If neighborhoods don’t want the shelters New York City needs, make them a better offer like the one Mayor Koch developed during an earlier era’s housing emergency: promising that today’s shelter will be tomorrow’s community resource.
New York is once again set to count the youths who live on its streets. But this advocate believes the way the count is done, and the policy context in which it’s occurring, make it certain to be way off mark.
A lack of supportive housing and the tendency of many landlords to refused city housing vouchers mean that many formerly incarcerated people end up in shelters or on the street.
It’s not just that the state holds some offenders beyond their release date because of a lack of housing that meets legal requirements. It’s the murky geography and political dynamics that make finding a bed so difficult.
The mayor sharply increased the number of housing placements for shelter residents. But ‘the steep increase in the number of newly homeless families is cause for great concern,’ the report finds.
Nearly 12 percent of the shelter population lives in hotel rooms. The arrangement is faulted for its cost and impact, but with 60,000 homeless, a ‘cluster-site’ program under fire and no shortage of NIMBY grandstanding against new shelters, it’s not likely to disappear.
‘There exists a moral obligation to help the most vulnerable and afflicted populations in our society. This entails prioritizing housing for those in need, including individuals living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. ‘
‘Rather than demanding that the city site shelters anywhere but in their backyards, protesters should direct their passion toward urging our elected leaders to provide the only proven solution to homelessness: decent, affordable housing.’
Supportive housing works. But some works better than the rest. Providers are using their experiences during the first 26 years of supportive housing construction to refine their model as a new wave looms.
The campaign aims to increase Renewal Farm’s acreage by 50 percent, giving men in recovery more therapeutic work experience and increasing the amount of fresh, organic produce that the Farm distributes to Hudson Valley restaurants and local charities.
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