14
QUEENS WEEKLY, DECEMBER 22, 2019
City Council grills Department of Homeless Services
offi cials over contract with embattled nonprofi t
BY MARK HALLUM
Officials with the city’s
Department of Homeless Services
got an earful from the
City Council’s Committee
on General Welfare Monday
over its contracts with the
embattled Acacia Network.
The nonprofit company,
which is a service provider to
DHS, was found to be housing
homeless individuals at shelters
with conditions not up to
code. At the Dec. 16 hearing,
DHS officials told committee
members they were working
to “raise the bar” with more
aggressive inspections facilities
under their purview.
Acacia is currently under
investigation by Governor
Andrew Cuomo and Attorney
General Letitia James
for allegedly providing dangerous
living conditions to
rent controlled tenants in an
attempt to destabilize units.
Later, in November, the state
tightened its investigation
amid claims that Acacia
threatened tenants who reported
their living conditions.
Councilman Ben Kallos
said Acacia Network currently
has a record of 1,184
violations on their facilities,
and demanded to know why
the DHS continued to use
their services.
Molly Park, first deputy
commissioner of DHS, said,
that under new policies, the
city agency requires Acacia,
and other providers and
their subcontractors, to report
facility improvements
into one database that the
city administers.
Park countered that
more than 1,000 of Acacia’s
violations were in cluster
shelter sites — which the city
is phasing out and in some
cases turning into affordable
housing. Even so, she insisted
the DHS has no tolerance
for organizations found to
fail their responsibilities.
“Having an organization
fail is not in anyone’s best interest,”
Park said. “If we can
get out of using that provider,
we have done so.”
Housing Bridge is one
example Park cited of an organization
in which DHS has
terminated a contract over
poor service.
Acacia was the service
provider for the Holiday Inn
Express in Maspeth which
was at the center of public
backlash from 2016 onward
as the community called for
homeless families to be removed.
Although DHS plans
to phase out the use of hotels
for temporary accommodations
by 2023, families were
cleared out of the Maspeth
hotel in August.
Park reported that there
are currently about 83 hotels
in use citywide as of the day
of the hearing.
With a $2.1 billion budget
in the coming fiscal year for
DHS, Councilman Stephen
Levin said it would be a “wise
investment” to broaden rent
subsidy programs rather
than open more homeless
shelters. Levin believes additional
shelters are a costly
option that will only inflate
the agency’s financial needs
in the coming years.
Less than 2 percent of the
budget goes toward providing
food in shelters, an average
of $8 per day for each
person. Park countered that
a certain amount of shelters
require individuals to provide
their own food.
About half of the shelter
population are families,
Park said.
Councilman Robert
Holden — a staunch opponent
of a proposed shelter in
his district — grilled Parks
and other DHS reps about
a contract with Westhab to
provide 200 beds in Glendale.
He claimed the agency
is not transparent about its
contracts.
DHS said it has been clear
and upfront about its outline
of the plan for that location.
In a post to his Facebook
page following the hearing,
Holden charged that the DHS
has repeatedly denied his requests
for a copy of the actual
contract.
“This is by far the least
transparent city agency
I have dealt with, and we
should not have to go to such
lengths to receive basic information
about a shelter
that will undoubtedly affect
our neighborhood,” Holden
wrote.
Molly Park, first deputy commissioner of DHS, answered
questions from City Council members on the contracting
process for shelter providers. Photo by Mark Hallum