Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass. And also I want to note for the record the presence of Councilmember Mark Squilla.
Thank you, Mr. President. Good morning. DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: Good morning.
So I just have a couple of questions and wanted to hear you all talk about -- and my apologies that I'm late. I was on Council business at another event. And I'm sure you probably already touched on this, but I'm really interested in 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. hearing more about your office and some of the spending issues and misspending, I would say, just because money and contracts seem like it's almost -- here we are on tax day. It's almost as if you showed up with your accountant with all your receipts in a shoebox. You know, it just feels really disjointed and disorganized, and it's a problem because, as you know, our homeless population, particularly during COVID, has really boomed. And I'm wondering if you can address that. And also I didn't see anything in your presentation about mental health services, which I think is just absolutely necessary when we look at our homeless population, the amount of trauma that they've been faced with, the things that they have gone through. We cannot just sort of ignore or act like the need for homeless services -- for mental health services isn't there. And I'm not saying that that's what you're doing. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. I'm just making a point that we need to further address it. So I don't know if you've already talked about these things, but like I said, I'm a little bit tardy, so I'd like for you to discuss them, if you wouldn't mind. DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: No. Thank you again, and thank you for your continuous support of our office. As it relates to the overspending, you know, one of the things that we have to be very -- do our due diligence is that we cannot enter into contracts that we do not have budgetary authority for. We know that there is a serious strain on resources overall, and so one of the things that we have to do, and it aligns with Mayor Parker's economic opportunity for all, for those individuals who are able to work, we need to do that assessment at the front door to make sure that we're connecting people to educational and labor force 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. opportunities. As it relates to the second part of your question, we do know that behavioral health challenges are prevalent in our shelters. We do try to connect them as quickly as possible. We work with our partners at DBHIDS to quickly assign individuals to case management, but it's all volunteer-based services. We don't have the authority to force it on anyone, but we strongly encourage. And I think as we look at FY25 and when I talk about doing better assessment, we can do better in the area of providing technical training to our provider community to identify those areas where you may see someone who is experiencing any form of behavioral health challenges so that we can get the necessary services to them in a quicker manner.
Okay. Can we go back to the first question about the budget and I guess the overspending. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Can you give us more detail? Like what happened? How did it happen that we ended up overspending significantly, it seems? DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: Yeah. I think right now, as you're aware, our office is under investigation of the Office of Inspector General, but long story short, until we get those findings and with a forensic audit team that is in place, you know, I defer to coming out with seeing how they're reviewing our past financial practices. But the one thing that we wanted to do was make sure that all of the funds that are awarded through this body of Council, that we're using it in the most due diligent fashion by making sure that contracts are fully funded that we have budgetary authority for.
Okay. And I'm assuming going forward that the controls are now in place to prevent -- and I know you can't talk about what 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. happened already, but going forward, that the controls are in place to make sure that this doesn't happen again. DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: Absolutely. And we're looking forward to implementing any recommendations that the forensic audit team, along with the OIG, proposes to us.
Okay. Very good. That's my questioning for right now. I'll come back around on the second round. Thank you, Mr. President.
You might want to squeeze that in, because this will be the last round.
Oh, this is the last round. Never mind. Okay. So can you talk to us about the intervention services, particularly for children who are going through homelessness. A couple years ago I read an article in the New York Times 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. and it said that -- I forget exactly how it was phrased, but it was akin to the highest number of those experiencing homelessness, the age of the highest number of those experiencing homelessness was like five and under. And so I'm wondering in terms of Philadelphia and our population, where do we stand in terms of young people and children? Because that early displacement, that early insecurity, unless like handled and dealt with, can carry through to a young person in other ways that we may see manifest in not doing well in school, dropping out of school, some of the crime and violence we see among some of our younger population. So all of these things, they don't just go away, as you know, with our young people. We see it pop up in other ways that they're acting out or that they are frustrated or there's this level of insecurity. So what kind of services do we provide? I know we provide a lot of 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. different services, but like how intensive is it? Can you talk about that a little bit? DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: Yeah. Thanks for that question. Any young kid that is experiencing homelessness is traumatic. We work with our partners at DHS along with DBH to identify the appropriate level of services, but I would defer to my Deputy of Housing that can talk a little bit more of the integrals of what they're seeing in the housing programs. DEPUTY DIRECTOR CANCELLIER: Thank you for that question. One of the first things we want to do is end the experience of homelessness as quickly as possible. And if we can prevent a family from coming into shelter in the first place, we want to do that with back rent, with rent going forward, with a security deposit to move elsewhere. We know those disruptions to a child's life are very challenging. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. We've been able to add a School District-funded staff member at intake to ensure that young children, school-age children are being connected right there before they come to shelter with anything they need, reconnection with school, uniforms, transportation, et cetera. And then from a housing case management perspective, it's really the case manager's role to get to know that family, to work with them through their housing needs, and to get them relocated in the community, connected to supports in the community as quickly as possible. DEPUTY DIRECTOR GONZALES: And then I think another thing just to add as well, working with our partners with early intervention for children that are five and under as well to help those who are in shelter can get assessed, get the services that they need quicker, so rather than go through the system and not be served for that even when they get moved into community. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla.
Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you all for being here and your testimony. Dave, real quick, I know that Shared Streets has been a committee that's been set up to deal with a lot of the questions and concerns that we're hearing that involve other City departments, some of our business partners, our non-profits. Are we planning on continuing that moving forward, and is that something that we could hopefully grow to be able to get the input from our surrounding partners? DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: Thank you for that question, Councilman Squilla, 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. and, again, thank you for your advocacy. Absolutely. I think that could be a game changer for Philadelphia, because it provides a roundtable where folks who traditionally don't work in this space have an opportunity to bring innovative ideas, bring attention. It addresses a number of issues. One, the well-being of a community. Again, as I stated, when you talk about Mayor Parker's goal around safer, cleaner, greener, economic opportunity for all and some of the quality-of-life issues, this provides us a gateway to address many of those issues with non-traditional stakeholders at the table, such as business leaders, folks like yourself, Councilman, who can bring a different perspective, service providers. We would love to be able to continue that conversation and grow it beyond what we have already done.
Thank 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. you. That's great to hear. And mentioning that, there was a program that came out of those conversations, Text to Give or Share to Care, but it was getting right to a point I think where we were ready to implement it and we had some announcements. But where is that now and how can we continue to grow that? DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: Yeah. Absolutely. And you attended the event. We had an event with the partnership of the Loews Hotel where it was called Scan to Give on Giving Tuesday. The idea of that is to bring awareness around homeless issues and to make sure that we're introducing some of the systemic issues around homelessness to that. We have launched that event, and so we're looking forward to promoting that even more throughout the City of Philadelphia to get more people involved. Especially as we move to the warmer months where more tourism start to come, 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. we need to be able to show there's proven evidence process through our provider community that there are things that work, but it costs, and also not just by dollars, but your volunteer efforts is part of that.
And I think it's important because it was part of an education process, but also as well as awareness and raising money, where you could have people who say, all right, we have programs to help some of our unhoused population, we have places to go eat, we have all these things, and instead of sometimes -- people want to help. Most people have a heart and they see somebody out there struggling, how can they help, what can they do, and sometimes when they don't know what to do, they may do the wrong thing or make it difficult for us. So by getting this information out there, realizing that, hey, maybe there's -- a perfect opportunity was during this WrestleMania. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Like if you want to help folks, right, you want to be able to get them, please do not give money to people outside, but we have this program called Share to Give, or whatever it's called, that we could actually get those resources into our non-profits and our departments and our partners that are really doing the right thing to help people who are unhoused and get that information out there. If you're visiting for a convention or you're coming here to visit the City of Philadelphia, you see it in your hotels, you see it in your retail stores, right, you see it everywhere, and so you know how to help folks when you do see them. You say, you know what, I saw that, let me go to this app and let me donate. And so it's a way to send a message in a positive way and education through what they can do to help, because we know sometimes we have challenges with 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. folks who come there and maybe want to give out food and they create a mess and they're not working with those folks who are not engaging them in a way that provides social services around there. Sometimes that causes a challenge, but having an organized policy and a way to let people know how they could help I think is very helpful. And the last thing I'll say is the Same-Day Pay program that works with a lot of our programs, and we know CLIP and Mural Arts and others are a part of that, is do we see that too as a way to move forward to continue to grow that through our not only Office of Homeless Services but through our other partner departments to make sure we continue that opportunity? DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: Oh, absolutely. And the one thing I want to make very clear, Philadelphia has some of the best models that I've ever seen, and I've had the opportunity to travel to 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. many different places. I understand the level of frustration when we see anyone experiencing homelessness. I personally take that seriously. What we need to figure out as we move forward is how do we right-size this system. We have every model there is. And so this is an opportunity to educate the public about that.
Thank you. Looking forward to working with you to continue those. Appreciate it.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Isaiah Thomas.
Good morning. Council President acknowledged that we had some young people here today, and part of the reason that they're here is to listen to testimony and advocate for more mental health support for young people. I listened to Councilmember 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Bass ask specifically about mental health services in support for families and children that's within your care. Can you just go back to that question and give us maybe a detailed answer, especially for the young people that's here today that came to advocate for more resources for families to receive mental health support. DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: Absolutely. And thank you for your advocacy for young people. I think the one thing that we have to do when we're addressing young people is to understand the language. Many times us in the academia world or the professional, quote/unquote, professional world don't speak the same language, so it's a cultural difference. And when we talk about trying to provide services for young people -- I have an 18-year-old son and I know throughout the COVID there were some challenges there, but for the young people that are here 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. today, the one thing that I will first say is find someone who you are comfortable with if you're struggling with any type of behavioral health challenges. I think with our partners at the Department of Behavioral Health that has really, really take some unique steps in terms of trauma care, we want to partner with them, but we also want to partner with the young people, how do we engage and do outreach to them so that we can deliver the adequate and the quality level of services that they necessarily and desire and need.
What do you offer right now? If I'm in one of your centers, I've experienced some trauma. I'm in one of your centers. What are my options? DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: Right now through mental health services, it's really at the Department of Behavioral Health IDS. We don't perform -- we don't 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. offer mental health services through the Office of Homeless Services. We work through our partners in doing that.
So if someone is in your facility, they're having a traumatic experience. They need help. What is the communication? How does the pipeline, what is the system? DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: Yeah. So we have our staff that are trained in mental health one-on-one that are located within the shelter. We also have fast case manager that is supported through the Department of Behavior Health. We try to make those connections through that way and facilitate services.
So I thought I was asking a softball question, but what I'll say is this, and I said this to the Council President. Today is frustrating. I've listened to -- I came to listen today, right? I'm really here because I want to do mental health stuff. I came to listen. We already knew that 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. there was going to be some issues around spending, but your answers have not helped us. As someone who came in pretty neutral as it relates to this issue of homelessness, right, you have some Councilmembers who are clearly saying we have to give you money because the homeless problem is a serious issue and you have other Councilmembers saying why would we give you more money when you've clearly mismanaged money in the past and we can't trust that the money you're looking to spend is not data driven. I listened to Councilmember Young's question around security. It just sounds like you're free-styling. So at the end of the day -- I'll close out with this, Council President -- you put us in a very bad position. You put us in a very uncomfortable position. And the reality is is we all signed up for this job, right? We know we have to take tough votes and make tough decisions, but it's 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. not fair that we have to look at a department that's as important as yours, especially at a time like this, and decide whether or not we have to give you money because we're scared of how you're going to spend it or not spend it. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you, Councilmember Thomas. Councilmember Young.
Thank you, Council President. So I was just told by a friend of mine, who is a service provider, that it's taking you guys two months to essentially pay out on some of the contracts that you have with some of these small vendors. Can you tell us how your audit affects your service providers and their contracts and the timeliness of them being paid what is owed to them? DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: Yeah. I'll defer to our Deputy of Finance. DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: The 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. direct connection between the audit and the fee to payments is that obviously due to obviously our crisis, any sort of -- any payments that come out of our office are to receive significantly more scrutiny than they did prior to that. So that is not 100 percent why, say, it would take two months for a specific provider, but that is something that we are experiencing, which is that things that are leaving our office are taking more time due to the enhanced scrutiny that they are receiving.
So can you tell us the average length of time between the moment your office receives an invoice and the moment that payment goes out to that service provider? DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: That's information I would have to send to you separately. I don't have that offhand, but I will do so.
You can't estimate? I mean, if you're in charge of 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. this particular process, you don't have an estimate on one that you may have seen in the past recently? DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: It could be as quick as ten business days and, like I had said, more recently it's been longer than that. It could be 15, as many as 20.
In your permanent housing budget at Fiscal Year '24, it's about 1.3 million obligated for 100 new supportive housing units, and I guess the contractor is to be determined, but you spent, it looks like, 1.1 of that 1.3. Could you tell us who this money was spent with? DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: I'm not certain about that number. I know that we were allocated the 1.3 and for that purpose.
It's on of your budget, , closer to the bottom. To be determined, 100 new supportive housing units, right? And 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. you're asking for an additional 1.8 -- I mean, 1.3 in FY -- in the same budget. So I'm just trying to figure out who received that $1.1 million? DEPUTY DIRECTOR CANCELLIER: So some of those funds were used to address the $5 million projected deficit, but we were able to initiate new housing 10 subsidies in Fiscal '24 through our 11 partners at PMHCC providing assistance to 12 individuals with support from DBHIDS. 13
So out of 14 the 100 that you've asked for, you've 15 only been able to provide housing for 20 16 and still spent the majority of the 17 $1.3 million? 18 DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: I 19 don't believe that number is accurate. 20
The number that's in this budget here is not accurate? DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: I don't believe that number is accurate.
The 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. number that you provided to us in your budget, this number is not accurate? DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: I would have to get back to you, Councilmember, because I know that we did not allocate that amount of funding for that purpose.
It says in here. So this is what -- DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: I understand. I see it, and you are correct in saying that, but I would have to get you that information. I don't believe that number is correct.
Could you please provide us with the correct information so we can really assess? DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: Yes.
Thank you so much. Mr. President, I'm just going to yield at the moment.
Thank you, Member Young. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. The Chair recognizes Councilmember O'Rourke.
I did want to come back to something I was going to ask earlier. I'm asking now. I want to move to the HOME-ARP plan, which seems like the longest lasting COVID era funds -- I want to go to the HOME American Rescue Plan dollars, which seems like the longest lasting COVID era funds that OHS will manage. The Office has stated that the primary goal for this 42 million stream is to rehab and develop new housing for living -- for people living without homes. So here's a rapid-fire round of questions on HOME-ARP and then I'll get off of it. First, I know the housing production goal is to increase the affordable housing stock in Philly by 10 percent. Can you give us an idea of how the boost would impact the daily operation of OHS's housing programs? 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Second, as OHS is entering the implementation phase of HOME-ARP, are there any early concerns or challenges in contracting? Hoping the money can be leveraged for as much housing as possible. Concerned about the new 8 housing units that Councilman Young just 9 named. 10 Lastly, OHS's testimony states 11 that the plan will be implemented this 12 year. Does that mean the production of 13 new housing will begin this year with 14 confidence that it will take place on the 15 72-month timeline stated in the report? 16 If you can answer those and then I'm 17 done. Thank you so, so much. 18 DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: Yeah. To 19 speak about the HOME-ARP, so we're 20 working in partnership with DHCD to award that money out to -- that has been dedicated for that. But about $5 million of that is for tenant-based rental assistance and social services. The majority of that money again is for 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. acquisition, development for low affordable housing for folks who are experiencing homelessness, but that is in partnership with DHCD.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Gilmore Richardson.
Can you just detail for the record what is the amount of the ARP, who is responsible -- can you detail for the record this ARP funding that you're referring to, who is responsible, and when did you receive the funding? DEPUTY DIRECTOR GONZALES: I'll answer that. So we had to create a plan of how we would use the funds with the community. So we had an extensive community input process. We were just approved by HUD in November of '23 with the plan, which is on our website, and we're hoping with those funds, 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. $23 million of it will be allocated towards acquisition and development, and we're hoping there will be 351 units over a 72-month period once the RFP process goes through. So we had -- it will be in stages, short term, medium and long term when we use those funds. And then in addition, as Dave had mentioned with the tenant-based rental assistance, we're hoping to have an additional 200 units from that. So there will be a total of 551 units in total. And then besides the acquisition and development, 12 percent of those funds, which is about 5 million, will go towards the tenant-based rental assistance, supportive services to help individuals and families obtain stable housing. In addition, 2.1 will go towards acquisition and development of non-congregate shelters. And then 3 percent, which is about 1.26 million, will help with non-profit capacity 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. building as well as operating in the community, and then administration costs too.
The Chair resumes time back to Councilmember O'Rourke.
Thank you, Council President. I just wanted to make sure I got clear, based off your testimony, does building begin this year for the new housing and can we expect it to kind of be along the 72-month timeline that had been laid out? DEPUTY DIRECTOR GONZALES: So I think the projects that are shovel ready will start, but the longer term ones won't. But, yes, once that RFP process goes through with our partnerships, projects that have been identified and ready, they will start.
Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council President. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass, then last Councilmember Harrity and we'll wrap up.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jim Harrity.
Thank you, Council President. To the permanent housing, how many units did you actually build last year? DEPUTY DIRECTOR GONZALES: How did we build it?
How many have you built out of that? Because -- well, let me just phrase it this way: With the numbers that my colleague is shooting out, being somebody who comes from the construction industry, all that money that we've spent in the last seven to eight years, roughly around 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. a billion or so dollars, we could have built a lot of permanent housing with that money. You know, we need to start figuring out how we shelter people permanently, not temporarily. I'm just completely confused and this -- you got to see our frustrations, right? I mean, this is astronomical money that could have been spent for permanent housing to house some of these families. I just don't -- I would like to know what are the changes you're going to make to move forward in a way that we can house people permanently? DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: We agree with you with housing people permanently. For the record, our office don't build permanent housing. We work with our partners at DHCD that has the responsibility of that. We also work with our partners at the Philadelphia Housing Authority to provide individuals and families the opportunity for shelters. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. I think through our Landlord Engagement Unit, what we're doing is trying to engage landlords who has prospective property at an affordable rent so that we can do better planning of getting people to those sites. But we absolutely agree that more people should be in permanent housing.
Yeah. This whole thing doesn't make any sense to me. It's just unfathomable. I am lividly upset with what's going on here and the lack of concern, frankly. I don't feel it coming from you guys. You know, I believe that you were completely unprepared for this meeting. And I agree with my Leader, we definitely need to call you guys back to give you some time to actually think about your answers and figure out some real stuff for us, because what you're spouting now is not doing it. Thank you, Council President.
4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Thank you, Member Harrity. We're wrapping up, and the Chair recognizes Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you, Council President. Again, thank you very, very much, and thank you to each of my colleagues, particularly those who extended their time to me as we continue to undertake my office's deep dive into the Office of Homeless Services. I do want to thank each of you for being here and for responding to the numerous requests for information that we have asked over the last months. But 18 I heard you say right-size, and I think that's what we're seeking to get to. We need to right-size this department. We don't know how to fully fund this department because you all have spent years entering into contracts that you didn't have money for, and you're operating without a clear set of standard 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. operating procedures, without clear oversight, without clear monitoring, without clear compliance. So we don't really know what it costs to operate this system, because you don't know what it really costs to operate this system at its best, fully functioning, helping the most amount of people. Then you say that you'll have to cut service because of lack of funding, which I completely disagree with. We went over the numbers, and as you see here, colleagues, from FY24 to FY25, there's only a decrease in $2 million for General Fund and Grants Revenue per the information that was provided by the Office of Homeless Services. Yet, in your budget documents and details, you are having most of the amount of people that you could service here in the City of Philadelphia. In addition to that, I just wanted to ask two very brief questions and I will end with this. If you could 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. detail for the record how much money you have brought in in grants last year. DEPUTY DIRECTOR GONZALES: We brought in $96 million.
So you brought in $96 million in grants just last year? DEPUTY DIRECTOR GONZALES: Now, when those are awarded, it doesn't mean it's in that fiscal year. Some of it is federal fiscal year. Some of it is city fiscal year, but cumulatively, yes.
I'm sorry. For the record, if you could just detail, it's just grants? DEPUTY DIRECTOR GONZALES: Yeah. This is grants, federal and state.
All federal grants outside of your General Fund budget; is that correct? DEPUTY DIRECTOR GONZALES: Yeah. Excluding General Fund, yes.
Thank you for that information. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. And, finally, I have a very serious question that I could ask each person on your leadership team who is here, not just the people who are at the table. Are there any other members of your leadership team here? (Witness approached witness table.)
Who work directly in the Office of Homeless Services. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I don't work there, but I would like --
Only if you work in the Office of Homeless Services if you're in the senior leadership team. Mr. President, can they approach the table, please?
Sure. Yeah. May you please approach the table, please.
Is 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Bruce Johnson here? DEPUTY DIRECTOR CANCELLIER: No. He's away on a family matter.
Okay. Thank you. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Mr. President, this will conclude my questions here. If we could start with the Director and we'll work our way down. If you could state your name and title for the record, and then I'll ask you a question. Then we'll go just one at a time, and this will conclude my questions. We can start with the Director and work our way down. State your name for the record and your title. DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: David Holloman, Interim Executive Director for the City's Office of Homeless Services.
4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Thank you. My last question, this will go to each of you. So I'll ask this question once. State your name for the record, your title, and then please respond to the question. Have you ever personally benefited from any finances from the Office of Homeless Services? Have you ever personally accepted or received any money from the City of Philadelphia or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or the federal government that was money intended for the Office of Homeless Services and the work that your office does? Have you ever personally received any of those dollars? DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: I have never received any dollars for the Office of Homeless Services, from the Office of Homeless Services or any other state or any local that benefited me.
Thank you. Next. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
My name is Diana Rivera. I am the Contract Administrator for the Office of Homeless Services. I'm the Contract Administrator for the Office of Homeless Services and my name is Diana Rivera.
Yes. And please respond to the question that I asked of the Executive Director. That question will be for each person.
No, I have never gained any money or funds from any contractor or vendor or potential vendor for the Office of Homeless Services or for any other City office that I have worked at.
Hi. My name is Sabrenia Best-Morrison. I'm the Assistant Deputy Director of Facilities. And, no, I have never received any funds from any state or local government. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
Hi. My name is Jerome Hill. I am the Director of Compliance. And, no, I have never received any funds or any type of payments.
Thank you so much. Next. DEPUTY DIRECTOR GONZALES: Hi. My name is Beth Gonzales. I'm Deputy Director of Policy, Planning and Performance. And, no, I have not received any funds from any federal, state or local dollars.
My name is Rochelle Rahim. I'm the Fiscal Officer at OHS. And, no, I have never personally received any funds from the state government, city 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. government, federal government.
Hello. My name is Ebony Williams, Director of Landlord Affairs. No, I have not received any funds, city, federal or any other thing. My paycheck was low funding. No. I'm just kidding.
Good morning. My name is Daiquiri Robinson. I'm the Director of Long-Term Housing, and I have not received any local, state or federal funds from the Office of Homeless Services.
Good afternoon. My name is Katima Smith. I am the HR Manager for the Office of Homeless Services. No, I have never received any 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. funds, state, federal or local.
Good afternoon. Sherylle Linton-Jones, Senior Director of Communications for the Office of Homeless Services. And the answer is no to all three.
Good afternoon. Fred Gigliotti, Director of Emergency Housing for the Office of Homeless Services. I have never received any funds from the City or state government that was supposed to go to the Office of Homeless Services.
Thank you very much. Next. DEPUTY DIRECTOR CANCELLIER: 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Roberta Cancellier, the Deputy Director for Housing Services, and I have not.
Thank you very much. DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: Peter Curran, the Deputy of Fiscal Contracts and Asset Management. I have never received any funding from the federal, state, local governments or any other source intended for the Office of Homeless Services.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for allowing us to get that information on the record if needed in the future. Thank you, Council President.
You're welcome. Final question, Councilwoman Lozada.
Thank you, Council President. I just have one question. You 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. all just mentioned receiving $96 million in grant dollars. How much philanthropic dollars have you all received, if any, and are there corporate private dollars that work in partnership with OHS, and if so, how much? DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: I'm sorry. We have not received any philanthropic funds recently, like within the last, I'd say, two to three years.
When was the last time you received philanthropic dollars? DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: We did receive two small grants from the Clinton Foundation.
How much? DEPUTY DIRECTOR CURRAN: From the Clinton Foundation. DIRECTOR HOLLOMAN: And for better accuracy, can we provide that to you in writing so that we can give you the accurate amount whether we received 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. it in the last three years and from which entity that we received it from?
Yes. If you could -- Council President, if we can ask for the philanthropic dollars, corporate or private funding that they received over the course of the time between 2019 to the present, that would be awesome.
Absolutely. Please provide the information to the Chair. Seeing that there are no other questions, you are on notice for a callback, and obviously between now and that period of time, you should be able to provide the information requested of you today. And I know we have individuals from the Administration who is here as well, and so hopefully they'll make it an urgent process in terms of making sure we receive the information back. And we also know that this 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. particular department is under investigation, and so hopefully that process can be expedited as we address the decisions that need to be made regarding this particular budget so we aren't voting blindly on the budget with no outcomes on what things are going to look like in the future as well as, most importantly, the final outcomes of what actually happened in the past. With that being said, thank you very much. Ms. Loughead, will you please call up the next panel who will provide testimony together.
Yes. Dr. Frank Franklin, Interim Health Commissioner, and Dr. Jill Bowen, Commissioner of DBHIDS.
Members, you will have the opportunity to ask questions after you hear testimony from the Department of Public Health as well as the Department of Behavioral 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Health and Intellectual disAbilities. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
So we're going to ask that you state your name and title for the record and begin. I'm going to ask for the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbilities to begin your testimony. I want to, first and foremost, thank Dr. Jill Bowen for her service to the City of Philadelphia. I want to also acknowledge soon-to-be interim leader, Dr. Marquita Washington, so I'm --
I'm sorry. Marquita Williams. It was a long morning. So congratulations. - - - (Applause.) - - -
Dr. Marquita Williams, looking forward. You got fans up there also clapping. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. We look forward to working with you as well in the capacity of Interim Commissioner. So Dr. Jill Bowen.
Thank you for announcing -- we were hoping that we would be able to announce today. So we're very excited about it.
Yes. I was wondering why she wasn't up here, but I'm going to let you go ahead and do what y'all do, the Administration. Go ahead.
This is your swan song, so keep passing it along. That's cool. But thank you, Dr. Jill Bowen.
Thank you. And I want to just say before I start, thank you to City Council President for the 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. citation that recognized the Department's work, efforts, and achievements during my tenure. I really appreciate that's a full team effort and --
Before we get started, I just want to thank you and your team particularly around working with my team specifically addressing the issue of trauma and mental health as it relates to the issue of gun violence, right, and the vast variety of services and resources that y'all offer when it comes to addressing the mental health and trauma that our young people and their families are experiencing as it relates to the gun violence that we're seeing in the City of Philadelphia. I don't think people really recognize you got a lot of families and young people walking around with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of seeing people getting shot and murdered day in and day out. We know hurt people hurt people. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. So I want to publicly acknowledge you and your team for just being a part of our roundtables and support of our efforts around that issue. Will you please begin your testimony.
Really appreciate your efforts on that as well. Good afternoon, President Johnson and members of City Council. I am Dr. Jill Bowen, Commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, DBHIDS. Joining me today is Dr. Tierra Pritchett, Deputy Commissioner of Administration, Finance and Quality, and Amanda David -- where is Amanda -- Chief Program Officer, Director of the Division of Behavioral Health. I am pleased to provide testimony for the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services' Fiscal Year 2025 Operating Budget. Our mission at the Department 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services envisions a Philadelphia where every individual can achieve health, well-being, and self-determination. The mission of DBHIDS is to educate, strengthen, and serve individuals and communities so that all Philadelphians can thrive, enjoy improved quality of life, and benefit from City services that residents can see, touch, and feel. At the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, Fiscal Year '24 was a kickoff and expansion of strategy for many of our efforts and is being deepened further in Fiscal Year '25. DBHIDS has a priority vision that ensures that all of our efforts work collectively to address trauma, achieve equity, and engage community, encapsulated as TEC, T-E-C, for trauma, equity, and community. Through this lens, the Department has worked to revamp 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. operations so that system responses are trauma aware and equitable and do not in and of themselves add trauma when a person is already in distress. DBHIDS has worked to reduce behavioral health disparities and promote racial equity within BIPOC communities, and we have transformed systems and approaches to actively involve and empower communities, integrating the insights of community and faith-based leaders, providers, advocates, individuals, and families with lived experience, academicians, and community-based organizations into program development and operations at all levels. DBHIDS does this work in partnership with over 100 stakeholders. To address trauma, DBHIDS has utilized a multi-faceted approach, including creating an external stakeholder learning collaborative and subcommittees that provided multi-year recommendations, which are in various 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. stages of implementation. The subcommittees focused on trauma related to violence, the impact of trauma on children and families, prolonged trauma that people experience over time, secondary and vicarious trauma, and the intersections of trauma that can result when individuals and families interact with multiple safety net systems. Some of the recommendations and activities that we have already implemented in our recommendation-to-action approach that moves with urgency to stand up these recommended initiatives include distribution of behavioral health resource cards to children, families, and communities throughout the City, reaching over 50,000 households; expanded trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy, particularly in underserved areas; held focus groups with both perpetrators and survivors of gun 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. violence to understand early risks and then to use that information to enhance upstream services for today's at-risk youth; launched Trauma to Triumph, an initiative aimed at annually providing resources, support services, and opportunities for 100 youth living in high crime and high poverty areas. The community-based organizations have been selected and will be infusing resources and support services into the community in Fiscal Year '25.
To achieve equity, DBHIDS continued our DEI efforts to diversify the provider network, creating an open network at Community Behavioral Health for certain levels of care, supporting entry for small and mid-sized providers, establish the social determinants of Health Equity Unit to tackle disparities arising from systemic racism, and introduced the Forensic Equity Unit to address health-related needs of incarcerated individuals and those in the 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. justice system. In addition, we hosted BIPOC provider focus groups to identify and break down barriers to entry into the provider network. DBHIDS convened external stakeholders and BIPOC community leaders to develop sustainable strategies to address the devastating impact of trauma and the substance crisis on Philadelphia's BIPOC communities, with the goal of making it easier to navigate the healthcare systems and increase the number of professionals with cultural humility and linguistic competence within the DBHIDS/CBH provider network. To engage community, DBHIDS strengthened partnerships with community-based organizations combatting gun violence and secured stable funding to bolster their infrastructure and address priority issues. Through the Community Wellness Engagement Unit, DBHIDS deployed teams of community wellness specialists with lived 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. experience, including peer counselors, recovery specialists, and autism peer specialists. CWEU engaged in nearly 300 community activities aiding over 7,500 individuals. And the Network of Neighbors, inclusive of community members trained to support and lead responses to stress, trauma, loss, and violence, responded to 135 requests related to children, gun violence, opioids, and suicide. In Fiscal Year '25, Community Engagement will intensify the collaboration strategy approach with all our City and community partners. During Engaging Males of Color Initiative, DBHIDS collaborated with First Person Arts to produce Trigger, a deeply impactful film highlighting the experiences of those affected by gun violence in Philadelphia and their healing arc. Nearly 3,000 individuals have seen this film at screenings through educational institutions and community organizations, with an additional 3,300 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. views via WHYY, and further screenings are planned in Fiscal Year '25 as well as a toolkit to support communities in their Trigger-screening activities. ReCAST, the Resilience in Communities After Stress and Trauma, which is a substance -- is a SAMHSA-funded initiative, specifically focuses on addressing the traumatic impact of community violence on youth. It has funded a total of 67 community-based and driven projects, the youth that provide safe spaces for promoting social and emotional well-being, youth leadership, intergenerational communication, and community pride, and continues into Fiscal Year '25. Our Faith and Spiritual Affairs Initiative is designed to empower faith communities to access behavioral health resources when needed. Clergy are available through the Philadelphia warm line for callers seeking faith-based 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. supports. DBHIDS will host its 17th Annual Faith and Spiritual Affairs Conference this year entitled Rising Above: Empowering Youth to Heal from Trauma and Violence. In addition to TEC, DBHIDS recognizes the vital role of addressing social determinants of health for comprehensive well-being and community success. In 2023, we piloted a program providing food, technology, and transportation to individuals who were receiving behavioral health treatment. The pilot affirmed the positive impact of addressing these needs, promoting food security, enabling access to telehealth and economic opportunities, and enhancing mobility for broader job prospects and social engagement.
That work has been incorporated into an on-site one-stop shop effort to connect to related services that will continue into Fiscal Year '25. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Through our Children's Cabinet, DBHIDS created a strategic framework that outlines a set of priorities to implement, focused on the distress that our children are experiencing in this post-pandemic era in light of the violence and substance crises that affect their everyday lives and recognizing the negative impact of social media. This resulted in the development of a social media toolkit, palm cards with useful approaches and how-to information, one designed for youth and one designed for parents so that they have the information they need to understand and navigate the dangers and find alternatives for social connectedness. The Children's Cabinet will continue to focus on children and schools and further the trauma work related to gun violence in Fiscal Year '25. DBHIDS, with tremendous help from this body, City Council, thank you, has transformed the behavioral health 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. crisis system. It looks nothing like it looked a few years ago. Between January '22 and February '24, nearly 153,000 calls were received by the Philadelphia Crisis Line, including 9-8-8, averaging 193 calls per day. There were nearly 3,000 warm transfers from 9-1-1 to 9-8-8. The Philadelphia Community Mobile Crisis Response Teams provide regionalized citywide coverage through four providers, managing teams that 14 operate 24/7. Preliminary results 15 reflect the success of this model, with 16 high ratings of satisfaction by those who 17 were served by the CMCRT and the majority 18 of crises resolved in the community. 19 With 302 numbers down and the 20 time needed for diverts from the CRC 21 reduced dramatically. Several other 22 cities and states have been reaching out to learn how they may develop similar approaches to Philadelphia's model. In addition to the expansion of 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Adult Community Mobile Crisis Response Teams, in Fiscal Year '25 DBHIDS will expand the number of longer term crisis intervention stabilization teams to provide up to six weeks of therapeutic intervention to individuals at risk of reemergence of crisis. And DBHIDS is also supporting the establishment of the first adult behavioral health urgent care center in Philadelphia, with the first center scheduled to open in early Fiscal Year as part of this continuum of 14 adult crisis services available to 15 Philadelphians. 16 Also an academic evaluation of 17 the crisis system transformation itself 18 has been procured and will begin in 19 Fiscal Year '25. 20 DBHIDS is also actively engaged 21 in developing an evidence-based model of 22 care for those with both behavioral 23 health and intellectual disability 24 challenges and continuing to work with 25 stakeholders trained in this 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. evidence-based model in Fiscal Year '25 and beyond. And as substance use disorder continues to be of grave concern in Philadelphia as well as in many other cities across the country, DBHIDS offers a comprehensive range of treatment and support services, including peer support, outpatient treatment, residential treatment, licensed recovery houses, and hospital-level treatment. This past year the Department has stood up an innovative ASAM, American Society of Addiction Medicine, Level 4 program tied to acute and post-acute medical care to shift the system so those who need intensive wound care treatment can also flow easily into substance use recovery, and this is continuing to expand in Fiscal Year '25. There has never been a model like this before. So far since almost a year, nearly 200 people were admitted to the program, who never would have gotten 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. recovery services before, and a majority of them complete the program and continue their recovery.
And the MORS team, which Mobile Outreach and Recovery, provides linkages to recovery supports and substance treatment. This is critically important because the MORS team is an on-the-ground assessment team, which makes it easier to get into services and treatment directly from the street. And they've engaged over 2,400 individuals and facilitated 346 linkages to treatment. Homeless Outreach engaged over 8,000 unique individuals in 2023, connected nearly 5,000 people to services, tracking for follow up from the 2018 and 2019 encampment resolution 20 pilot. Of the 298 total individuals who were placed on the by-name list, 97 percent are no longer being seen or actively engaged with homeless outreach teams today in 2024. Only nine people from that 2018, 2019 pilot by name list 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. have been seen on the streets throughout the City and only one in Kensington. This data is now available to the public on the DBHIDS website. I was looking for Councilmember Lozada. org/SDOH, click on the Outreach tab. And this data will be regularly updated monthly going forward and into Fiscal Year '25. DBHIDS also works closely with the First Judicial District's specialty court programs where individuals with behavioral health challenges may be diverted from a traditional trial track. This includes Veterans Court, AMP Court, Drug Treatment Court, and Mental Health Court. Our work is outlined in the TEC comprehensive plan. org/tec. In Fiscal Year '25, DBHIDS will continue, and I know they will because of all of these amazing people that are here 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. with me today and of course the incomparable Dr. Marquita Williams. DBHIDS will continue to scale up our effective efforts as outlined in our TEC plan for Fiscal Year '25 and beyond. All of our partners contribute to these efforts. The support of City Council has been critical in helping to address the deep challenges to behavioral wellness and the trauma that has so widely impacted Philadelphians. We appreciate the ongoing support of Council and the opportunity to highlight the work of DBHIDS. My colleagues and I are happy to respond to questions at this time. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Dr. Frank Franklin.
Good afternoon. Good afternoon, President Johnson and members of the City Council. I'm 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Dr. Frank Franklin, the Interim Health Commissioner for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. Deputy Commissioner Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson, Ryan Taylor, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief of staff, Sara Enes, and the division directors across the Department are joining me today. I am pleased to provide testimony on the Department of Public Health's Fiscal Year 2025 Operating Budget. The FY25 budget will continue to support our mission to protect and promote all Philadelphians' health and provide a safety net for people disproportionately impacted by societal factors that limit their access to healthcare and other resources necessary for optimal health and well-being. Given that you have my full testimony and my full written testimony, I will provide a high level summary. The proposed Fiscal Year 2025 General Fund budget totals $149 million, 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. approximately -- well, let me go back. 149,276,661, a decrease of $4,459,659 from Fiscal Year 2024. The decrease is due primarily to one-time funding for pay-as-you-go capital support for health center infrastructure in Fiscal Year '24. The Department currently has 908 filled positions and requests 1,082 budgeted positions in FY25, an increase of one position over FY24. The growth is attributed to hiring additional staff for air pollution control. Some of the Department's accomplishments includes expanding dental and cervical cancer prevention services, convening a task force on housing, and supporting affordable housing among people with HIV. Since its launching in 2019, our Philadelphia Food and Justice Initiative has provided over $1.99 million in seed funding to 27 entrepreneurs and organizations to address food injustice and expand healthy 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. food access in neighborhoods that need it most. Twenty-five grantees are BIPOC owned or led, are woman owned or led. 5 The Department has advanced our 6 efforts in understanding and addressing 7 maternal mortality and morbidity by 8 advancing the nation's first severe 9 maternal morbidity surveillance program, 10 which utilizes hospital-level clinical 11 data to analyze severe maternal morbidity 12 trends in depth and identify public 13 health improvement opportunities. This 14 work that we are engaged in at the 15 Department aligns with the Mayor's 16 priorities of public safety and 17 well-being, economic opportunity, 18 housing, clean and green, and education. As we continue to engage from the pandemic and reimagine our new normal, the Health Department continues strengthening critical areas essential to public health services. For example, expanding our health center network promotes equitable access to primary care 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. services, pivoting our COVID-19 resource hubs into community-based public health resource hubs to support consistent avenues of community engagement, and enhancing the Department's capacity to build diverse and skilled workforce in alignment with our strategic and community health assessment priorities. Thank you, Council President and members of the City Council, for your continuing support of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, and I'm happy to answer your questions.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Phillips.
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon, Department of Public Health. In March of 2023, after meeting with hundreds of neighbors in Lower Northeast Philadelphia and having walked 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. entire neighborhoods in Oxford Circle and Lawncrest, I called an emergency meeting to address a serious concern in Oxford Circle and, that is, rats, large extensive number of rats in Oxford Circle. So, yes, Philadelphia, one of the things that was very important is that I asked the Public Health Department to come up with a massive campaign to address finding issues -- finding resolutions with this particular matter. I also asked the Public Health Department that they work on developing a comprehensive strategy that will utilize campaign work to notify residents, education work to help residents understand how to rid rats but, most importantly, to come to work with Vector Control to make sure that we find a way to get rid of where the rats originated from. And thus far, after that emergency meeting, there was a level of concern that was said to me that was going to 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. happen. The emergency meeting took place, and then after that meeting, Dr. Palak had notified me that there was inspections that took place. Once the inspections took place, there was a summary of how many residents opened doors and so forth. However, following those inspections, there has not yet to be an extensive massive education campaign, massive solution-oriented campaign to resolve the issue with rats in Lower Northeast. My question here for you today for the Department of Public Health, if you lived in areas where rats were really, really, really inundating your neighborhood and you were a person, you would be highly concerned. So I'm concerned that of the $6 million that is allocated to environmental protection and so forth in your department, there are only six workers that are identified to work under Vector Control for this year. And the Mayor, having represented this 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. particular area, also is big on this clean and green initiative, and she's very much aware of this issue as well, to the point where if she would have known this was still going on, she herself would be disappointed. So what I'm telling you right now is that this department has to do better in terms of campaign work, education work, and resolve work. And what is the plan going forward to make sure that rats not only in Lower Northeast but other parts of the City of Philadelphia is reflected in this budget so that we can make sure that residents feel like this problem is being solved?
Thank you, Councilmember, for the question. Yes, absolutely, the Department agrees rats are an important issue, and I'm sure no 22 one in their neighborhood would like to be inundated with rats or any other rodents. I'm going to defer to my Deputy 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Commissioner, Dr. Palak Raval, to speak on this.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the question, Councilmember. I agree with you completely. We do have -- we did have those meetings, and what we have begun doing is a comprehensive -- what we used to do in the '70s -- and I was not working for the Department in the '70s, just for the record -- we had funding from the Centers for Disease Control to do what was called a comprehensive rodent survey, which involves the door-to-door knocking of individual residents as well as doing the educational campaigns. We even had a mystery rat, a person that dressed up as a rat to do education and outreach. Where we are is, we would like to implement that and reinvigorate that program. We can do it with the funding that we have. The challenge we're having is that our -- the staff that we need to 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. conduct that work are titles called field investigators and Vector Control workers. We have been working with our Office of Human Resources, because quite often we end up interviewing people from the service rep list and people that have applied for service rep positions, when they hear that they need to go ahead and go out in the field and deal with rats, they have a tendency of not wanting those jobs. So we are -- we've worked with OHR to highlight that field investigator position, and we're actively working to recruit the staff and to fill the vacancies.
Not to cut you off, I just want to say really quickly, because my time is short, that to me this is a promise of a plan. It's almost like -- these rats are in Germantown as well, right? It's around other parts of the City of Philadelphia, I've read. And I feel like for us not to have -- I just want to get you on the 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. record as saying like is this on a daily radar for you? Because it's on a daily radar for all of the residents in Northeast and some of the parts in the City of Philadelphia, and I feel like it's being ignored, right? Not ignored, but you're not making this a huge priority in your department, and for me, I need to see a little bit more off of your testimony as well as budget to kind of reflect the needs that are needed to solve this problem.
Councilmember, I'd be more than happy to share the rodent pilot survey plan that we're putting together. Once Dr. Franklin and the team looks it over, we'd be happy to share it with your office so that they're well aware of what our outreach plan is going to be, and then we can begin moving forward. As I mentioned, we're actively working to fill our vacancies. Vector Control is allocated 23 positions. We 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. have multiple vacancies associated specifically with the work that's done for field investigators and our Vector Control operators. So we will gladly share that plan with you and your office, and then we can, with your assistance, maybe come up with innovative ways of filling those vacancies and making sure we have a significant impact. I know some of the staff have come out, and the blocks that were identified on Oxford Circle, there was treatment provided, but would love the opportunity to also have community meetings so that residents know that they can trust our staff as they're coming to the door to address the rodent control and the rat issue specifically.
Thank you, Chair. I just don't want the Department of Public Health competing with the Homeless Service Department as 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. an inefficient department. So I just want to make sure y'all keep working. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilmember Phillips. I agree with you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass.
How's everybody doing? So I want to start with the Health Department and I wanted to start -- just today Mayor Parker announced the new Office of Business Services, and she did it on North 22nd Street, which was fantastic, in my district, and just talked about how much easier it will be to start a restaurant-related business. But in thinking about restaurants, their opening, the 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. licensing, one of the things that has been of great concern to me -- and, Dr. Nelson, I know you know this very well -- is stop-and-go's and the lack of enforcement from the Health Department related to stop-and-go's. And even to my surprise, because these folks operate with a restaurant license, that there are no cleanliness standards that seem to be enforced by the Health Department. I've been in many stop-and-go's with many different Health Department staff and pointed out this and pointed out that and what would be clear signals to me not too eat from this place, you know, dirty cobwebs and cobwebs in general and dirty floors and all kinds of things, and not really seeing any sort of response from the Health Department that says, you know, red flag, this is a problem, this location is a problem. So I'd like to hear some sort of response on like are y'all going to make this better? Is it a priority? Is 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. it not a priority? I'm just trying to find out like is it just me or like is the Health Department okay with this? Because it seems like we are. It seems like the Health Department is. I'm not okay with it. Because it's been a long time.
Absolutely it's a priority for us, Councilmember Bass. I'll defer to Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson, who oversees that area for the Department.
Thank you, Councilmember. And, yes, we've been out to many a stop-and-go's or nuisance establishments, and absolutely. So the Health Department, we conduct food inspections that are a 54-point food inspection investigation. The top 27 items are risk factors. The items that you're -- and I want to -- sorry my back is to you --
-- while I'm talking on the microphone. So when our staff conduct these inspections, the risk factor violations are those violations that actually cause food-borne illness and food safety impacts. Those items could be anything from improper handwashing to actually not having certified food safety handlers, et cetera. The items that involve cleanliness issues, they pertain more to good retail practices, and the Councilmember is aware that a lot of the stop-and-go's, quote/unquote, have restaurant licenses, but they don't have enough food. They're not carrying on an actual food-handling procedure and process, which lends to them getting the lower retail category violations. We also count the number of seats, and we work with our Department of Licenses and Inspections --
I'm sorry. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. I don't want to cut you off, but I know my time is limited. But in terms of the number of seats -- and you know because we've been out together. And so we'll walk into a place. So when we say the spirit of the law is that they're supposed to seat 30 to be able to have a restaurant license. And so someone will stack up 30 folding chairs and say there's my 30 chairs, even though there's absolutely no square footage for you to open up all 30 of those chairs. And so the Health Department, just in my opinion, has a duty and an obligation that like this doesn't fit the spirit of the law and so, therefore, we have to do something about it.
It's been years. We've been on this since 2017. I'm just saying.
No. The law has been on the books and the licenses 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. are issued by the Department of Licenses and Inspections. When it comes to -- we can cease operate food establishments that are posing an imminent health hazard or imminent health risk.
So what does it require for you all to pull a license of an establishment that is not following the spirit of the law? What does it require from the Health Department?
Sure. So we do not have the authority to revoke a food license. That is the Department of License and Inspections. We work with them. We categorize and count the seats. We also work with the Liquor Control Board and Liquor Control Enforcement. As the Councilmember is aware, we do the joint visits with them.
In this realm -- sorry. In this realm, they have more authority, and that is why we make 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. referrals and we work with them to do joint inspections to try to go ahead and cease operate the establishments that may not be posing a food safety risk because they don't necessarily have an actual food operation.
So what authority does the Health Department have to close a business that's operating poorly? Because -- and I'll just tell you this, and we had a conversation just last week, me and the Commissioner, new Director, and welcome aboard. We had a conversation just last week about a minority-owned establishment, restaurant, that had some issues and it was like clear that they have to operate in a particular fashion. They have to be above board. They have to have -- you can't have all of these different conditions that could be problematic, but it almost feels as if there are some rules for some businesses and other establishments can be as dirty as they 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. want to be and there is no enforcement. So I'm trying to find out what level of -- or what kind of tools do you have in your toolbox that can help us when it comes to the enforcement that's necessary from these specific types of businesses that we know are skirting the spirit of the law?
Absolutely. So currently the tools that we have in our toolbox are immediate cease operations, and then we also can take the establishment to Common Pleas Court if they are a multiple repeat offender. The establishment in question that you're speaking of, Dr. Franklin did reach out. That establishment had mice. It had lack of hot water and a host of other risk factor violations.
Yes. And, listen, everybody has got to play by the same rules, but I'm saying -- and so not to excuse anybody, but at the same time, it does feel heavy handed when it comes 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. to particular businesses versus other businesses, because like I said, you and I have been out. We've been to -- and I don't want to call out any in particular, but you and I went on a tour. I'll just say it's on Hunting Park Avenue, and it was atrocious.
Call that jawn out so I don't go there and get something to eat.
It was Hoagie City. It was a Hoagie City on 2244 West Hunting Park Avenue. But it was horrible. And they had built their own walls. They had done their own construction. They had -- it was just horrible. And when we asked for -- they had put in like a little -- well, I don't want to go into the whole thing, but when we asked for enforcement, I don't believe, and you correct me if I'm wrong, that one ticket was issued. There was another stop-and-go that we went to on Germantown Avenue 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. right after that, Germantown and I want to say Butler or Pike, a stop-and-go right there, and they had almost no food. I think the food that they had was like their lunch, which they produced as the food. Not one ticket issued from the Health Department, and it's kind of like when are we going to be able to do something? Do you have any tools? Or maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree. Maybe I should call L&I back and talk to them a little more extensively about this.
I think that, Councilmember, when it concerns liquor and alcohol, which these stop-and-go's are, because there is cross-jurisdictional authority between us, the Liquor Control Enforcement Board, the Liquor Control Board, and Licenses and Inspections, it would -- and there's a Nuisance Committee that stop-and-go's fall under that we have meetings with 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. with the Law Department and we have strategies to address these issues. What happens when we have a place that has a restaurant license but no food, we cite them and we share that information with the Liquor Control Enforcement team, Liquor Control Board, because they then have the authority to be able to get rid of that liquor license. We can only cite the food safety issues. We can cite if they have mice, if they have pests, if they're unclean. We can cite all of those things, but in order for us to immediately cease operation -- cease operate an establishment, the violation has to be of an imminent health hazard.
There has to be a level -- and I know I'm over time, Mr. President, but I'll just say this in closing. There has to be a level or a sense of urgency from all of the departments, whether it's L&I or the 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Health Department or LCB, to say the operation here is unacceptable and it is a nuisance to the business, because when we look at where a lot of our shootings, a lot of our fights and all kinds of altercations and things happen, you know, they happen a lot of the time inside or outside of these very establishments. We have to park police cars, which infuriates me, we have to park a police car to guard a stop-and-go, which is the source of the foolishness in the neighborhood in the first place. So I know my time is up. I'll come back around, Mr. President.
Councilmember, I will just say this for the record: We are working with our partners. We just recently had meetings with L&I, LCB, Liquor Control Enforcement. We've also included the Commerce Department and the Law Department, because we understand -- and PPD. We understand that when we do this, 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. we have to do it well. We know that PPD can arrest a person, but if we close that establishment down, even for a few days, we interrupt the pattern and can have a significant impact on the health and well-being. So I'd be more than happy, you know, Dr. Franklin, through the Budget Office, we can share more details with you.
Dr. Nelson, we've been talking for like seven years now.
And if it was under the authority that we had, you know, it -- but we don't have the authority for liquor control and those things.
Just a sense of urgency. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. I just have a question, though. Even though it may not be under your authority, did y'all have like maybe an inter-task force with the individuals with the authority and kind of all collaborate together?
We do, President Johnson. We do. The Law Department has a Nuisance Committee that Kristin Bray chairs, and we all get together on a monthly basis, but we also do sweeps with our PPD, L&I partners, Liquor Control Board, and Liquor Control Enforcement. Every once in a while we also include Councilmembers. Councilmember Gilmore Richardson has gone out with us. Councilmember Sanchez had gone out. Councilmember Bass had --
Well, this is an ongoing task force, so intergovernmental collaboration. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
It is an ongoing task force, yep. And we have the list of the bad actors and we go through each one, and then we come up with a strategy so that we're all working collaboratively together to address the issue. And when we go to do a SWEEP cert, it's all of us on the same beat that are walking and issuing the cease operations and making an impact.
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes the Chair of Health and Human Services, Councilmember Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Council President. Thank you all for being here. These are very big departments who do very important work for our city, so I have a lot of questions and I'm going to try to phrase them as shortly as possible, succinctly. Do we have any preliminary 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. analysis on the Joy Bank program? I'm particularly interested in the impact of doulas and if expansion of this program is necessary.
Thank you for that question, Councilmember. That program sits with the Division of Maternal and Child Family Health, and I'll bring the Director, Dr. Stacey Kallem, to give you feedback on that. (Witness approached witness table.)
Hello. I am Dr. Stacey Kallem, the Director of Maternal, Child, Family Health. Thank you for that question. The Philly Joy Bank is our guaranteed income and pregnancy pilot. We do not have data yet, because it actually hasn't launched. We're set to launch tentatively June 22nd, and we have contracting with Drexel University, who will be doing a really rigorous evaluation. So as we have data, we'll 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. certainly come back and share it.
And January -- when did you say it's going to start?
No. It should be starting in June, like in a month and a half.
Understood. All right. Thank you for that. We look forward to any updates on that and any recommendations around how that money really made an impact. We would love to see that. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Second question is about the status of the health centers in Northeast Philadelphia that are supposed to be -- I don't know what the status is, so I don't know what they're supposed to be, if someone could update me on that.
Thank you, Councilmember. My Chief of Staff, Sara Enes, is overseeing that project and she'll provide you with the input. (Witness approached witness table.)
Thank you so much for that question. We are in the process of planning for two health centers in the Lower Northeast. One is scheduled to be set at the Frankford Transportation Center. It's part of an in-fill development with the Frankford CDC. The site will contain the health center, a grocery store, and some mixed-income housing. Currently on the health centers end, we are in the concept design phase. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. So we finished our programming and we're doing concept design, moving into the next stage of the design very shortly. That project with the Frankford CDC, they are waiting. They have applied for and are anticipating notification about their funding sometime in the fall. So a timeline for establishment of the construction will be set at that time. The second site is currently scheduled for the campus of Friends Hospital. We just finished a very lengthy community engagement process with Councilmember Lozada and we hosted a series of community meetings throughout neighborhoods in the Northeast to obtain feedback and input as to the location, needs, you know, demand. And so right now we are -- that just concluded about a week and a half ago maybe, two weeks ago. We are preparing our response to comments document. That will go out to everyone who signed in so that we can make sure we've answered all questions. And then 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. zoning -- decisions related to zoning will come shortly hopefully thereafter.
So the first one is slated for September of this year for --
Well, we don't have -- so currently there is no 9 construction schedule for either site. The Frankford site is, we're waiting on a decision related to funding for the entire project.
I am not sure. I know that the Frankford CDC applied for LIHTC funding and some other tax credits. So that -- the actual development of that project is based on that funding. For the health center's portion, we do have our funding to build out the internal piece of the health center, but the remainder of the building is the Frankford CDC.
And do 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. you have a CDC partner for the other location or is it just all you?
So you would have a faster way -- once your zoning was done, you would have a faster way to put it into action?
Okay. Another question, which is for Dr. Palak, I would think. Do you have a role in the contract negotiation or renewal of the Covanta incinerator in Chester, which has a deeply problematic impact, one of the worst examples of environmental racism in the country, and I just wondered what the Public Health Department's role is in that.
So we do not have necessarily a direct role, but we're working with our Office of Sustainability extensively to -- pollution is something, it doesn't stay on the county boundaries. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC.
It depends on which way the wind is blowing. So we are working through our Office of Sustainability to advocate for what is needed regarding that incinerator.
So speaking about working with them, do you recommend for them how we dispose of our trash in the most equitable and healthful manner? Your office has some oversight on that or if they don't, should they?
So the way that we handle trash in our city is done with the Streets Department. We are working with groups like Circular Philadelphia and others. We hired when I became -- we hired an Environmental Justice Coordinator that is working and focusing on the issues associated with trash and how we equitably distribute the environmental bads while we all benefit 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. from the environmental goods. So we are working on that. We just met with Circular Philadelphia and Sustainability and a handful of other groups, including the Streets Department, to figure out what are things that we can do in terms of the overall trash streamline, and while we do not have a regulatory authority over it, how can we be a supportive partner from the Health Department.
Yes. I hope you have a sizable influence in that space, because something can be technically great on one end, but if you don't have the health impact integrated in our responses across the City for all things, not just trash, but I know that's a lot of work for the Department of Public Health, but we need to really look at what healthy Philadelphia looks like and to have research and your presence in these spaces, and whatever needs to happen, we should talk about how to make 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. sure you have a front seat in these spaces.
I appreciate that, and, you know, the trash issues directly relate to the rodent issue and the rat issues that Councilmember Phillips was bringing up. So it's all connected, interwoven, and wherever we have the opportunity to interject, we will absolutely interject and advocate for those things that are better for our city.
Thank you. For your part of Public Health, I'll have my remaining questions sent by e-mail. I would like to switch to Department of Behavioral Health and I have some questions around your Mobile Crisis Teams. Dr. Bowen, thank you for your service. I know the hand-over will be very warm, and I appreciate everything you've done for our city. I wanted to know about the 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. response times, because we got some feedback from some advocacy groups around some problematic time spans in that area.
So thank you for that. We've been working really closely with the advocacy partners. Our goal is to get response time down to 30 minutes, which is not even heard of in the field. The average is more like 45 to an hour, and we are there. We're about an hour. We are building those. With the support of City Council, we have been building bridge teams, and that is for teams that will sort of double the capacity during the high volume times, and our main goal there is to reduce that response time. I just want to say to keep in mind that the majority of the calls that come into 9-8-8, what happens when you call into 9-8-8, quite different than what happens at 9-1-1, which is more of a relay. 9-8-8 is an intervention. It's actually a therapeutic intervention, and 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. most of the crises get resolved through that. So that's actually immediate response.
I'm sorry to interrupt. Time is short. The 9-8-8, if it gets tracked from 9-1-1 to 9-8-8 or there's a direct call to 9-8-8 and it can also be tracked from 9-1-1; am I correct in that?
So we have Philadelphia Crisis Line workers who are the ones who, people at the 9-8-8 call center, are also embedded at 9-1-1. The call comes into 9-1-1. They can shift the call to 9-8-8 if in fact it's appropriate for a 9-8-8. But the majority of the calls that come in from wherever they come in are actually managed through the PCL intervention, and it's about 10 percent of the time when a call needs to be sent -- it's the same group that actually dispatches, which is one of the beauties of the -- it's why it's a model program, because it all 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. happens in the same space, which actually reduces any kind of wait time. So it's not that the person hasn't had an intervention, like just sitting there without any intervention before the team gets out there, but the time is about an hour and we'd like to cut that down to 45 minutes.
Well, in the field it's not that long a time, but it is too long in reality. We don't want it to take that long. When we do the reviews from the people who have received the services, they actually give us very high marks in terms of things like it came timely, probably because they're on the phone with someone throughout that, but they say the responses are very good. It's a very positive response from the folks. But we agree with the advocates. I mean, we work with them. 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. We have -- particularly Treatment not Trauma is a very excellent group that has been really advocating for the highest quality crisis system possible, and we have representation from them on our advisory board and we work closely and actually credit them with a lot of advancements that we have made, because they have very good ideas, and it's a social work group, but other advocates too. So we agree, which is why we are building those bridge teams.
Council President, I'll hold my questions for the second round. Thank you so much.
The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jim Harrity.
Thank you, Council President. Hello, everyone. My first question is for the Department of Behavioral Health. Are there any 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. affordable mental health programs or resources that residents living in the City of Philadelphia can access without health insurance?
So the Department of Behavioral Health covers for uninsured and underinsured. So treatment is provided through the grant money that we get from the state and feds. You probably -- I know we've talked about this, but 98 percent of our funding comes through those kinds of grant monies through the state and the Medicaid dollars through the feds and state. But you're talking people who are uninsured and, yes, that's what the programs and the treatment is all covered through the Department on the City side for people who are uninsured.
Okay. And for the Department of Health, how can we -- how can the City's health centers be expanded to include more services and refer specialists, and how effective is 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. the Injury Prevention Program and what approaches are being used to reduce gun violence?
Thank you for the question, Councilmember. Regarding the services at the health centers, we actually have had opportunity this year, past fiscal year, to expand a lot of the services there, and I mentioned a couple in terms of cancer prevention services, also the opportunity to build two new health centers. And the second question was on injury?
Yeah. It's on the how effective is the Injury Prevention Program and what approaches are being used to reduce gun violence?
Most of our involvement in ending gun violence at the Health Department has been through our CBI programs and our hospital-based intervention programs. We work closely with those two programs as well as -- let 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. me get this for you so I can make sure I have it right. Yes, the Hospital Violence Intervention Program, the coordinated Community Violence Interruption Program, and the community-based diversion support for youth with firearm offenses. The goal in Fiscal Year '25 is to sort of work with both of those programs, particularly HCVI as well as HVIP to hopefully coordinate and integrate those services a little bit better, because both programs have assets that they could benefit from if we can sort of coordinate and integrate some of their work and eliminate the opportunity from working in more isolation.
All right. Thank you. That's all I got for now, Council President.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes 4/15/24 - WHOLE - BILL 240179, ETC. Councilmember O'Rourke.
Thank you, Council President. I'll stay right there with Public Health for a second. On the question of the Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Program, I wanted to learn more about it. Are those new programs -- I'm a newbie. Please forgive me. Are those new programs or changes to existing programs, and how would Philadelphia's youth access these? Obviously this is something I'm asking in light of gun violence prevention.