City & State New York
July 24, 2017
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NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF HOMELESS SERVICES
EW YORK CITY nonprofit homeless services providers welcomed the appointment of Joslyn Carter to lead the city’s Department of Homeless Services on July 10. Her appointment fills a role that’s been largely vacant since Commissioner Gilbert Taylor stepped down in December 2015 with an individual who knows the agency well and has skills providers said may help the department fine-tune its focus and operations. Despite a number of new initiatives from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, the number of homeless New Yorkers remains stubbornly high – with more than 58,000 people recently staying in city shelters. Also, this year’s street count of the city’s
Carter, a 13-year veteran of DHS, most recently served as the associate commissioner of family intake, which oversees the Prevention Assistance and Temporary Housing intake site in the Bronx where families apply for shelter. She has also worked as a social worker in Kings County Hospital, as a director of social services at the American Red Cross and as director of preventive services at Talbot Services Children Services. “Having dedicated the majority of my working life to the Department of Homeless Services, I’m honored and excited to have the opportunity to help lead the implementation of the mayor’s new borough-based approach at DHS,” Carter said in a statement. Christine Quinn, the president and CEO of Win, which houses nearly 10 percent of the city’s homeless families, told
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braced in its contracting and other processes with shelter providers.” Joshua Goldfein, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, told Crain’s New York Business that Carter’s appointment shows DHS is not planning to diverge much from its current path. “They’ve promoted somebody from inside, so that suggests that they’re not looking for a wholesale change,” he said. Catherine Trapani, the executive director of Homeless Services United, a group representing shelter and service providers, said it was heartening that DHS promoted from within to lend some stability to the agency, given the changes and new initiatives since the start of the de Blasio administration. She also echoed Quinn’s optimism that Carter’s experience focusing on
“WE REALLY BELIEVE THAT MUCH OF HER VISION IS EXACTLY WHAT OUR VISION IS FOR DEALING WITH FAMILY HOMELESSNESS.” — CHRISTINE QUINN, president and CEO of Win homeless population was 40 percent higher than last year’s. After reviewing its approach to homelessness, de Blasio proposed a “borough-based” strategy for opening shelters in February, with 90 new ones to open across the city over the next five years. By doing so, the de Blasio administration is – somewhat controversially – hoping to locate shelters closer to displaced residents’s support networks, schools and families. Carter’s role in implementing this approach may be diminished compared with her predecessor, as de Blasio has wrapped the office into the Department of Social Services under Commissioner Steven Banks – to whom the heads of both Homeless Services and the Human Resources Administration report. As administrator, Carter will handle day-to-day operations and hands-on management, according to the mayor’s office.
New York Nonprofit Media she was happy to see Carter’s experience managing family homelessness – since at one point, homeless families comprised roughly 75 percent of those living in shelters. Shelters oriented for families have special requirements and should include playgrounds, counseling rooms and internet access, Quinn added. Based on her understanding of Carter’s working style, Carter has been able to leverage her agency expertise without being too entrenched to accept input from outside service providers, Quinn said. “To quote my staff, she’s somebody you can deal with and someone you can work with, so I don’t have that fear,” she said. Quinn said she also looked forward to working with Carter to expand services and funding for children affected by the trauma of homelessness: “I think that’s not something that the city has fully em-
children and families would help update the agency’s focus. Trapani said it was still too early to assess whether the realignment of DHS under the Department of Social Services has been a success – particularly with roles like Carter’s sitting vacant – but found a “certain logic and poetry” in linking the agency with the HRA, which manages rental assistance and other benefits to prevent homelessness. Trapani said DHS could benefit from having a manager like Carter to push through changes such as updating the shelter funding model and adding programming to facilities. “This is somebody that can really shepherd through all of the various reforms that are in midstream because they understand the way the agency functions,” she said. “The administration has articulated what it wants to accomplish,” she added. “We just need somebody that’s going to get us there.”
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