Mayor's management report department of homless services (NYC) performance measures - Essay Example

28 February 2007 Mayor's Management Report Department of Homeless Services (NYC) - Performance Measures Introduction Homelessness has always remained a major concern for municipalities of towns and cities across the globe. New York City is a city with a staggering homeless population; experiencing a profound shortage of available housing at every rental level; a problem that has persisted throughout the city's history. To address this ill, chronic issue, in year 1993, the city government of New York City, established the Department of Homeless Services (DHS). Since then, all activities, resources and facilities; projects, inputs and workload; performance, statistical measurements and results of DHS, are published in annual Mayor's Management Report. The paper addresses the mission, goals and objectives of Department of Homeless Services. It quantitatively analyze the performance highlights of Mayor's Management Report and discusses the DHS methodology in context to Six Sigma or the Theory of Constraints. Finally different features of performance measures are given. Department of Homeless Services Homelessness is an ill and burgeoning phenomenon for human being; a disproportionate coercion against the health and well-being of masses who endure its deprivations. Homelessness badly upsets the most vulnerable group of society whose life chances and life expectancies are already reduced by poverty, discrimination, mental illness, substance abuse and other disabilities (Barrow 529). Although homelessness has always posed a major concern for small towns and large cities all across America yet a record chronic increase in the number of homeless people in New York City have been observed throughout the city's history. To analyze the issue different studies and surveys were conducted by both government and private organizations and all showed an unprecedented growth in numbers of homeless people. For example according to a survey conducted by United Nations cyberschool bus (1985) an estimate number of homeless in Manhattans alone run as high as 90,000. 'This crisis can be best described as a national epidemic of homelessness that is destroying the family life and health of the poor, and affecting the most vulnerable section of the population- children' (Whyte 2004). In order to deal with this epidemic crisis, in 1993 the city government of New York established the Department of Homeless Services (DHS). "The mission of the Department of Homeless Services is to overcome the homelessness in New York City" (PMM Report 2007). After six years in 1999, DHS was given an independent Mayoral agency status. The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) instigated its course of action with following long-term goals as given in Mayor's annual reports. Prevent homelessness. Conduct outreach to street homeless individuals. Provide temporary emergency shelter for eligible homeless people. Work with homeless individuals and families to develop and implement independent. To pursuit these long term goals Department of Homeless Services set following critical objectives. Increase the number of people prevented from becoming homeless. Reduce street homelessness. Ensure the availability of temporary shelter for homeless individuals and families. Maintain shelter safety and cleanliness. Increase client engagement and responsibility in moving to permanent housing. Reduce clients' length of stay in shelters. Increase placements into permanent housing. Reduce re-entries into the shelter services system (PMM Report 2007). MMR Performance Measures Analysis Quantitative Analysis The statistics given in MMR against the key service area of DHS to prevent homelessness has a mix trend. MMR shows that the number of families entering the shelter system for the first time rose by 24 % for the first four month of fiscal year 2006 compared to the same period for last year. 'DHS is closely monitoring the this increase and working with new families along with its various service providers, partner agencies, and trying to reverse this trend and increase the number of people prevented from being homeless' (MMR Report, 2007). The over all increase for whole year 2006 remains little below 7 % with 6.7% actual value. The number of families receiving preventive services and who did not enter the shelter system (%) declined from 96 % to 92% i. e; 5.8 % (%). Similarly a decrease of 3.01% is found in the number of adults receiving preventive services while the number of adult who did not reside 21 days or more in the shelter system (%) reduces to 1.62 % for first four months of year 2006. The unsheltered individuals that are estimated to be living on the streets, in parks, under highways, on subways, and in the public transportation stations in New York City reduces to 12.56 % compared to fiscal year 2005. The single adults placed in temporary housing by outreach teams decline from 5,496 to 4,606. This is a 16.19 % reduction. An increase of 6 % for first four months compare to same period of previous year is observed in outreach contacts that result in placement into temporary housing. Over all a 4.35% increase is measured throughout the year. DHS has provided 7.8 % more temporary emergency shelter for eligible homeless families for fiscal year 2007 compare to same period of year 2006 This increase is most dramatically seen in the average number of adult families in shelter per day, which reached a historic high of 1,395 in October 2006. DHS is implementing a new and improved strategy aimed to overcome the homelessness for families. The number of single adults in shelters drops per day went down from 7,842 for year 2006 to 7,394 for year 2007 (5.71 %). The families applying for shelter services that were found eligible without having to repeat the application process decreases 8.26% where as the families suitably placed in the shelter services system within 10 days, increases to 1.83 %. Single adults suitably placed in the shelter services system within 21 days drop from 92.5% to 90.4%. The families availing the shelter services system according to their youngest school-aged child's school address and single adults suitably placed in the shelter services system within 21 days (%) decreases by 4% and 2.27 % respectively. The safety, maintenance and cleanliness deficiencies noted on independent inspections of adult shelters improved to 9 %. Critical incidents ratio for both family and adult Shelter system remained below 5 per 1000 resident (4.5 & 3.2 are actual values). In context to DHS work with homeless individuals and families to develop and implement independent living plans; preliminary an increase result of 15.32 % is obtained for single adults who has given a permanent housing while in case of families placed into permanent housing is decline of 2%is observed. Performance statistics for families who experienced more than one facility transfer and the average length of their stay in temporary housing remained same as was in previous year 2006. Families placed into permanent housing which returned back to the DHS shelter services system within one year increases 33% in first for months of year 2007. Single adults placed into permanent housing who return to the DHS shelter services system within one year decreases from15.0% to 13.5%. The 311 Citizen Service Center received 27,879 DHS- related inquiries from July through October 2006, an increase of 37.73 % more compare to fiscal year 2005. MMR also estimated the DHS resources for fiscal years 2006 to 2008. An increase of 6.5% for first four months of year 2007 is observed. Over all a 3.72 % increase in agency resources excluding personal expenditures for year 2006-7 and a decrease of 5.64 % for year 2007-8 is projected. Qualitative Analysis The success of a DHS program depends on how well its performance indicators are defined. Performance indicators are the measures that describe the progress made by a program in achieving its objectives. They tell specifically what to measure and whether the stated objective has been achieved or not (USAID Center for Development Information and Evaluation 1996). The achievements of a program are directly link with reliable and well-timed data. Performance indicators first define the nature of data to be collected and then on the basis of evaluation of this data a progress is measured and finally actual results (achieved over time) are compared with planned results. Hence performance indicators act just like a heart for program monitoring systems and are indispensable tools for making performance based decisions about program strategies and activities. The Mayor's Management Report for Fiscal Year 2007 indicates more than two dozen performance measure indicators. Although the selection of an appropriate and useful performance indicators is a fairly simple process, yet it requires a careful thought, iterative refining, collaboration and consensus building. A few observations about the performance indicators given in Mayor's Management Report-Department of Homeless Services (NYC) are given below. All are Quantitative performance measure indicators except the indicator "Safety, maintenance and cleanliness deficiencies noted on independent inspections of adult shelters". The direct and adequate nature of all performance indicators is clearly defined. The performance indicator "Families who experience more than one facility transfer (%)" gives overly broad results statements as "more than one facility" statement creates an ambiguity the type of about facility. All performance indicators give no idea about disaggregated aspect i. e; gender, age, location, or some other dimension. If DHS's strategies and ambitious homelessness action plan to eradicate the homelessness is seen in context to Six Sigma or the Theory of Constraints then following outcome can be observed as- theory of Constraints (TOC) is based on the idea that in any complex system at any point in time, there is only one or at most, very few aspects of the system keeping that system from achieving more of its goal. These constraints, if properly identified and broken, provide the fastest route to significant improvement for the system and can provide the basis for long term, strategic improvement (Wikipedia 2007). Six Sigma is a high-performance, data-driven approach to analyzing the root causes of business problems and solving them. It is originally defined for measuring defects and improving quality, and a methodology to reduce defect levels below 3.4 (Wikipedia 2007). Both TOC & Six Sigma do not give any idea about the nature of constrain. Homelessness is a dynamic natured constrain having causes like the lack of affordable housing, lack of needed services for mental health and substance abuse problems, low- paying jobs, unemployment, domestic violence an poverty hence although DHS's strategic methodology resembles with TOC & Six Sigma yet both have limitations. Performance Measures to Make Report More Useful Performance measures are tools or indicators of the success in achieving a given goal or objective (Vries, 2001). Following performance measures can be used to make Mayor's Management Report-Department of Homeless Services (NYC) more useful. Direct. If a performance measure is pegged as accurate as possible i, e; it gives a result very close to result it is intended to measure, it is said to be a direct performance measure. Objective. An objective indicator clearly defines what is being measured. Adequate. Adequate performance indicators is a group of performance measures or indicators that measure the results in questions. Quantitative or Qualitative. A performance measure is said to be quantitative if it gives a numerical value, and if it express a descriptive observation then it is termed as qualitative indicators. Disaggregated. Disaggregated performance indicators are based on gender, age, location, or some other dimension. Practical. An indicator is practical if data can be obtained in a timely way and at a reasonable cost. Reliable. The reliable performance indicator gives the authenticity of data for decision-making. Few changes and corrections are also observed in MMR for year 2006. In the Fiscal 2006 Mayor's Management Report, data for 'Families applying for shelter services who were found eligible without having to repeat the application process (%)' was listed incorrectly at 75.8percent. The correct figure is 71.0 percent. Beginning with the Preliminary Fiscal 2007 Mayor's Management Report, the indicator 'Families receiving preventive services that did not enter the shelter system' represents those families who were not found eligible for shelter for 18 continuous months after their initial contact. For the first time since Home Base started in Fiscal 2005, this indicator is calculated from the pool of all enrollees in the Home Base program who have had a full 18 months since enrollment. Beginning with the Preliminary Fiscal 2007 Mayor's Management Report's the indicator 'Adults receiving preventive services who did not reside 21 days or more in the shelter system' represents those adults who did not reside 21 days or more in shelter for 18 continuous months after their initial contact. For the first time since Home Base started in Fiscal 2005, this indicator is calculated from the pool of all enrollees in the Home Base program who have had a full 18 months since enrollment. Preliminary Fiscal 2006 data on families placed into permanent housing have been updated; the numbers are highlighted in bold (MMR 2007). By exploring and uprooting the real cause of homelessness the Department of Homelessness Services will be able to tailor prevention efforts to serve populations that are at an imminent risk of homelessness. Work Cited de Vries, W. "Performance, quality, management. How statistical offices try to do better, (September 2001). 27 February 2007. MAYOR'S MANAGEMENT REPORT Department Of Homeless Services. (2007). City of New York. 27 February 2007. Susan M. Barrow, S. M. "Mortality among Homeless Shelter Residents in New York City." American Journal of Public Health 89.4 (April. 1999): 529-533. 28 February 2007 United Nations Cyberschool bus. (n. d.) United Nations. 27 February 2007. < http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/habitat/profiles/newyork.asp > USAID Center for Development Information and Evaluation. (1996). "Performance Monitoring and Evaluating Tips." CDIE's Tips Series. 27 February 2007 Whyte, A. "Nearly half of New York City's homeless are children." World Socialist Web Site. (7 January 2004). 27 February 2007. < http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jan2004/nyc-j07.shtml#top > Wikipedia- free encyclopedia (2007). 27 February Read More