NYLAG Senior Staff attorney Deborah Berkman examine issues surrounding shelter access: the allowance of pets, the need for case management services, and the complex processes related to accessing shelter. Below is an excerpt from the testimony:
“If someone were not in fact homeless, they would not seek shelter, nor would they subject themselves and their loved ones to the trauma of the shelter intake process. NYLAG has clients who have gone through intake every ten days for the last year and still have not been found eligible because of this process. Additionally, several clients who found the eligibility process so traumatizing and degrading ultimately opted for street homelessness, put their children into kinship foster care, or opted for unsafe housing. NYLAG has seen clients with mental and physical disabilities face noticeable and tangible deteriorations in their health because of the shelter eligibility process.”
