it to unmute myself, so my apologies, um let's see, I was telling don that it's very easy to share during webex and that we should have no issues, and um here it is.

E

Let's see, oh my I had it so perfect when we joined here. It is. Thank you all right. So can um everyone see my screen.

A

See two happy couples.

E

Okay, wonderful, all right!

E

So what we are. This is not the full presentation. This is a shortened presentation. We would be happy um to come again, another time or folks would like uh the uh full presentation. We would be happy to present that. um So, as joe mentioned, we are from the human resources, administration, department of social services, we're dedicated to fighting poverty and income equality, and we serve over 3 million new yorkers with a variety of programs, including cash assistance, employment services, snap also known as food stamps, medical insurance, child support services, homelessness, prevention and services.

E

We also have additional um resources that people may not be aware of, like uh immigrant services and language access, id nyc services for people living with hiv or aids, home care services, adult protective services, domestic violence, emergency food, as well as home energy assistance program, both in winter and summer months.

E

Our office is the office of citywide health insurance access and we work to connect new yorkers to coverage and care, as well as to ensure that they know um how and um to get um connected to health insurance. All the work that we do is butchers by policy, research and analysis, and today we're going to focus on who are the age, um visually impaired or people with a disability.

E

So we're talking about people 65 years of age or older, certified blind by the new york state commission for the blind or certified disabled and the options available are medicaid, including institutional care in a nursing home medicaid buy-in for working people with disabilities, which is a wonderful program and very much underutilized.

E

Medicaid, excess income program, medicare and medicare savings program.

E

So for medicaid eligibility it is required that um people prove their residency identity, income resources as well as citizenship and immigration status. Because of the public health crisis, the other four um required documentations are on hold, but citizenship and immigration statutes is still required. During the during cobit, the income and resource eligibility is listed here. A single person um can make up to 934 a month and have uh up to 16 800 in um assets and when I say abscess that's assets that are um liquid able to be liquid liquefied.

E

um If you make more than these amounts, um it is possible to spend out your income and those folks who are able to spend down their income are people under 21.

E

people, age, 65 or older, certified, blind or disabled or apparent, or a pregnant person, or a parent of a child under age 21.. So, for example, as I mentioned in the previous slide, the medicaid limit is 9 34..

E

If your income, for example, is a thousand dollars, you would be 66 over the income limit and would be able to either pay hra the 66 or you can provide medical bills in that amount, and you would still be able to access medicaid. The most robust program that is available.

E

Most robust medicaid program that is available is called medicaid buy-in for working people with disability and it's for people aged 16 to 64. um a person, who's employed and receiving wages. It doesn't matter if it's a dollar or ten thousand dollars.

E

um They are certified disabled by hra, the state or the social security administration, and they can earn up to two thousand eight hundred and thirty two dollars a month, and you will notice that it's more than three times the regular medicaid level and they can also have resources up to twenty thousand dollars and, of course, a couple is listed um because of time.

E

um I will not go over each item. uh Medicare is available for people 65 and older. Some people with disabilities and people with end stage renal disease, medic medicare, original medicare, is um has three parts part a which is hospital insurance, part b, which is medical insurance and part d, which is for prescription drug coverage, um there's also available um people.

E

Can I either have original medicare or medicare advantage plans, which is part c, which rolls up all of those uh three parts into one, and it may also include extra like dental and vision, medicare eligibility.

E

uh You must be a us, citizen or legal permanent resident living in the u.s continuously for five years you can be 65 or an older or receiving social security. Disability income for two years, some exception people with little garricks disease or end-stage renal disease do not have to meet that requirement.

E

It's important to note that for most people, part a will be free when we retire. However, that is if you've met your 10 years of work history that is 40 quarters of work, so everyone who's had sufficient work. History will get part a for without cost. However, if you've worked less than 30 quarters, it will cost 4.99 a month for part a and if you work 30 to 39 quarters, it will be 274 dollars a month uh for part a, and that is for the whole time that you are enrolled in medicare.

E

Part b again is the uh medical portion. That is what you use when you see a doctor and that premium is determined by the salary two years prior to your retirement. So, for example, if you retired in this year your um income would they would use your 2020 income.

E

So a person with adjusted gross income of up to 91 000 um in 2020, their medicare part b, will be 170 a month and, as you can see from um the chart as the income increases, so does your monthly premium. um One thing I will say it's very important to enroll in medicare on time. That is three months prior to your 65th birthday, the month of your 65th birthday and three months after your 65th birthday.

E

If you do not enroll on time, you will receive a um 10 penalty every year that you do not enroll um in the years that you're eligible, and that is a permanent penalty. So it's very important to enroll in medicare um in your seven month initial enrollment period.

E

So there is help for some folks, depending on income to pay for the medicare costs that includes paying for medicare premiums depending on income of course, as well as paying for other medicare cost sharing expenses, because, as you may know, medicare does not cover all costs.

E

And so quimby is a qualified medicare beneficiary program and one may have an income of up to 10.74 a month and get that program and that program um helps pay for um uh medicare part b premiums as well as some deductibles, and um you can have both medicare uh medicare savings program, qualified medicare beneficiary program as well as medicaid. However, if you have um both programs, there is a resource test.

E

That means you have to meet the resource tests um I mentioned previously or if you just need these programs to help pay for medicare costs, um you can just enroll in those programs, I'm not going to talk about slim b and I specified low income medicare beneficiary program and I'll.

E

Tell you why in a moment, the last program is qi1, which is qualified individual and one can have an income up to a single person up to 1449 a month or a family of two 1960s, and the reason why I did not go over the slimbee program at is because, as of january of next year, it will no longer exist.

E

um People will be able to get quimby who were eligible for slim b because it had a higher income eligibility level. So what the new york state budget did um uh this that was passed. It um raised the medicaid income, eligibility for people 65 and over and people with disabilities.

E

So remember, I mentioned the 934 that will be raised to 1563., so a person um who was formerly eligible for medicaid at 9 34 this year that they will have a higher income eligibility next year. It also increased the resource limit that I mentioned, and it will again increase the income limit for the qualified medicare beneficiary program.

E

The key thing that is happening march, 1st, undocumented immigrants, age, 65 and over will be eligible for medicaid. They will be required to join a mainstream medicaid managed care health plan, but this is a new. um This is very new and it will be. It will reduce the um uninsured rate among undocumented older adults.

E

So this you know, enrolling in these programs can be complicated and because of that, the state realized that people need help to gain access um to medicaid, as well as the programs to help pay for medicare costs. So we um have been lucky to receive a grant through public health solutions to help people enroll free of charge, of course, and the number to call for that help is 347-396-4705.

E

During the pandemic, um enrollment services are provided telephonically, but hopefully, before the year's end, we'll be able to return to normal operations enrolling at senior sites um as well as community-based sites in um the five boroughs.

E

If you would like, as I mentioned, a more detailed presentation, you can um email, shauna or don, whose uh email addresses appear and, of course we will forward this presentation tomorrow.

E

So we would hope that you spread this information far and wide, and the last item that I will mention is the access hra, where people can um apply for snap apply for cash assistance um and it's called access hra. It's a web-based program, there's also the availability of fairfares, which is a reduced fare program for people under 65 and with the mobile app, which is available both through the app store as well as google play people can upload their documents, read notices and view case details, and that is my spiel.

E

um Thank you for your time and attention. We hope you find this information useful and we welcome the opportunity um to come back as well as to um you know. We would be welcome. Welcome the opportunity to also share this pro. This information um via your website is possible, as well as share our newsletter with you um that has relevant information for older adults.

A

E

Thank you. Thank you.

A

Very much uh you hit on what was going to be my question before I open it up to anybody else who wants to ask questions which is you know, can you have a way of helping people through this incredibly complex process? All of these programs? I I myself reasonably intelligent person.

A

I had to spend so much time figuring out the medicare maze when I turned 65, which was a few years ago, and I'm helping my wife who's reaching near that age. Hey great! Don't anybody repeat that okay and uh um so, and it's just so complicated the interactions.

A

I mean we're talking about helping people of limited means, but you know, if you have some means, you have to figure out how to uh use the the b and the d and the income, the whole income thing, and if you want supplemental plans and the and do the private d plans, it is incredible.

E

It's a lot. Okay, it's incredible! It is extremely complicated.

A

And then my wife, god bless and got a job with full benefits and then how to navigate the interaction of her insurance. With with my medicare, you know it's just it's very complicated and if you are not good at this stuff, it's it's just crazy. Do you have? I just have two things: do you have um do you have it? Do you do any interviews like zoom and stuff like that, for for people to it's just strictly by telephone now to help people.

E

um No, they are, they can do um interviews by via zoom or whatever I I won't say, zoom, because it could be um one.

A

Of these things, one.

E

Of one of the many right and so yeah, so there is the opportunity for that and with regard to medicare, which is um you know, we focus on medicaid, but there are organizations within the government. Excuse me, like kycap, who you know were authorized by cms to help explain medicare to folks, because it is it is I my my um area of expertise is for the past. 20 years has been under 65 and to learn 65 and older. I need another 20 years, because that's how complicated every month, I'm learning something new about medicare.

A

And the people I got on the phone weren't terribly good at explaining.

E

A

But this is, but let me just I want everybody else to be able to ask a question. I just want to ask one last thing you mentioned having community-based sites.

E

A

We have one you know in cb14, could we have a community site? Do.

E

We have um so there I mean it would depend on the scheduling and the availability, so the requirements of a site would be that they had a place to um lock up their material, so they wouldn't have to schlep it back and forth. um It would because of covid, um even if, let's say they go back to in person when they I'm not. If, when they go back to in-person enrollment, um you know just have like they have those barrier.

E

You know what I mean and um yeah, and that would really be it and some capacity to schedule appointments as opposed to having someone there. You know just sitting there hoping someone would come in. They would want like okay on tuesdays, I'm coming in, and I'm going to have appointments, seeing five helping four or five people enroll well,.

A

Maybe that's a job for our committee yeah.

F

And and joel we did sean campbell from the from the um district office. Here um there there are community-based organizations in the district that do provide the assistance, a high cap such as canba and and um um kojo and others. So we can try to uh amass a list um and add it to our resources. uh Residents.

E

In terms of free enrollment assistance, they have only certain organizations and that were that are authorized by the state to actually because we do it electronically we're not doing a paper enrollment we're filling out the application it's going directly to hra, so that is something that the state has funded. Okay, thank you.

A

Well, we'll look into that, but I wouldn't be surprised if canberra joanne has uh you know is authorized um so nina my co-chair. Do you have any questions? Yes,.

C

Your I actually had a question um the issue of having to enroll for medicare within a certain period of time, came up um and and was stated that, if that, if a person doesn't they would get penalized, so um I know that I know this is true for myself.

C

I'm still working and I'm still insured through my job, but I did enroll for the there was one I can never remember which letter stands for what, but the one that covers hospitalization. That's part, a part, a okay, so that one I did enroll in, but not the others but covered because.

E

You're still working and the and social security administration is aware that you're still working.

G

E

Yeah, so there's no penalty for you no penalty and that's it.

C

No penalty for you, I bet I just wanted to know how that yes, I hear things from other people and they say: oh no. No, if you're not medicare, now you're going to be yeah.

A

I I would add to that that you have to enroll in a as.

B

A

Of your private insurance that you have, because god forbid, you're hospitalized and you didn't your private insurer can say sorry you had you were supposed to enroll in a and you could get a big fat bill. So yeah.

F

You had uh dwayne joseph had his hand up and then uh horizon valente was uh was next.

A

H

Thank you so much. um Thank you, uh audrey for a wonderful presentation. um I'm actually curious about your services for uh people with disabilities.

H

um You mentioned that you'll administer a few services for them, as well as people that are of a certain age.

H

I guess my just for clarification. Does hra administer the section 8 services for people with disabilities and if, yes, um how do folks go about applying for it and then, as a secondary question, separate to that, do you guys do presentations for community-based organizations.

E

um So the first question no section 8 is through, I believe it's through nycha, so I'm not mistaken, and um so what we do with regard to the on house is to connect people to shelters. So that's what hra does, because we are now joined with the department of homeless services, so they're connected to us as an agency and with regard to presentations. We absolutely do go out into the community and do presentations at faith-based organizations community-based senior serving anyone who wants us libraries. Whoever wants us we're there.

H

And and how to to the latter, how do people connect with you all.

E

um So when don with, whom are you corresponding.

F

Anya I've been corresponding.

E

With andre okay, so um so our information will be sent and she can um absolutely send it out to everyone, and I is there, I don't I'm sorry, forgive me. I don't use webex as their chat function.

A

H

Bottom right, yeah.

E

Okay, there it is, and I'm going to send my email address, so you can also email me directly.

H

If I one quick thing, I noticed that you have id nyc, because hr is hre the city agency that um um has purview over ibmyc, just yes, okay,.

E

Thank you so much, and I and I'm sorry, I didn't mention id nyc, it's a wonderful program that provides discounts and free admissions to certain cultural institutions. I have my idnyc card, so you don't have to be undocumented to get idnyc. I encourage everyone to get a card.

E

Thank you for mentioning that cars.

A

On uh you have your hand up.

E

You are mute, I can't hear you.

A

You occurs on you you're on mute. Can you unmute yourself.

D

Poison's actually unmuted. um Do you have a microphone? Did you disappear? Oh there. It is no, no he's still here. Okay, just not hearing you! Sorry corzone. Can you put.

E

Your question in the chat.

A

Spend down you mentioned hra, but I wondered, are pool pooled income trust still an option.

E

Absolutely pooled income trusts our option. Thank you for the pointing that out. um So there are or hra doesn't, do full trust. There are organizations who do set up pools, trust for folks, and it is absolutely an option and, um as you may know, those are typically not irrevocable.

A

That's what would like a family do that or.

E

A

Would a family do that if you well.

E

I so no let's say I'm um uh 66 or however old and I um my income is high. Just like razon said, and I you know it's so high, it's maybe four or five hundred dollars over the medicaid limit. I can set up a pool trust to pay my rent to pay. Give me mo. You know, get my groceries so that reduces so that money I will never have access to it goes. The pool is in charge of it, and so that reduces my income and makes me then eligible for medicaid.

E

So I can set that up. A child can set that up for their parent. As you know, a spouse, can you know it depends if the person is able to set it up themselves, if they're, you know still able to do so.

A

Very good, audrey and dawn. Thank you very, very, very much. It was uh extremely interesting and uh we will report your presentation to our board and uh sean will post your your presentation to the uh to our website.

E

Wonderful, and also I mean if, if it's possible, if there's a resource um area of your website, if we could have our website, um which is nyc.gov, hi link, which has everything you ever wanted to know about health insurance, and we also have videos that we've produced um about medicaid excess income as well as about medicaid in general. So.

A

Anya sean can we do that sean said? Yes,.

E

Thank you so much for your time and attention. I.

A

E

All a wonderful summer, and if we can be of any help, please you have dawn's uh shawna's as well as um my email address and we're here to help.

A

Okay, can we visit you where all these trees are that are behind you.

E

Well, actually, I wish you could, except that it's a virtual space.

A

F

At the beach, though, you're welcome to come anytime, yeah.

E

Dawn is at the beach you can go, you can go there.

E

I'm sorry that was such a long process.

A

No, no! No! That was very fine. So do we have bridgette here?

A

Yes, we do. Yes, I'm here. Oh no, I'm sorry brianna brianna's! Next, okay,.

G

A

Brianna is next and uh you're you're in my world here, tenant in legal counseling services, presentation.

G

A

G

Oh, are you a lawyer.

A

And did did landlord tenant law offer indigen tenants, many many many years ago. Oh yes, it's you know it's a whole new world, but that's all yeah.

G

That was another life.

A

G

This is my first time sharing my screen: okay with webex, oh.

A

D

The button should be right down on the bottom there's a menu.

G

Yeah I see I have to open up system preferences too.

D

G

C

Let's select your screen.

G

uh Hello, the apps, it's not letting me click the apps click the lock to make changes. Okay, sorry, okay! I got it.

G

Oh, I have to quit and reopen.

G

Okay, let's see if it works now.

G

It's not letting me share my screen unless I quit the app and reopen um so I think I'll, instead of showing the pres the slides I'll just dictate them to you or we.

D

Could swap uh joel sorry to jump in this lasagna if you wanted to swap presentations, that would be an option too. Since bridgette is here.

A

Yeah we can move on to a certain we'll come back to you.

G

I

Okay, happy to do so all right. Let me just share my screen. One second.

A

So nina this is your uh uh uh area. Maybe uh you should do the introduction here.

C

Okay, thank you. um Yeah wow. I've been really looking forward to this presentation. Miss ingrams, um because this is new york, city, health and hospitals, specifically coney island hospital, which is straight down ocean parkway from uh where most of us live, and I understand that there are big changes going on there. So take it away and tell us all about it.

I

Sure can you hear me? Yes, yes, okay, perfect good afternoon or good evening. Rather everyone. My name is roberts. I am the senior director for new york, city, health and hospitals, coney island, and, as was mentioned, I would love to bring the community board up to speed on all the exciting news and happenings of coney island hospital.

I

So this first slide um shows a rendering of what will be the new entrance in 2023 for what will be new york city, health and hospitals, south brooklyn health. So that will be the name of the campus and the new 11-story uh hospital. That's being built on the corner of avenue, z and ocean parkway, which was funded through fema, will be called the ruth bader ginsburg hospital.

A

I

So here is um another slide, so many of you may be familiar with this saying, but the best way to predict the future is to create it and that's exactly what we're doing another model that we've adopted. Is it's not just about a building, a new building? It's about building a new future together.

I

So just here's uh some background, so coney island hospital's catchment area has approximately 875 000 lives, so that's close to 900 000 new yorkers who live in our catchment area, which includes racially and ethnically diverse communities in south brooklyn.

I

As I mentioned, we continue to build a brand new 11 story, inpatient hospital, which is due to open in the fall and develop plans to invest in ambulatory care. We have a unique opportunity to rebrand and reposition the facility.

I

We want to become the healthcare provider of choice for patients and residents of south brooklyn and beyond. In july, 2021. The new york city, health and hospitals board of directors approved the renaming of our hospital campus as new york, city, health and hospitals, south brooklyn health and our new in-patient hospital as the ruth bader ginsburg hospital.

I

The new, the name south brooklyn health, allows us to proudly acknowledge our closest neighbors and welcome, through our doors, the broader communities for whom we provide care and ultimately hope to serve naming our new inpatient hospital. After the late u.s supreme court, justice is in keeping with health and hospitals vision to be a fully integrated, equitable health system that enables all new yorkers to live, their healthiest lives, justice ginsburg stood for truth, equality and justice, and she gave voice to the voiceless.

I

Her example will challenge us to ensure that the new south brooklyn health and its ruth bader ginsburg hospital will be the healthcare provider of choice for all people from all communities and backgrounds. In the south brooklyn area, the health and wellness institute, which is currently the main building, will remain the location of our ambulatory care services.

I

The name changes, as I mentioned, will become effective in the fall of 2022 when the new hospital building officially opens the campus transition is a multi-year process. There will be something for everyone, so what's in the ruth bader ginsburg hospital, the hospital actually consists of two buildings. As I mentioned, there is a new structure. That's been built through fema funding that will be called the ginsburg building or the g building.

I

It will include a new and expanded emergency department which will be twice the size of our current emergency department, state of the art, surgical and endoscopy suites, inpatient dialysis, inpatient, pharmacy, 80, private med, surg beds, currently uh in the main building where we have our inpatient unit. Some of our new rooms are four bedded units. So now we will be going to 80 private med, surg beds, 60 behavioral health beds, radiology labs and a visitor parking in the tower building, which will not be known as the t building we will have.

I

We will have the remaining 129 med, surg beds, 32 intensive care beds are mother, baby services, including labor delivery and postpartum, and a special care nursery.

I

As I mentioned, the main building will be called the health and wellness institute. We are in the process of conducting a comprehensive master plan for the main building over the course of the next three years below the highlights of the first phase of work. Currently in planning phases for 2023, we will renovate 26 000 square feet of first floor space, which will provide over 50 exam rooms to be used for primary care, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease among other specialties.

I

We were very fortunate to receive 17 million dollars in funding from the mayor former council member mark, traeger and former, and now current mayor, eric adams, uh so the 17 million dollars will go towards renovating this space, which is our current ed and, as I mentioned, the ed will be moving into the new building. We.

D

I

Create a comprehensive dental practice on the fifth floor, we will develop outpatient, radiology with installation of a new ct scanner and renovated ultrasound unit. On the fifth floor, again, we will construct new space to re, relocate, outpatient, behavioral health services from our habit, pavilion on the second and fourth floor to the third floor of the future health and wellness institute.

I

The next phase of work for master planning will include additional outpatient relocations and improvements, staff, space, administrative offices, educational space and employee wellness space, additional information uh that we have shared with our employees. Many have asked about parking parking is a premium on the campus and in the neighborhood, so we will retain at the off-site lot on campus. We will have a new garage with first floor of the new building accessible from avenue z. This will be in addition to the existing parking options currently available.

I

The new garage will include electric charging station, as well as scooter and bike parking steps are being taken to demolish our hammock pavilion to remain in compliance with all city regulations. You should know that, as I mentioned, we will have a brand new hospital entrance on ocean parkway in 2023.

I

That entrance will be, it will be made available once the hammock pavilion comes down. Each department now will move into the ruth bader. Ginsburg hospital has submitted their future workflows to the campus transition executive committee and we are in the process of training and orienting our staff uh to uh so that they are acclimated to the acclimated to the new building and all the clinical processes staff has expressed an interest in having an on-site gym, yoga studio and a community space to eat.

I

These amenities will be taken into consideration as we continue to develop the master plan for the main building. We are, as I mentioned, conducting comprehensive. We are in the process of developing comprehensive training plans uh for general orientation department, specific training and cross departmental training.

I

So this is just another look at the campus transition, so over here, as I mentioned currently coney island hospital, which is an inpatient and outpatient facility, will become new york, city, health and hospitals, south brooklyn health, the new 11 story, building the g building and the tower building the t building both buildings will become the ruth bader ginsburg hospital and the main outpatient building will become the health and wellness institute.

I

Here is a map here so again, this blue building here this is the ruth bader ginsburg hospital. This is the new 11 story structure, that's being built. This is a tower building. This will be the entrance to the building and this will be the entire building over here. This is the main this is. This is currently the main building. This will become our health and wellness institute and folks and patients will continue to enter here on ocean parkway, which is currently known as our outpatient department.

I

Here we have parking for our employees alongside shore parkway. There is also another entrance here for our employees, so this is a pictorial of what the campus will look like going forward.

I

So, in terms of departments, that's relocating currently to the ginsburg uh building currently departments. We will um on the first floor uh the uh will be a lobby and a parking garage. As I mentioned, our emergency department will relocate to the second floor of the ginsburg building. Our radiology central, sterile lab and inpatient pharmacy will be on the third floor of the ruth bader ginsburg hospital in patient dialysis, periop services and endoscopy will be on the fourth floor. On the fifth floor is our mechanical floor, which we, we elevated the mechanical floors.

I

So in the event that we were to have another storm like sandy, that it will be protected and we would not suffer the outages that we did in 2012..

I

As I mentioned, we have 80 med, surg beds, they're on floor six, seven and eight half of nine and nine will also contain our behavioral health beds, as well as the 10th floor.

I

This is a schematic of the the building transition, so here that's this is the future health and wellness institute. Everything highlighted in yellow are the departments that's moving to the ruth bader ginsburg hospital. As I mentioned, we have the t. Building we have the g building. These two buildings will be known as the ruth bader ginsburg hospital staff will be able to transition from uh from building to building on the first floor here. As you can see, they will also be able to transition on the second floor.

I

As you can see, and then there are elevators and stairs to help folks transition from floors three through ten in the ruth bader ginsburg hospital. So these uh purple boxes here indicate direct connection amongst all three buildings.

I

These are elevators that I just showed you here, and these are, as I mentioned, the departments that are relocating in yellow.

I

So this is a three-year transition timeline from june 2021 through october of this year, is known as phase one, which is the rbg opening we're basically looking at operational readiness, move, planning, training and orientation, campus renaming and rebranding occupy and evaluate, and the hammett demolition phase, two, which is january 2023 through june of 2023, is phase two conversion of our former emergency department into ambulatory care. As I mentioned, we received 17 million dollars to do so rate, we'll have a focus on radiology, dental, labor and delivery and opening of our new rbg entrance.

I

And then, in year, three june 2023 through june 2024 phase, three of our master planning we'll have an ambulatory redesign staff, support and wellness education and research, administrative offices, digital signage and wayfinding.

I

This is another way of showing the timeline, as I mentioned. 2021 through through 2022, is an operational renegade readiness we're currently in. uh We did our move planning we're currently in training and orientation through september, and then we will occupy and evaluate the building, and that phase is late july through october.

I

So we expect to have our temporary certificate of occupancy on july 19th. What this mean is that the construction company turner will now turn over the building to coney, island hospital and say this is now your building, so you have to get it ready for occupancy by the patients.

I

We expect to have our doh um inspection in on august 17th. These. These dates, you should know, are um our approximate dates, um and so, as we get closer to the date, uh we will see if we can actually stick to the july 19th and august 17th and, as I mentioned, anticipated moves late september through early october and when I say anticipated moves meaning for our patients to go into the new ruth bader ginsburg hospital.

I

A lot of this I've already shared with you. This is a lot more detail than you probably need to know again. These are the different phases of us getting ready to move into the hospital, and so our priorities for 2022, we will finalize critical workflows for our clinical departments, begin building, readiness activities to prepare for the doh survey and occupancy patient and department move planning, determine timeliness and sequencing, develop and implement training and orientation plans and launch our rebranding campaign.

I

And that concludes my presentation.

I

Are there any questions.

A

Just like to say it's very, it's very exciting. You know it's going to be.

I

Yes, it is absolutely great.

A

A great resource for for brooklyn.

I

Yes, thank you very much.

A

And it was very moving that it's going to be uh named after ruth ginsberg.

I

Yes, absolutely.

A

Go ahead and I'm sorry.

C

I just I just wanted to kind of wow: um it's amazing. What's being done there, um I'm, among other things, I'm a professor of nursing and have worked in uh with my students in a number of um hhc hospitals, and if you want to get your um pedometer out and get your. However many foot footsteps.

C

They recommend every day uh yeah because they're they're, all just so there's just so much going on, and um so I'm really excited about this and who knows maybe I'll get to bring some of my students there for their clinical rotations.

I

Absolutely we would, we would welcome you and I just left my information in the chat, so please feel free to email me. Oh.

C

Wonderful, thank you.

I

Any additional questions I.

A

F

Not seen any additional hands up, it was a very thorough presentation.

I

Wonderful, okay, so um I'm actually at a conference now. So if there aren't any questions, I'm going to actually close out of the meeting, and as I mentioned, I left my email address in the chat. So please feel free to reach out to me. If you think of anything once I um once I leave the meeting.

A

Thank you so much bridget.

I

Okay, you're welcome have a good evening. Everyone thank you, take care.

A

So brianna, you think we got it together. Now.

G

uh Yes, okay, let's see if I can share now, okay, it looks like it's working.

A

F

Okay, thank you for your patience with that brianna information. No, thank you for.

G

Your patience yep, so could you give me one? Second, I have to. ah We see it you're on oh great, okay, I just how do you pronounce your last name? Oh, my last name is sullen. So, okay.

C

We're ready whenever you are.

F

Let's give her one second, she said she had to grab something.

F

G

Thanks, I just had to put my cat in the other room so um today I'll be presenting to you about what we do at impact brooklyn. So no specific topic, like the other presenters, just the work that we do and maybe how we can fit in with the other organizations that you guys work with see.

G

um Okay, so can we uh impact brooklyn is uh housing development org. We are located in central brooklyn um kind of the in bed-stuy on the border of bedside crown heights and we operate in central brooklyn. So the areas of fort greene clinton, hill, bedside crown heights flatbush and prospect heights.

G

We've been a community development corporation since around the 70s to try to address urban flight and we're still around so some of the services we provide include homeowner services. So that means foreclosure prevention services.

G

Assistance with tax liens people are having trouble playing municipal debt, um first-time homebuyer workshops, um including you know, things that you need to have together. Financial readiness workshops counseling for debt management.

G

We also work with small business assistants, especially small businesses, that are being priced out in our area because of gentrification. So that means leases, marketing and loan applications we develop. New housing builds um and we renovate old developments.

G

We have um on-site housing, on-site, social support, housing, good mansion- I don't know the address off the top of my head, but that's also in bed stuy.

G

So there there's hot meals, on-site counseling, help navigating health care and government benefits, and we have financial literacy, counseling, one-on-one, credit, counseling, personal debt management and we do presentations to organizations about personal finance um and I'm with the community organizing department, so I'll be talking a little bit about what we do um in our department, um we're located on 1124 fulton street and we do have walk-ins.

G

um But it's better to schedule. An appointment with us. um So part of what we do um is to address something called: predatory equity. It's when a landlord acquires a building, specifically a rent, stabilized building and takes on more debt than the income that the building generates indicates it's worth. So that's a a sign that a landlord is planning on harassing and displacing tenants. So it's been an issue since the early 2000s, um when housing and community groups identified identified, predatory equity and started organizing around it.

G

So we work with in a coalition called stabilizing nyc and we identify landlords that are that seem like that. They might be displacing their tenants and we do targeted outreach to those buildings.

G

We try to form tenant associations, we produce reports and do outreach to council members to increase funding for our work.

G

We also worked with tenants um one-on-one to inform them of their rights and to help them with issues that they might be having um issues getting repairs from their landlord, if they're being harassed by their landlord um they're having issues with their lease if they think they might be evicted, we um walk them through subsidy that they can take. We also have bi-weekly, I'm sorry, bi-monthly legal clinics with brooklyn legal services and take root justice.

G

If someone needs to speak to a lawyer, we guide people through housing court cases through filing hp actions, if someone's elderly or um has trouble with english, we attend court with them to help them through the process.

G

um We also help people fill out um dhcr, rent reduction forms if their landlord is persistently not keeping up with building building repairs or cleaning the building. Things like that.

A

Just I'll interrupt you for a second just so people know hp actions means the tenant goes to court to force. Affirmatively goes to court to get the landlord to do repairs, in other words, doesn't wait till they get sued for for non-payment.

G

A

Themselves, go.

G

Housing part action thanks for explaining that.

G

And a big part of what we do um is outreach to um local community events, to kind of get our name out there and go to people where they are. um If they need support, we do workshops on um tenants rights, so tenants rights around eviction, hp actions, re-certification for section eight tenants.

G

uh We did a lot during the pandemic about e-wrap and kind of what was happening with the eviction moratorium.

G

um We also formed tenant associations for tenants who want to act as a unit to address landlords persistently, not making repairs.

G

We also do leadership workshops for tenants who want to organize their own building to give them support on.

G

You know how to do it, um setting up an agenda setting up meetings and then connecting them with sitting in statewide um tenant actions and coalitions.

G

So this is my information I'll put my email and my phone number in the chat. If anyone knows someone who needs to reach out to us or could use one of the workshops that I mentioned.

A

Thank you brianna. I I just have one question. You know a few years ago the state legislature passed the law. Apartments can't be destabilized anymore. There used to be various ways that landlords could decentralize.

C

A

The apartment can, is the rent-stabilized department can't be destabilized here, it's for the moment. It's permanently stabilized and also the city uh passed law providing free counsel to all tenants in in housing. Am I am I correct about that?.

G

um If tenants are taken to court by their landlord, um you have a right to a lawyer. It used to be that you had to make under 200 of the federal poverty line, and it was only in specific, zip codes. Since the pandemic that's been lifted. Everyone has a right to a lawyer, um but since the eviction moratorium was lifted, lawyers are slammed it's very hard to get a a lawyer appointed to you, as I'm sure you know. um Did you have another question? I.

A

Was going to say, I was going to ask uh uh uh whether the combination of apartments not being able to destabilize and which you know was an incentive for like he talked about how landlords would would it would burn themselves with debt and with the goal of getting tenants out so perhaps to destabilize to uh destabilize, and whether the combination of that and the right to counsel is that reduced at all harassment like, in other words the landlord can't do much. So I was just curious whether.

G

The 2019 um housing stabilization tent protection laws came before my time, so I can't personally speak to that um to how that's affected tenant harassment, but tenants are still being harassed and they were especially being harassed.

G

um While the eviction moratorium was in place um to you know, try and try and get them to leave a different way. Attendance tenants are still being harassed even now, um and apartments can still be um deregulated.

G

It's just a lot harder than it used to be, and there's less of an incentive for attendance up for landlords to harass a tenant to leave because there's no longer a vacancy bonus in which they can raise the rent 20 after a tenant turnover, um but we still see harassment and deregulation. Unfortunately, but that comes after years of organizing for things like right to counsel and uh hstpa.

G

Any more questions does.

A

Anybody have any questions for brianna.

C

I answered a question. um I don't know if I'm interrupting someone well.

F

I was just going to say, dwayne's hand, go up and then back down, but go ahead nina and then dwayne can chime in when you're done. If he still does.

C

So um I actually have there are two parts of my question and and in one I guess, I'm I'm going to be playing a little bit devil's advocate, but um how much of of these kinds of regulations um are in effect, when you're talking about, um say um a two-family house, two or maybe three family, but smaller, um smaller dwellings? Where say, the landlord may live in part of the house and rent out part. That kind of thing.

G

No, the these laws only target um rent stabilized units, largely um there are some there's some uh parts of that law. That joel was talking about that target all tenants. um But those are things like no like. You need to notify a tenant far enough ahead in advance that you're not gonna, renew the lease or raise their rent for a certain amount, but um largely they target rent uh stabilized buildings and those are more than six units and our income generating yeah.

A

G

A lot of your mortgage.

A

I forget what the name of the law was, it was 2019. Is it.

G

Housing stabilization tenant protection act, yeah.

G

A

It did affect private small owners. It did in terms of your relationship with your with your tenants. It did.

B

You know in terms of.

A

Notices that you have to provide in various circumstances um those two things I just said yeah so.

C

So I guess here's the other part of my question and we all know that costs on everything are skyrocketing costs on materials costs. For you know, oil, gas, um other kinds of things. So um you know, I suppose, if you, you know, if you're um a conglomerate. One of these, you know really, you know mega landlords. um They made money during the.

G

Pandemic pardon who.

C

G

During the pandemic, they made.

C

Money yeah, absolutely, let's say some of the smaller landlords who maybe own a six or eight dwelling unit. um What you know, how do they get protected? I mean if somebody comes in and they are paying whatever the rent they paid for the last you know, 25 years I mean at a certain point it it it could become untenable.

G

I understand what you're saying, um but well, those landlords still largely get increases every year. The rent guidelines board is increasing the rent for rent stabilized tenants, and I mean they are small landlords, but they largely aren't struggling. I mean they're still property owning and you know make they. They have apartment buildings. It's like do we prioritize largely the tenants or like the few landlords out there.

F

Just just to flesh that out a little bit, I mean the rent guidelines board the reviews, um um the rate at which rent stabilized rents can go up and the cost of operations is taken into consideration. There's a whole algorithm so that it stays as objective as possible.

F

Balancing pressures on the economy, um unemployment rates and that sort of thing with with the um operations cost of running a building, um and nobody ever thinks it's fair landlords thinks it didn't, go up enough and tenants think it went up too much, which is probably a sign that they they hit it pretty spot on. um But but and we could, you know I can put in a link to rent guidelines board for that whole process, but they, those rents, are increasing on an annual basis in the six six um six and up unit buildings.

F

A

Know I would ask my colleague glenn wallin who's there, who's.

G

A

uh You know my again, I I represented indigent tenants on behalf of legal aid when I was younger, um but my take was during the pandemic. Small owners took around the gym. They really did because tenants were.

A

We wanted to keep tenants in their apartments and if they didn't pay rent, it was too bad for the landlord, um and you know I I just thought that they didn't get enough relief. In my in my opinion- and I- and this is my question to glenn mice, if I had a bet the the value of rent stabilized buildings, small buildings would have gone down. Am I correct about that? Do you know.

B

A

B

It's always a multiple of the gross rent. Roll is as the basis of the value okay and then there's a secondary number. That's applied to that, based on the condition of the building and the neighborhood and so forth.

B

But it is true that if you have a building with 20 or 30 or 130 apartments- and one of them is not performing it's a very small percentage of your income and therefore doesn't affect you very much. If you have six or seven apartments, and one of them is not performing, it can create some very serious problems as long as all your tenants are paying rent.

B

The increases that come through, as was stated, are never enough, but they are enough. Most people have long-term fixed rate mortgages, so that is the biggest expense that they tend to have, which is not going up on an annual basis. So the small increase to the rents only has to cover the increases in gas, electric, water and so forth, and it almost always does as long as everything else is running smoothly, but those small landlords, one little thing goes wrong and they can be in serious trouble there you go. Thank you. Thank.

A

G

A

F

Hand is still up.

A

F

A

Wayne, yes, sir.

H

Thank you again, um and I was I love uh when glenn talks housing because, uh yes, he puts it in a way that just makes sense for everybody. um uh Thank you, uh brianna for your presentation tonight. um I was curious uh to know uh one of the big challenges around the city. Right now are people uh not having access to regular units? Specifically, I'm talking about people with uh housing vouchers does.

G

Having access to rentals.

H

Or having a difficult time accessing rental units, when you have a housing voucher, does impact uh at all offer any kind of training program um for individuals who have housing launches on how to navigate.

G

H

With landmarks.

G

We've been talking about that um yeah source of income. Discrimination is a huge issue um in the city I mean all over the country, but in the city, um specifically, we've been talking about doing a training program on how to find a section 8 uh apartment. I have to speak to my co-worker, but I think he's given a few of those and there's an organization further in bedside.

G

Then I think neighbors together. They specifically work on that issue, um organizing around source of income discrimination and also working with tenants to find an apartment if they have a housing, voucher or also exposing landlords that are discriminating against tenants with a voucher.

G

um So if you know anyone in that position, um you should reach out to them neighbors, together and I'll put their information in the chat.

H

Yeah, thank you. I'm familiar with the neighbors together, I've actually gotten trained. I've actually done their training and it's helped me um house help house quite a number like in the last four or five years, almost 20 people.

G

H

Was curious, the only one right now that I know that in brooklyn, um so I was curious whether or not impact brooklyn was taking the steps to start maybe doing those trainings. But thank.

G

You we haven't done that, but yeah, I think that's something we should start doing all.

H

Right. Thank you.

A

B

Yes, thank you, uh since you brought up section eight, I'm wondering um if things have changed since I've been to section eight ten, eight years later and the problem back, then um I my first building a three-family building.

B

I accepted a section, a tenant and it took a very long time before I started getting paid and if I had 100 units it wouldn't really matter, but with three units it was devastating now, in the end, they gave me all the money that was over, but in the meantime, my wife and I were only allowed about three grams of rice, a meal.

B

You know slight exaggeration, but I'm wondering have they gotten better at getting the rent payments out quickly when someone first gets in.

G

You know, honestly, I can't I can't answer that question, because we mainly work on the tenant side of things. It's not something I would know, I'm not sure.

A

um um Brianna, I just want to say thank you for all you do. It's very important work, it's very important work and uh we you'll send your uh presentation to uh you're still here to to any and sean and we'll post it on the on the uh um our website for cb14.

A

And if you you know, you want to give a link uh on our website. You know or or I'm not. I don't want to speak for sean and anya, but they'll help you make your services uh uh um accessible for people in our community. So if you want to uh provide that to us, yeah.

F

Brianna we'll stay in touch and we'll keep you we'll loop, you into our events, such as our non-profit roundtable, where we network all of our cbo's um that serve the community and I'm happy to provide you any information on street events happening in the community.

F

If you do tableage in that sort of thing, so definitely let's, let's keep the conversation going. We really appreciate you being here and all your work yeah. Thank you so much.

G

Thank you thank.

F

C

Excellent presentation.

A

B

A

Any additional matters to be discussed by the committee of human services.

F

Don't see, glenn was your hand up from before.

B

Yes, sorry, I forgot to take it.

F

Down no problem, no problem, and your question was interesting, I'll see if I can um reach out to uh old contacts at nycha and see if uh get you an answer from um from them. um The only thing I would like to announce is regarding not this committee, but another committee. Please note that the transportation committee that was scheduled for monday, the 6th, is actually now going to be on wednesday, the 8th because I overlooked the holiday, so anybody observe observing chavus this coming weekend.

F

um You know have a good observation of the holiday and sorry for that oops on my part, um but and join us on wednesday uh for the transportation committee meeting ahead of the board meeting dwayne's hand is up yes, sir.

H

Just one thing that I just wanted to mention uh that the committee might want to um take interest in um uh at my job by working on a project with the department of uh mental health of health and mental hygiene. It's called the mural arts project. It's a project that brings large murals to communities to help combat the stigma of persons living with mental illness.

H

We're about to put up a 70 foot high. I think 30 foot wide mural in east harlem, and it's it's amazing, um and I I was thinking about it today.

H

um You know we are a fan of art and culture in cb14 and I thought um and I'd be happy to share the contact uh with the with the board. But I thought that uh maybe we might you might consider uh bringing the mural arts project into present about what the work they do, and um maybe we can find someone a non-profit in our community that might lobby to want to be the next um partner for the project and maybe bring something to cb14.

C

Excellent yeah.

H

I'll put a link in to the project another project my group is working on, but the overall project uh in the chat for you guys.

A

uh I got a motion to adjourn nina. Did you have you have your hand up? Did you want us? Oh.

C

I just wanted to very very quickly say um I was on the cb9 uh transportation committee meeting last night and I I did actually send an email to sean about this, but the accessorized people gave a presentation, and something that I learned, which I had no idea about, is that people who are uh experiencing a temporary setback, such as a hip replacement, knee replacement, something of that sort um are eligible for accessories.

C

Based on that, so I just wanted to share that and I'm hoping that we will get them at some time in the future, so they can give us the full presentation, because it was quite quite um interesting. Thank you and I'm going to move that we close the meeting. If no one has anything somebody.

A

Second seconded all right, all right gang all right, see you the next time. Thank.

C

You everybody. Thank you hey good evening. Thank.

A

C

Everyone for joining us.