►
Description
Meeting of Council's Committee of the Whole to hear testimony on the following bills/resolutions: Bill Nos. 160170, 160171, and 160172 & Resolution No. 160180 regarding the FY2017 Capital Budget.
Testimony from:
Liz Hersh, Director of the Office of Supportive Housing
http://phlcouncil.com/FY17-council-budget-center
A
A
A
A
B
You
good
afternoon,
council
president
Clark
and
members
of
City
Council
or
member
of
City
Council.
My
name
is
Liz
Hirsch
I'm,
the
director
of
the
office
of
supportive
housing
joining
me
today
are
joy,
pressin,
chief
of
staff
and
rodney
cherry
Fiscal
Officer
for
oh
Sh,
I'm
pleased
to
provide
testimony
on
the
oh
Sh
fiscal
year.
Twenty
seventeen
operating
budget
and
I
want
to
note
that
today
is
my
two
month
anniversary
in
this
job.
Well,.
A
B
B
Admission
of
the
office
of
oh
I
wanted
to
say
that
that
are
the
oh
Sh
staff
and
clients
and
providers
are
deeply
appreciative
of
the
precious
public
funds
that
are
made
available
to
us
entrusted
to
us
to
carry
out
this
important
work.
We
don't
take
this
for
granted.
Thank
you
very
much.
The
mission
of
the
office
of
supportive
housing
is
to
provide
the
leadership,
coordination,
planning
and
mobilization
of
resources
to
make
homelessness.
Rare
brief
and
non-recurring.
B
The
homeless
system
is
comprised
of
63,
mostly
not-for-profit
providers,
city,
state
and
federal
entities
that
together
provide
emergency
housing
and
services
to
people
who
are
both
literally
homeless
and
at
imminent
risk
of
being
homeless.
In
addition,
oh
Sh
provides
emergency
response
and
service
days
which
are
clean
up
of
encampments,
manages
food
and
commodity
distribution
to
contracted,
shelters
and
soup.
Kitchens
and
office
offers
services
to
people
when
licensed
inspections,
issues
a
cease
operations
and
we
also
run
a
personal
care
home
called
liver
view,
which
is
up
near
greater
foot.
B
Ferb
prison
prison,
oh
Sh,
is
budget
request
for
FY
17
is
93
million,
five
hundred
and
nine
thousand
nine
hundred
and
twenty
three
dollars.
This
represents
an
increase
of
three
hundred
and
thirty-five
thousand
two
hundred
and
eighty-nine
dollars
to
cover
three
new
positions
for
our
homeless
management
information
service
and
a
to
the
two
point
five
percent
raise
for
both
dc47
and
non
represented
employees.
Oh
Sh
has
some
notable
successes
to
report
for
fy16
we
reached
functional
zero
on
veterans,
homelessness,
an
accomplishment
we
are
now
working
to
sustain.
B
No
families
were
found
living
on
the
street
I.
Don't
think
that
should
be
an
accomplishment,
but
it
is
an
accomplishment.
In
this
day
and
age
we
helped
458
households
prevent
shelter
admission.
A
rapid
rehousing
program
has
has
two
hundred
and
nine
families,
with
an
eighty-five
percent
success
rate
in
preventing
a
return
to
homelessness,
and
yesterday,
thanks
to
the
very
fine
work
of
our
staff
and
our
provider
network,
we
got
our
second
award
from
HUD
to
fund
new
and
renewal
units,
bringing
total
grant
funding
to
35
million
363
966
dollars.
B
B
The
new
grant
adds
55
units
of
rapid
rehousing
for
families
and
sixty
of
permanent
supportive
housing
for
chronically
homeless
individuals
and
I'm
very
pleased
that,
on
the
heels
of
all
of
the
discussion
about
youth
homelessness,
that
we
will
be
able
to
dedicate
some
of
those
units
of
rapid
rehousing
for
families
that
are
headed
by
young
people
between
the
ages
of
18
and
24.
So
that's
an
immediate
new
new
resource
to
address
this
problem.
We
also
this
year
got
a
tenant
for
rapid
rehousing
pilot
for
50
West,
Philadelphia
families,
homeless
families.
B
So
they
will
have
a
little
better
time
of
it.
So
thanks
to
people's
emergency
center,
for
that,
the
numbers
of
people
seeking
help
from
the
office
of
supportive
housing
are
dramatic
them.
Our
intake
sites
have
seen
this
year
this
fiscal
year
over
8,000,
single
men,
6,200
single
women
and
30
276
families
and
in
2015
sixty
died,
well,
homeless
and
I.
Think
it's
important
to
remember
the
stakes
of
this
work
and
that
people
die
on
the
streets
and
we
really
want
to
do
better.
We
need
to
do
better
for
those
people
in
twenty.
B
Sixteen
sixty
112
Philadelphians
were
identified
as
experiencing
homelessness,
and
this
is
a
very
specific
number.
It's
it's
dictated
by
the
federal
government
and
how
we
count
homelessness
and
it's
done
through
a
point-in-time
count.
Basically,
a
snapshot
conducted
on
january
7
2016.
This
year
we
identified
that
705
single
people,
single
adults,
were
unsheltered
again,
no
families
were
unsheltered
that
doesn't
mean
that
no
families
were
homeless.
It
just
means
that
they
weren't
that
there
were
none
on
the
street
of
all
of
the
homeless
families
and
individuals.
B
We
counted
885
families
in
two
thousand
one
hundred
and
fifty
four
singles
were
living
in
either
emergency
or
transitional
housing.
So
that
means
that,
even
though
those
folks
were
sheltered,
and
so
they
were
safe
from
the
elements
they
were
not
in
a
home
of
their
own,
they
were
be
cared
being
cared
for
in
either
emergency
or
transitional
housing
or
a
safe
haven
of
the
people
experiencing
homelessness,
both
sheltered
and
unsheltered.
Again,
at
this
point
in
time,
thirteen
percent,
or
were
between
the
ages
of
18
and
24,
forty-one
percent
were
severely
mentally
ill.
B
B
Eleven
thousand
five
hundred
and
forty
five
beds
30
768
of
those
are
emergency
beds,
of
which
forty
two
percent
are
for
families
and
fifty-eight
percent
are
for
singles.
This
is
important
to
note,
because
when
we
get
to
permanent
housing,
you'll
notice
that
the
numbers
are
flip-flopped
and
more
more
permanent
housing
is
available
for
families
unless
for
singles,
and
that's
really
by
design
to
try
and
move
families
through
the
emergency
housing
system
and
into
permanent
solutions.
B
There
are
nineteen
hundred
and
five
transitional
beds
and
those
are
provide
up
to
24
months
of
rental
assistance
with
services
and
seventy
two
percent
of
those
are
for
families.
Twenty-Eight
percent
for
singles,
so
you
see
a
high
proportion
of
singles
in
the
emergency
housing
system
proportionally
and
more
of
the
families
served
by
permanent
and
transitional
housing,
and
this
has
been
a
strategy
over
time
of
the
646
permanent
beds,
fifty-seven
percent
of
for
families,
forty-three
percent
for
singles,
and
thanks
to
our
partners,
the
provider
network,
the
public
housing
authority,
the
Department
of
Behavioral
Health.
B
So
what
plans
for
fiscal
year?
Twenty
seventeen
focus
on
homelessness,
prevention,
shorter
shelter
stays
and
permanent
housing,
especially
for
families
with
children.
But
we
know
that
children
who
experience
homelessness
are
more
likely
to
have
mental
health
and
substance,
addiction
disorders,
a
lifetime
of
dependency
and
poverty,
and
we
are
committed
to
finding
ways
to
preventing
homelessness
among
families,
shortening
their
stay
in
the
shelter's,
which
now
averages
at
about
five
months
and
helping
them
get
into
either
rapid,
rehousing,
transitional
or
permanent
housing.
Sooner,
especially
if
we
can
before
August
when
children
start
school.
B
So
you
don't
have
that
destabilization
of
children
moving
during
throughout
the
school
year.
We
want
to
target
youth
homelessness,
we're
so
pleased
that
City
Council
and
the
advocates
have
brought
shone
the
spotlight
on
youth
homelessness.
It's
a
very
disturbing
trend.
We're
particularly
concerned
we're
concerned
about
all
the
young
people
on
the
street,
but
the
high
incidence
of
LGBTQ,
kids
and
the
incidence
of
opiate
addiction
is.
B
These
are
very
disturbing
trends
and
ones
that
I
think
it
takes
attention
and
we're
very
pleased
to
look
forward
to
working
with
City
Council,
with
a
provider
network
with
the
school
district,
with
DHS,
with
anybody
who's
willing
to
come
to
the
table,
to
try
and
do
a
better
job
to
expand
services
and
have
an
impact
on
youth
homelessness.
We
want
to
approach
Street
homelessness
and
chronic
homelessness
with
reduced
energy,
and
I
differentiate
because
street
homelessness
includes
both
people
who
are
chronically
homeless
and
those
who
may
be
on
the
streets
who
are
not
chronically
homeless.
B
But
if
we
don't
do
something
soon,
they
will
be.
It
takes
significant
outreach
and
engagement
for
people
who
are
on
the
streets
to
come
inside
and
we
have
to
have
the
right
mix
of
opportunities
for
them
at
the
front
door,
and
we
have
to
have
a
way
for
them
to
go
out
the
back
door
and
that's
really
the
tricky
part
and
also
a
resource
question,
but
we're
doing
what
we
can,
and
so
here's
just
a
couple
of
the
things
that
we've
already
started.
B
Doing
we've
already
identified
and
deployed
100
almost
a
hundred
new
units
just
in
the
last
60
days,
so
that
we
can
do
a
better
job
of
helping
people
get
off
the
street
and
I
want
to
especially
acknowledge
the
housing
authority
for
their
partnership.
In
making
this
possible,
we
could
not
do
it
without
them
and
the
Department
of
Behavioral
Health
and
their
cooperation
and
their
support.
B
We
are
redeploying
the
street
outreach
teams
to
be
zoned
based
up
to
now,
they've
largely
been
on
demand,
so
if
you
call
they
go
out
and
in
addition
to
that
now,
we've
added
new
teams
or
dbhs
has
been
funding
that
and
they
will
have
zones,
particularly
in
the
downtown
area.
The
rest
will
continue
to
be
on
demand
around
the
convention
center
south
broad
Rittenhouse,
Square
and
market
east.
B
So
will
you
will
be
seeing
them
in
May,
starting
with
their
bright
orange
shirts,
being
ambassadors
to
the
business
community
and
really
do
kind
of
a
man
on
man
defense
to
address
these
areas
where
there's
high
concentrations
of
people
living
on
the
streets
and
we're
also
lon
seeing
a
hundred
day
action
plan
to
address
Street
homelessness?
This
is
how
we
started
the
successful
effort
to
end
veterans,
homelessness,
it's
getting
all
the
stakeholders
together
and
setting
audacious,
but
attainable
goals
to
address
what
we
can
do
in
a
hundred
days
to
add.
B
Reits
address
street
homelessness
and
little
sofa
street
homelessness,
youth
homelessness,
some
of
which
is
street
and
some
isn't
and
non
chronic
street
homelessness,
and
this
is
already
scheduled
for
June
twentieth
and
twenty-first
at
the
College
of
Physicians.
So
we're
really
excited
to
be
able
to
jumpstart
these
initiatives
with
some
bold
action
steps.
In
addition
to
these
programmatic
goals,
we
have
a
few
what
I
would
consider
to
be
infrastructure
goals.
First,
is
the
implementation
of
the
homeless
management
information
system?
B
We
win
our
system
to
be
data-driven,
but
we
don't
have
a
good
data
system,
so
that
really
is
job
one.
It's
well
under
way
we're
working
with
a
new
vendor
who
just
started
this
fall,
and
we
believe
that
will
be.
We've
already
started
to
enter
data
in
real
time
and
we
hope
to
have
and
plan
to
have
this
system
live
in
May
or
June.
B
We
are
adopting
a
coordinated
entry
system
right
now,
where
you
line
up
largely
determines
where
you
end
up
and
which
services
you
have
access
to
and
coordinated
entry
is
not
only
the
state
of
the
art,
but
it
will
provide
streamlined
participant
access
to
services
with
a
standardized
assessment
of
needs
to
link
them
to
the
most
appropriate
resources
available
to
address
their
housing
crisis
wherever
they
line
up
so
we're
very
excited.
This
is
major
systems
transfer
transformation.
It's
going
to
take
several
more
months
to
get
through
the
design
and
plan
phase.
B
Then
it
will
be
implemented
first
on
a
pilot
and
then
whole
scale,
but
it
really
will
make
we
believe,
a
dramatic
difference
in
access
to
the
appropriate
services
and
standardized
assessment
for
everyone
who
enters
our
system
and
it's
time
to
do
another
play
a
big
plan.
Our
last
plan
was
a
10-year
plan.
We
haven't
decided
if
ten
years
is
the
magic
number
yet,
but
it
ended
in
2015,
and
this
is
our
opportunity
to
step
back
to
take
in
all
the
new
evidence
and
research
and
data
and
thinking
around
how
to
make
homelessness.
B
We
do
have
funding
to
support
100-day
plan,
the
coordinated
entry,
then
the
HMIS
system,
as
well
as
the
new
strategic
plan
and
I,
want
you
to
know
as
the
keepers
of
those
precious
City
public
dollars,
that
we
are
leveraging
federal
dollars
and
state
dollars,
and
not
just
relying
on
the
city
to
support
these
programs.
And
finally,
we
are
moving
towards
performance-based
contracts.
We're
aligning
our
work
with
the
mayor's
office
of
performance
management.
B
We're
very
concerned
that
the
outcomes
that
our
system
produces
are
appropriate
and
that
they're
realistic
and
that
they
more
than
that
that
they
capture
all
of
the
rich
services
that
are
provided
and
delivered
through
our
service
network,
which
right
now
I
think
we're
really
not
capturing
the
richness
of
our
service
network.
So
we're
very
excited
to
have
the
data
the
plan
and
to
have
the
metrics
and
start
to
build
that
in
so
that
when
we
come
back
to
you
over
time,
it's
not
just
reporting
on
beds
and
we
do
need
to
report
on
beds.
B
It's
very
important
that
people
not
be
out
and
exposed
to
the
elements,
but
we
also
want
to
report
on
the
quality
of
our
programs
and
what
difference
we
are
making
in
the
lives
of
the
most
vulnerable
pen
Philadelphians
and
in
our
progress
towards
our
mission
of
making
homelessness.
Rare
brief
and
non-recurring.
Thank
you.
So
much.
A
You
are
welcome.
The
work
that
you
do
is
priceless.
Simply
can't
put
a
price
tag
on
it,
trying
to
say
you
can't
save
families,
Councilwoman
bass,
yes,
good
evening
good
evening.
I
just
have
the
one
question
that
I
asked
someone
else
good,
which
was
about
the
safety
and
security
at
the
shelter.
Yes
and
again,
tragically,
there
was
someone
who
was
killed.
His.
A
C
Pressing
well,
prior
to
the
incident
that
occurred
at
the
self
station
house
with
mr.
Barksdale,
the
security
measures
were
primarily
at
the
purview
of
the
individual
of
shelter
providers,
and
so
when,
at
the
time
that
the
incident
occurred
with
mr.
Barksdale,
the
provider
did
have
security
measures
in
place.
They
had
security
guards,
they
had
a
locked
front
door,
the
security
guards
generally
one
not
generally.
The
security
guards
did
check
everyone
as
they
were
coming
in
to
the
front
door.
C
A
C
When
we
get
the
reports
from
all
of
those
assessments
of
the
sites
that
have
been
assessed,
we
will
look
at
all
of
that
information
and
standardize
all
of
our
procedures,
particularly
and
line
them
up
with
particularly
the
recommendations
from
lni
the
fire.
The
fire
marshal
Android,
the
police
department.
C
A
A
C
C
C
A
Okay,
then
councilman
Heenan.
Might
you
have
any
questions
at
all,
sir?
Okay?
All
right
then
well
is.
Is
there
anyone
else
to
have
questions
comments,
observation
suggestions,
recommendations
for
the
house,
Oh
ESS
very
well.
Let
me
close
with
this
team
of
professionals
as
I
did
with
a
DHS.
The
work
you
do
is
incredibly
important.
A
Your
compensation
and
nowhere
matches
probably
I
mean
members
of
council
work
nine
days
a
week,
72
hours
a
day
is
what
I
say.
I
would
suspect
that
your
work
comes
close
to
that.
So
thank
you
all
on
behalf
of
the
work
you
do
every
day
on
behalf
of
the
citizens
of
our
city,
but
that
said
there
this
committee
will
stand
in
recess
until
Wednesday
May
4
2016
at
ten
a.m.
at
which
time
we
will
reconvene
in
room
four
hundred
City
Hall.
Thank
you
very
much.
Thank.