Wednesday, 19 January
Today I was at it bright and early. The Wagner School of Public Service at NYU was hosting a Panel Discussion on "New York City's Homeless Policies" that began at 8 am at the Puck Building, just south of Houston (pronounced "How-stun") on Lafayette St. I made it on time to reserve seats for the Grant Writer, Lead Advocate and Lead Attourney. On the Panel was the Deputy Commissioner for Policy and Planning for the NYC Dept of Homeless Services (NYCDHS or just DHS), the Executive Director for the Council on Homeless Policies and Serivces, the Executive Director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York and the Executive Director of the Bowery Residents Committee.
Essentially, they were discussing what our Advocate had discussed with us yesterday, only in bigger, more positive terms (because the person from DHS and Bowery were proponents of the new HSP programme). It was interesting to hear about the new policy from the other side of the table. Quite a few local advocates from the community were there, at least in part, to take up issue with the new HSP programme. Some of their concerns were addressed during the Q&A session. A few of those hit a nerve and the tension could be sliced right through. It was exciting to be two rows from the stage, in the presence of the panelists, whose every facial expressions were seen by me. I felt like I was taking part in Democracy, I'm that nerdy.
After the panel we went back to the office. I worked on last minute details for the panel discussion tomorrow, burned off copies of the packets (30) we'll be handing out tomorrow and searched for recording equipment for the discussion. We decided that a tape recording of it would work just as well as video taping it, but I found a new digital camera and played with it until it was time to leave, trying to figure how to work it, as no one had the time to help me. I took it, along with the 30, 20 page packets home with me (I need with me when I go to work because I wasn't stopping by the office before going to NYU). I also looked up the building code violations for the 10 Section 8/FaF clients the Advocate wanted me to get the phone numbers from FaF tomorrow (the plan is for us to just start small and look up the addresses of the most problematic buildings) and made printouts (and took them home with me to take to FaF right after the panel discussion tomorroow) of their entire Violations Summary Report.
I worked 9.5 hours today.
Essentially, they were discussing what our Advocate had discussed with us yesterday, only in bigger, more positive terms (because the person from DHS and Bowery were proponents of the new HSP programme). It was interesting to hear about the new policy from the other side of the table. Quite a few local advocates from the community were there, at least in part, to take up issue with the new HSP programme. Some of their concerns were addressed during the Q&A session. A few of those hit a nerve and the tension could be sliced right through. It was exciting to be two rows from the stage, in the presence of the panelists, whose every facial expressions were seen by me. I felt like I was taking part in Democracy, I'm that nerdy.
After the panel we went back to the office. I worked on last minute details for the panel discussion tomorrow, burned off copies of the packets (30) we'll be handing out tomorrow and searched for recording equipment for the discussion. We decided that a tape recording of it would work just as well as video taping it, but I found a new digital camera and played with it until it was time to leave, trying to figure how to work it, as no one had the time to help me. I took it, along with the 30, 20 page packets home with me (I need with me when I go to work because I wasn't stopping by the office before going to NYU). I also looked up the building code violations for the 10 Section 8/FaF clients the Advocate wanted me to get the phone numbers from FaF tomorrow (the plan is for us to just start small and look up the addresses of the most problematic buildings) and made printouts (and took them home with me to take to FaF right after the panel discussion tomorroow) of their entire Violations Summary Report.
I worked 9.5 hours today.
posted by Ruth at 7:39 PM
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