In this episode, Sarah sits down with Gary P. Jenkins, Chief Administrative Officer at Urban Pathways to talk about his prior role as Commissioner of the Department of Social Services for the City of New York, his current role at Urban Pathways, and the importance of supportive and rapid rehousing, among other innovative solutions, to addressing the city’s homelessness crisis.
About Our Guest
Gary P. Jenkins is the Chief Administrative Officer at Urban Pathways. Prior to joining the organization, Gary served as the managing director of not-for-profits and social services at Oaktree Solutions.
Gary was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams in January of 2022 as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services (DSS), which oversees both the Human Resources Administration (HRA) and Department of Homeless Services (DHS). In this capacity, he was responsible for leading the largest local social services agency in the country. HRA serves over 3 million New Yorkers through the administration of major public assistance programs and strives to combat poverty and income inequality in New York City. DHS is the largest municipal shelter system in the nation and works to prevent homelessness, when possible, address street homelessness, provide safe temporary shelter, and connect New Yorkers experiencing homelessness to suitable housing. Together, DSS-HRA-DHS have a combined staff headcount of nearly 15,000 and a combined operating budget of nearly $13 billion.
Gary’s 30-plus-year history with DSS-HRA-DHS began with a front-line position in HRA, where he rose through the ranks to become Administrator of HRA, eventually reaching the organization’s pinnacle when he was appointed to serve as Commissioner of DSS. During his tenure as Commissioner, he led the agency’s response to multiple crises, including the COVID-19 public health emergency and a humanitarian crisis when thousands of asylum seekers entered the DHS shelter system.
Transcript
Gary Jenkins (00:01):
How do we create these opportunities that can transform lives? How do we come up with solutions? How are these solutions going to help individuals? When you help an individual, you’re not just helping one person, you’re helping an entire family, you’re helping the community. We really need to understand that collaboration is so important, and really understand that being homeless or living in poverty is not a choice.
Sarah Johnson (00:26):
Welcome to the Pathway Podcast. I’m your host, Sarah Johnson, and thank you for joining us for this episode. Pathway to Tomorrow is a nonprofit with initiatives in housing, environmental conservation, and water security. In this podcast series, we engage with leaders working on solving some of the world’s most challenging problems, by exploring innovative solutions being implemented by leading NGOs, nonprofits, think tanks, companies and institutions focused on issues like homelessness, environmental conservation, climate change and water security.
Our guest today is Gary Jenkins, Chief Administrative Officer at Urban Pathways. Prior to joining this organization, Gary served as the managing director of nonprofits and social services at Oak Tree Solutions.
Gary was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams in January of 2022 as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Social Services, which oversees both the Human Resources Administration and the Department of Homeless Services. In this capacity, Gary was responsible for leading the largest local social services agency in the country. HRA serves over 3 million New Yorkers through the administration of major public assistance programs, and strives to combat poverty and income inequality in New York City.
DHS is the largest municipal shelter system in the nation and works to prevent homelessness. When possible, address street homelessness, provide safe, temporary shelter, and connect New Yorkers experiencing homelessness to suitable housing. Together, the Department of Social Services, the Human Resources Administration and the Department of Homeless Services have a combined staff headcount of nearly 15,000 people and a combined operating budget of nearly $13 billion.
(02:15):
Gary’s 30 plus year history with this organization began with a frontline position in the Human Resources Administration, where he rose through the ranks to become administrator of the HRA, eventually reaching the organization’s pinnacle when he was appointed to serve as Commissioner of the Department of Social Services. During his tenure as commissioner, Gary led the agency’s response to multiple crises, including the Covid 19 pandemic and a humanitarian crisis, where thousands of asylum seekers entered the Department of Homeless Services shelter system.
Sarah Johnson (02:42):
Gary, it’s such a pleasure to have you on today. Thank you so much for joining us.
Gary Jenkins (02:46)
Sarah, thank you so much for having me today. It’s a pleasure being here.
Sarah Johnson (02:49 ):
Thank you. To start us off, Gary, can you tell us a bit about your background as Commissioner for the New York City Department of Social Services and your current work as the Chief Administrative Officer at Urban Pathways?
Gary Jenkins (03:00):
Absolutely. As you mentioned earlier, I started my career within the Department of Social Services within the Human Resources Administration. And HRA, as we fondly call it, it’s really an agency that provides public benefits to those New Yorkers who are in need of those services, such as cash assistance, public health insurance, and SNAP benefits – the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
(03:35):
So I spent my entire career within government, and I retired as the Commissioner for the Department of Social Services, which was comprised of both the HRA and, as mentioned, the Department of Homeless Services. I’m really proud to now be part of Urban Pathways as their inaugural Chief Administrative Officer, where I have oversight of a large portion of the organization – our Chief Program Officer, our Human Resources Administrator, our Compliance Department, our General Counsel and IT. So it’s really a big portion of the organization that reports directly to me, and I’m really proud to be part of this amazing team.
Sarah Johnson (04:08 ):
Thank you for sharing that, Gary. My understanding is that this year is actually the 50th anniversary of Urban Pathways founding. Can you speak to some of the innovative solutions that Urban Pathways has helped advance in the affordable housing and homelessness spaces?
Gary Jenkins (04:23):
Absolutely. We are truly excited to be embarking on our 50th anniversary of Urban Pathways founding. We have various programs that we’re really proud of, such as our Total Wellness, our Street outreach team, our Key to Home, and we recently opened our new Drop-In Center in Manhattan.
So I want to talk about our Drop-In center that we’re excited about. It’s our second Drop-In center here at Urban Pathways. We provide services to those who need services. Our street outreach team engages these individuals. Sarah, as you may know, it may not take that first engagement or that second engagement or that third engagement. But once we build the trust for our brothers and sisters who are residing on the street, they say, yes, they come in. We have case management. We have three square meals a day. They can shower, and then we can also engage them into bringing them into supportive housing or one of our safe havens, where that way they can be engaged. We can work with them on getting onto the road of independence and getting them into supportive housing. I’m really excited about that.
(05:35):
We have our Total Wellness program. That program is really just educating our population on how to stay healthy, on what foods to eat, on how important it is to visit your doctor to understand whatever health crises you are going through, that a primary physician is most equipped. You don’t have to go into an emergency room. We’re really proud that at Urban Pathways we reduced our emergency room visits by 50%, which really tells how important it is to engage our population on the importance of health.
(06:08):
And then we have our Key to Home program, which we are working with individuals coming off the street, bringing them into an apartment, because we really believe in a Housing First model. Once you bring an individual off the street, get them into housing, then we can deal with all of the other complexities that every other New Yorker has to deal with. But the first is bringing them into a home. And so far we were able to bring in around 14 individuals off of the street into their own apartment, with a key in their hand, where they can rest their head at night and know that they’re safe, they’re sound, and they’re also receiving supportive services.
Sarah Johnson (06:46) :
That’s wonderful and such crucial work. Thank you for sharing more about that with us, Gary. So you talked about the importance of supportive and rapid rehousing in your answer to my prior question. Can you define what these are and how you work with city government to help individuals who are experiencing homelessness find permanent housing solutions?
Gary Jenkins (07:04):
Absolutely. So our supportive housing, our population at times needs some extra attention. They need help with navigating living on their own. So we want to make sure again we are using a Housing First model. We want to make sure that individuals are in their homes, but we also recognize that individuals may need that extra support, that extra case management, that extra intervention so that they can live a productive, independent life.
(07:32):
So we have our supportive housing throughout the four boroughs, which is Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. So we have these locations where we have staff on site, and the staff on site is helping them work through and navigate the various processes and services, such as applying for public assistance or identifying a primary care doctor. Or just understanding what services are out there that they’re eligible for. And we can help them work through that process. We also work with our government officials to say, okay, if you need to apply for public assistance, through my former agency, HRA, you can apply for SNAP benefits. You can apply for public health insurance, you can apply for ongoing cash assistance and a rental subsidy.
(08:21):
So those are important interactions that we work with government on because we serve the same population. As a nonprofit, we have that relationship directly with individuals. Some individuals may not be as trusting of the government. That’s where we step in and we help. Rapid rehousing is what I spoke about earlier in regards to Key to Home. So you don’t have to go from living on the street and then go into the shelter system. You can go from living on the street to working with urban pathways, and we help identify permanent housing for these individuals. And while we’re helping them identify the permanent housing, we’re working on long term housing subsidies that they’re eligible for. So we’re helping them through that process. It’s really working well. Again, you know, my background is that I was the Commissioner for the Department of Social Services. I understand that there are processes that may take longer than necessary. But at Urban Pathways, we’ve identified a way that we can cut down on the time it takes from when a person is living on the street to when they’re actually eligible for a long-term housing subsidy.
Sarah Johnson (09:32):
That’s wonderful and such crucial work. Can you talk to us, Gary, a little bit more about Urban pathways’ Total Wellness, and Key to Home programs? You’ve touched on them a little bit already, but if you could dive a little deeper and tell us how investment in health and social services support permanent rehousing and aftercare initiatives, and also save taxpayers money?
Gary Jenkins (09:54):
Absolutely. So we invested in hiring a psychiatrist, Doctor Sidor, who’s an amazing individual. We are really lucky to have him on our team to help us navigate and understand the importance of mental wellness. He’s here, we’re working with him. He’s working with our clients, our population, our residents, to really understand the importance of total wellness. And again, I touched on this earlier, but really going into the locations to really understand what are the challenges for our population? How can we identify a local primary physician that they should build a relationship with and they can understand what are the health benefits of eating right? Understanding your mental wellness, identifying a psychiatrist that’s local based – not having to travel to another borough, but like right nearby that we can identify for that population. It’s really helping. It’s reducing the number of emergency room visits. In the past, a resident would call 911 and you would then have to send emergency personnel to that location, and it may not have been 100% warranted. But if you have a primary care physician, you can now have direct contact with your local primary care physician to understand that I’m going through a challenge, talk them through that challenge. Have ongoing care for that individual. And that’s going to reduce overwhelming the emergency room with non-emergency visits. That’s saving taxpayer dollars.
(11:30):
So that way that emergency vehicle can really go to a true emergency and not to someone who has a headache and believes that, you know, they’re going through more of a crisis with a mental health breakdown. They understand with ongoing treatment that you don’t need to call 911 for those types of emergencies.
Sarah Johnson (11:49)
That’s such an important program. I think a lot of us don’t realize just how much is spent on these health care costs – unanticipated health care costs. And so thank you so much for that important work that you’re doing at Urban Pathways.
My final question, Gary, is what would you say are some of the behavioral changes that need to take place in the public and private sectors, as well as on an individual level, to help advance SDG 1, ending poverty by ensuring adequate access to affordable housing, and also SDG 11 to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable for all?
Gary Jenkins (12:25):
Thank you Sarah. That is such an important question. And you know, when folks and I speak with others externally and they ask me like what’s needed Gary? What behavioral changes are needed? First I say – the public – we need a mindset transformation. We really need to understand that collaboration is so important, and to really understand that being homeless or living in poverty is not a choice. It’s not a choice at all. We have to look at how we can be innovative, of how we can look at issues and challenges with a different mindset, with a mindset towards how do we come up with solutions? How are these solutions going to help individuals?
(13:08):
When you help an individual, you’re not just helping one person, you’re helping an entire family. You’re helping the community. You’re helping your neighbors. You’re helping your mothers, your fathers, your uncles, your brothers. These are folks that live in our communities. When you look at the private sector, you know, we should be inclusive. We should look at how we can create an economy and look at jobs for marginalized communities – to open up to that sector. So that way they can now become independent. I always say you’re not born or you don’t aspire to be homeless. You don’t aspire to live in poverty. You want to be a productive individual in society. So we as a society need to really explore how do we create these opportunities that can transform lives, that can transform the way we think, the way we act and come up with policies that are good for the whole, not just for some.
Sarah Johnson (14:09 ):
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for sharing that, Gary. And again for joining us today. It’s been such a pleasure to learn more about Urban Pathways and your leadership in these spaces of social services, homelessness and affordable housing, such critical work it is.
(14:23):
And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Pathway Podcast to get alerts on new episodes featuring thought leaders working in housing, environmental conservation, climate change and water security.