Asylum Seeker
Case Study
We are helping New York City cope with the influx of asylum seekers by staffing more than 50 sanctuary hotel sites with upwards of 3,500 social service staff
We are helping New York City cope with the influx of asylum seekers by staffing more than 50 sanctuary hotel sites with upwards of 3,500 social service staff
Problem
New York City was faced with a situation it had never faced before – the need to find housing for upwards of 100,000 asylum seekers. The plan was to negotiate the leasing of 100+ hotels and turn the hotels over to Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to manage. CBOs were solicited through a rolling RFP process.
Unfortunately, not enough CBOs could be found to manage all the sites or the ones that were enlisted did not have the resources to immediately take over. As a result, Department of Homeless Services (DHS) staff were being used on overtime to provide case management and other services at the hotels after doing their regular jobs. This clearly was not a long-term solution, nor were there enough staff to handle the increasing number of sites.
Solution
We proposed that, on an interim basis, until CBOs were able to fully manage the sites, DHS should initiate an emergency contract with us to provide community associates, resident advisors, and shift supervisors at each site on a 24/7 basis. Community associates would welcome asylum seekers and provided day-to-day support. Resident advisors, generally with social service backgrounds, would assess asylum seekers’ needs and provide more technical assistance. Shift supervisors would provide high level support, documentation, and coordination with City officials. To ensure consistent training, we would work with DHS to schedule the staff into various DHS-led training including Understanding Homelessness, Cultural Sensitivity, Violence Awareness, Trauma-Informed Approaches, and more.
Given the scale of the project, in addition to the capabilities of the 75+ recruiters our firm ad to identify talent, we proposed utilizing our unique Consortium Partner model, which would expand our reach by subcontracting with numerous NY-based staffing firms, many M/WBEs, and all members of the NY Staffing Association or the American Staffing Association who are committed to a strong industry code of ethics.
With the strength of the resources of ten staffing firms coordinated by us, we staffed eight temporary shelters across the City within one week. We provided hundreds of staff within days to staff these sites and afford city staff the ability to return to their daily duties. As New York City’s number of temporary shelters grew from 8 to more than 50, the number of our social service staff required on a weekly basis grew from a few hundred to a few thousand. This innovative approach allowed a rapid scale-up of the staff needed to reach the current level of 3,500 multilingual, culturally sensitive skilled staff members.
In weekly meetings, we have worked with the City to map out the project from the beginning.
We are currently at 55 hotels with 12 hour shifts and 24/7 coverage. We fulfill more than 3,500 shifts every week.
Our bilingual community associates, residential advisors, and shift supervisors serve thousands daily.
We are also providing RNs, Physician Assistants, and Nurse Practitioners to 3 hotel-based medical clinics.
We are also providing Supervising Attorneys and Bilingual Application Completion Specialists to assist the Asylees.
Additional Assistance
As New York City continued to ramp its services for asylum seekers, it offered our firm a second emergency contract to recruit and provide approximately 100 immigration attorneys and legal professionals to staff a center the city developed to help asylees with the asylum application process. We also offered our software, free of charge, for the City to use to schedule the dozens of pro-bono immigration attorneys who volunteered to assist at the center along with our staff. Recently a satellite site has been opened where we provided the staff to expand services even more.
In addition, through a separate contract our firm holds with a third-party provider, we are providing RNs, Physician Assistants, and Nurse Practitioners to three hotel-based medical clinics to assist the asylees.
READY TO ACHIEVE YOUR
SUCCESS STORY?
Let us use the expertise we have gained from this and other projects across the country to help with your emergency staffing needs. We bring a unique perspective that can only be gained from working in numerous emergency situations in which we have excelled, including homelessness, health emergencies, hurricane relief, asylee care, suicide prevention, and more.
Read Other Case Studies
