City records show that the number of people sleeping in shelters nightly this year averaged over 50,000, a number that a new report from the Coalition for the Homeless states is a record high “since modern homelessness emerged three decades ago.” 

The report notes that these numbers do not include “the thousands of New Yorkers displaced by Hurricane Sandy, many of whom comprise extremely low-income households.” The city testified last week that around 1,500 families are still in hotels, YMCAs, and shelters, but Patrick Markee at the Coalition said there are “obviously many more still doubled up with friends or family.”

The report directly calls out Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and holds him responsible for the rise, alleging that had he not discontinued practices that existed under the previous three mayors, the “homeless shelter population” would not have “risen by a staggering 61 percent and the number of homeless families [by] 73 percent.”

“Mayor Bloomberg’s elimination of all affordable housing assistance for homeless families is a major factor behind the historic homelessness crisis,” the report says. “Previous New York City mayors, from Ed Koch to David Dinkins to Rudy Giuliani, targeted Federal and City housing resources to help homeless families relocate from shelters to stable, permanent housing.”

Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond called that accusation “misleading,” noting that permanent housing funding, known as Section 8, was not cut by the mayor, but has been crippled by an absence of financial support from the federal government.

“You can’t have a homeless housing program that is based on something that doesn’t exist,” Diamond said. “It’s unfair to people in the shelter system to tell them this is the answer when it’s not the reality.”

A DHS spokesperson explained that “because it comes from the federal government we never know how many vouchers we will receive; it’s a spigot that turns on and off at the will of Congress.”

The spokesperson also added, “We are not facing the same economy that the previous three mayors faced, we are not facing the same federal resources that the previous three mayors faced. The Coalition needs to realize that it is no longer 1970, we are in a different time that requires different solutions.”

Dispute over the Advantage program

According to Diamond, there are 25 percent less people entering the shelter system in February 2013 than there were in February 2011. The cause of the increase in overall numbers, Diamond said, is the loss of the state-funded Advantage program, which used to provide rent subsidy funds.

Diamond noted that the Coalition lobbied to shutdown the Advantage program, which he said would have granted DHS $150 million to help subsidize the rent of working homeless people moving out of the shelter system.

Bloomberg echoed that point at a press conference today, saying that when the state Advantage program was cut, the city lost federal monies as well.

The Coalition released a statement in response from the organization’s president, Mary Brosnahan, in which she said that “Advantage families were returning to shelter in record numbers.”

A DHS spokesperson emphasized the city’s focus on securing employment for the homeless as “a self-sustaining, investing solution,” and said the city has “seen nearly 20,000 homeless families go to work since 2010 with assistance from this administration,” through various programs, work supports, trainings and education.

The spokesperson also said that New York City is unique in the nation because the city is “mandated by law and court order that every eligible homeless individual and family has a right to shelter.”

In fact, families must undergo an application process to prove eligibility before they are given shelter, but homeless adults currently do not have to prove eligibility to stay in a shelter, though the city has been working in court to change that.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

The post Report: Record 50,000 homeless now in NYC appeared first on Metro.us.

In answer to a recent question from a reporter, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there are no homeless people sleeping on the street.

The backlash was immediate: people were quick to point out that even by the city’s own estimates, there are more than 3,000 New Yorkers sleeping on the streets and in the subway.

But the comment was made in the context of victims of Hurricane Sandy, and in the context of a longer answer, wherein the mayor said the city’s goal is to make sure that people who most need housing and shelter services get those services.

However, according to Patrick Markee at the Coalition for the Homeless, the city regularly does not practice this philosophy, as public housing priority actually is not given to the neediest New Yorkers.

“What the city used to do is give priorities to homeless families — the groups [getting priority] now are the least poor of the poor,” Markee said.

There are approximately 180,000 NYCHA public housing units in New York City, and Markee said that prior to Bloomberg’s tenure as mayor, homeless families were given priority for some of those units.

A priority list provided by NYCHA showed that first priority goes to referrals from other city agencies, which would mean the individuals have already gone through the intake system of those various agencies. Second priority goes to domestic violence victims and intimidated witnesses; and third to those who have been ordered by the government to vacate spaces declared uninhabitable or needed for public housing or “public improvement.”

Fourth and last priority is people living in substandard conditions: the homeless or involuntarily displaced — evicted, for example — or people living in over-crowded public or private housing.

Heather Janik at the Department of Homeless Services said there are 164,000 households on the waiting list for public housing, which is the equivalent of a more than seven-year waiting list.

A major problem, Markee said, is that there is simply not enough affordable housing to go around.

According to Markee, investing in permanent housing resources could minimize street homelessness and lessen the burden on city shelters in a matter of months.

Outreach this Saturday with Bowery Mission
Trinity Baptist Church at 250 East 61st Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues
- volunteer training starts at 3pm
- covering 23rd Street to 110th Street from 5th Avenue to the FDR
RSVP at www.dontwalkby.org

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

The post City in Need: New York’s homeless struggle appeared first on Metro.us.

On February 14th, Appellate Court Judge Judith Gische upheld a previous trial court decision ruling in a case brought by the City Council against the Department of Homeless Services. The decision ruled in favor of the Council, and meant that DHS cannot require homeless individuals to prove they have nowhere else to stay before allowing them into a shelter.

Speaker Christine Quinn praised the ruling as preventing a burden from being placed on those who are most vulnerable — requiring people with little access of resources to prove just how needy they are.

There has long been a policy that places that burden of proof on homeless families. This case applied only to homeless adults.

City shelters are obligated to accept all adults, but there are limits on the amount of time a person can stay in a given shelter.

However, as DHS Chancellor Seth Diamond pointed out in a statement, the ruling does not apply to the merits of the policy, just the way it was put in effect.

The city attempted to implement it without going through a public hearings process.

The city can now appeal this ruling, accept it and drop the intended policy, or accept it and go through the public hearings process.

In the same statement, Diamond said the decision “will force the city to build more shelters in neighborhoods throughout the city,” and that the city is “confident that city taxpayers and community groups, especially those who object to new shelter proposals” would be in favor of the proof-of-eligibility policy.

City comptroller John Liu recently rejected a plan for a homeless shelter on the grounds that they are overly concentrated in certain areas, though did not propose what areas shelters could be built in; Brooklyn Community Board 6 rejected a homeless shelter on 165 West 19th Street last November.

By the city’s own count, there are over 3,000 people living on the street and 49,000 people living in shelters. 20,000 of those in shelters are children.

Follow Danielle Tcholakian on Twitter @danielleiat

The post City loses homeless lawsuit appeared first on Metro.us.