There are some 16,000 scattered-site supportive housing units across the city, rented and overseen by nonprofits contracted to provide services to tenants. But outdated contracts that trail actual market rents mean the organizations—and the state and city agencies that fund them—are propping up some of the city’s worst housing.
Edu Hermelyn, a Democratic district leader married to party leader and Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, has been named “Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiatives” in the city’s Department of Social Services (DSS)—a position tasked with smoothing relations with local elected officials, according to job listings.
Service providers have urged the city to hire more workers to help move people more quickly out of shelter or public spaces and into permanent housing.
A proposal for the new rent subsidy, dubbed the Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP), may emerge as a bargaining chip amid high-profile legislative battles in Albany. “There is no substitute for the rapid change we could realize by dramatically expanding rental assistance,” said the bill’s sponsor, State Sen. Brian Kavanagh.
‘Thousands of units of supportive housing—affordable housing with onsite support services for people experiencing homelessness who face additional barriers to stability—are standing vacant for months while more than 70,000 New Yorkers remain in shelter and on the streets. This is the ultimate inefficiency.’
Why has the number of homeless New Yorkers grown so much, even as the city spends billions on housing and homeless services? One part of the answer is that over four decades there has been an ongoing and fundamental disconnect between the city’s policies on homelessness and housing.
CityFHEPS, the city’s rental subsidy, can be a life-changing resource for thousands of families and individuals and a crucial intervention for addressing homelessness, stakeholders say. But the administrative process for voucher holders to get approved for permanent housing is an onerous one that undermines the program’s successes.
“What we need to do is to ensure that, no matter how much money you’re making, you can access a free attorney if you’re at risk of eviction,” North Brooklyn Councilmember Lincoln Restler said during an appearance on WBAI’s City Watch Sunday.
For the first time in nearly two years, New York’s expansive COVID-related eviction protections have come to an end for tenants who owe back rent. Landlords are rejoicing, renters are feeling the heat and city officials are bracing for impact.
New Yorkers who owe back rent can once again apply for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) after judge ordered the state to reopen applications, citing what could be a substantial second round of funding in March. But the federal government has yet to approve a new round of cash for the tapped-out fund, and eviction protections end Saturday.
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