NYC’s Director of Social Services said in the face of an investigation into the shelter’s failure

New York City’s Social Services Commissioner is under investigation for handling Two people with knowledge of the investigation said on Monday there were cases where homeless families had to stay overnight at the Bronx admissions office while applying for shelter last month.

An overnight stay in the office violates the city’s temporary residency law and is considered officials scramble to deal with the increase in family participation in the systemmany of them are newly arrived migrants and asylum seekers from the country’s southern border.

The investigation, which is being conducted by the city’s Department of Investigation, concerns allegations that the social services commissioner, Gary Jenkins, sought to conceal that people had slept at the receiving office, according to reports. a former top official with the city’s Department of Homeless Services. and another person with knowledge of the investigation.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services, who was fired on August 5, Julia Savel, was interviewed for three hours on Monday by Bureau of Investigation officials, one of whom said: know. A reporter for The New York Times saw Ms. Savel leave the office building on Maiden Lane in the financial district where the Bureau of Investigation is located.

NBC New York reported last week that Ms. Savel was terminated after she challenged Mr. Jenkins’ handling of the overnight stay. NBC New York also reported on the investigation involving Mr. Jenkins.

On July 20, as news of the violations spread, Ms. Savel, in a message cited by NBC New York, texted a colleague who worked in the mayor’s press office that Mr. “trying not to tell City Hall that we broke the law.”

She also wrote: “I just can’t work for an ordinary person who can accept the cover-up of something illegal.”

On Friday, Mayor Eric Adams defended Mr Jenkins and said Ms Savel had not been fired for “her communications”. Mr. Adams declined to provide more details.

On Monday at a news conference, Mr Adams said he had “absolute confidence” in Mr Jenkins and said there was “no attempt” to cover anything up.

The Bureau of Investigation will not officially confirm the investigation on Friday, only saying of the allegations against Mr Jenkins that “the DOI was aware of this matter and declined to comment further.”

Much about the overnight stay at the admissions office, in which everyone sleeps on the floor and in chairs, is murky and contested, but this is clear: From the late hours of July 17 to the next morning, some families spent the night. there.

Mr. Jenkins’ text messages to Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom show he told her on the morning of July 18 that people had stayed overnight at the reception center and that he understood this should have been done. should not happen.

“It’s getting nasty,” Mr Jenkins wrote in a text message. (The messages were provided to The New York Times by a person familiar with the city’s efforts to keep families at the reception office.)

According to the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Legal Aid Association, the city’s temporary shelter system must be publicly listed “Daily report“Anytime a family applies for temporary shelter ends up spending the night at the receiving office rather than being taken to a temporary shelter.

The city did not list overnight stayers in that day’s report. The Legal Aid Association said it learned about them a day later, on July 19, from a reporter for NBC New York, and it later confronted city officials.

City officials insist that it was they who took the initiative to contact society on July 19, and not vice versa, to notify them of overnight stays.

The city also denied accounts of some families who said they spent several nights at the admissions office last month.

In testimony before the City Council last week, an attorney for the New York Legal Aid Group said that her client included another family who stayed at the reception center for two nights, along with another family. Another family from Venezuela stayed at the reception center for four. nights.

The city insisted that people only stay at the reception center on the night of July 17, and four families did.

On July 20th, Legal Aid Association accuse the city about “efforts to hide the undue harm that is being done to these vulnerable families.”

By law, those who arrive at the admissions office before 10 p.m. must be put into shelter by 4 a.m. But migrants and advocates say the long queues to get into the office cause some to arrive. in the evening missed 10 o’clock. afternoon cut time, so they are not counted as those who are required to stay that night. Mr. Jenkins said at a City Council hearing last week that it is possible that those waiting for placement who arrived before 10 p.m. “could close their eyes” in the meantime.

Adams spokesman Fabien Levy said that the reason the city didn’t initially report overnight stays on the night of July 17 was because neither Mr. Jenkins nor Ms. Williams-Isom was aware of the request. legal at that time. , not because they’re trying to hide something.

Mr Levy said Ms Savel’s texts were misleading and were from a “junior employee” who was “agnostic about conversations between our leadership teams.”

Mr. Jenkins has been with the Department of Social Services since at least 2000. Joslyn Carter, who leads the Department of Homeless Services and reports to Mr. Jenkins, is a former director of the admissions center where people have stayed overnight.

The former top homeless services official with knowledge of the investigation said that the city’s claim that Mr Jenkins was unaware of the overnight stay should be reported as unreliable.

The person said that as soon as they started coming to the department, they were told that if anyone was to spend the night at the family admission center, the city was obligated to notify the Legal Aid Association.

Jeffery C. Mays contribution report.