Showing Posts by Date: 08/2013
08.28.2013
Public housing authorities (PHAs) across the country are feeling the dire effects of sequestration. With budgets sharply curtailed as a result of the 2011 Budget Control Act, housing authorities have had to freeze the issuance of Section 8 vouchers for low-income individuals and families. Media outlets have begun to cover this crisis, as illustrated by these recent articles on sequestration’s effects in Vermont and Jacksonville.
To add to the current wealth of dismal data, we’ve just received some startling numbers from the Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers. The Yonkers PHA recently un-froze its Section 8 wait-list and received a staggering 11,000 applications in just a single week.
In an average year, 100 Section 8 households open up due to turnover in Yonkers. It’d thus take 110 years to work through the wait-list generated in seven days. In short, the demand for this housing wildly exceeds the current supply.
Sequestration has made this dire situation worse. The 5.1% sequestration effectively defunded 230 Section 8 vouchers in Yonkers. That’s a little more than 5% of the city’s total. The PHA is removing these vouchers by attrition. As a result, Yonkers will have NO Section 8 lease-ups for at least the next several years.
Continue Reading …08.27.2013
Governor Cuomo has announced $22.2 million in capital funding awards to develop seven new housing programs across New York State. Six of the awards will aid the construction of supportive housing residences. The grants, administered through the NYS Office of Temporary Disability and Assistance (OTDA)’s Homeless Housing and Assistance Program (HHAP), will help create 469 units of supportive housing in Albany, Bronx, Kings, Monroe and Westchester Counties.
“Supportive housing is essential to breaking the cycle of homelessness for New York’s most vulnerable individuals and families,” Governor Cuomo said. “Increasing the supply of supportive housing units not only provides vital assistance to New Yorkers in need, but also improves the efficiency of Medicaid by reducing emergency room visits, hospitalizations and lengths of stay in long-term care facilities.”
All six supportive housing projects are being developed by Network members: CAMBA Housing Ventures, Concern for Independent Living, DePaul Properties, New Destiny Housing, Westhab and Support Ministries. The supportive housing awards range from $1.1 million to $6 million.
Among the awardees was Concern’s Norwood Terrace, a Bronx-based project expected for completion in 2016.
Continue Reading … | New York State08.26.2013
The NYS Office of Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) has just released a new Request for Proposals (RFP) for 70 units of NY/NY III supportive housing for chronically homeless families or families at serious risk of becoming chronically homeless in New York City in which the head of household has a substance use disorder. This classification marks this as NY/NY III Population G supportive housing. There is a total of $1,750,000 in available funding for this initiative.
You can read the RFP here.
Eligible applicants must be OASAS-certified social services or voluntary agencies. The RFP is for qualified social service agencies to provide up to 70 supportive housing apartment units for chronically homeless families or homeless families at serious risk of becoming chronically homeless in which the head of household suffers from a substance abuse disorder or a disabling medical condition. In an effort to serve underserved areas, there will be an award preference for both Staten Island (Richmond) and Queens Counties. OASAS will seek to award 20 to 30 units to agencies who submit proposals for housing in Staten Island and Queens.
These units can be provided under these two approaches:
Continue Reading … | Funding08.23.2013
(left) NYC Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Mathew Wambua accepts his award as Government Partner of the Year at the Network’s 2012 Awards Gala. (right) Incoming HPD Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas. Ms Visnauskas currently serves as the agency's Deputy Commissioner for Development.
After two and a half years at the helm, Mathew Wambua has announced the end of his tenure as Commissioner of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).
Beginning next month, the commissioner will leave HPD to join the ranks of Richman Housing as President of RHR Funding LLC.
Commissioner Wambua's time has been an exciting one at HPD. At the Network's 2012 New York State Supportive Housing Conference, the commissioner announced an ambitious new plan from HPD to double its annual production of supportive housing, from 500 to 1,000 units every year. Despite enormous cuts in federal aid, HPD has kept this record-level commitment and is on target to meet its goals. For this and many other reasons, Commissioner Wambua was awarded the Government Partner of the Year award at our 2012 Awards Gala.
"It has been an honor to work with some of the most dedicated and compassionate public servants in the business," Commissioner Wambua said. "The knowledge that the work we do represents an investment in the future of New Yorkers and their families is why we are so passionate about our mission at HPD."
Continue Reading … | New York City08.22.2013
New York’s Democratic mayoral candidates clashed over an array of issues this week at the first of several televised debates. The debate, though substantive in many ways, didn’t include a single question on affordable housing or homelessness.
This came as a surprise to us at the Housing First! coalition. In pre-debate talk shows such as WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show and The Call on NY1, callers expressed repeated concerns about the state of affordable housing in New York City. There’s a growing frustration among families who are being priced out of their hometown and spending far more than they can afford on housing. Right now, 33% of New Yorkers spend more than half of their income on rent. For low-income families, that figure is 66%. That kind of rent burden forces families to make difficult choices between rent, food and medicine each month. And too many families are not able to keep up, as evidenced by the 50,000 New Yorkers who sleep in homeless shelters every night.
In the midst of this housing crisis, the lack of questions on affordable housing was a disappointment. It was encouraging, however, that several candidates discussed affordable housing without any sort of prompt.
Continue Reading … | New York City08.21.2013
NYS Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) has released its annual Unified Funding Round Request for Proposals (RFP) for its Multifamily Capital and Credit Programs. The Network commends the State for once again committing a minimum of $4 million in federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) funding for supportive housing developments.
You can read the RFP here.
Funds available this year include roughly $25 million in LIHTC, $4 million in NYS Low Income Housing Tax Credits (SLIHC), $32 million in Housing Trust Fund (HTF) funding and $5.5 million in NYS HOME funds. Also available are $500,000 in Rural Area Revitalization Program (RARP) and $50,000 in Urban Initiatives (UI) funding, carried over from last year.
New this year, the funding round offers $5.4 million in funding through the Rural and Urban Community Investment Fund. This program will fund rural preservation projects and non-residential spaces in mixed developments across the state.
Those seeking funding must submit early round applications by October 10 and regular round applications by December 5.
Continue Reading … | Funding08.19.2013
Los Angeles-based writer Steve Lopez has written another superb story on the transformative effects of supportive housing for people with mental illness.
Mr. Lopez, if you recall, wrote a series of articles that inspired the screenplay for The Soloist, a 2009 feature film starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx. The film tells the true-life of Mr. Lopez (played by Downey, Jr.) and his relationship with Nathaniel Ayers, a schizophrenic musician living on the streets. The film makes mention of LAMP Community, a supportive housing provider operating in Los Angeles.
In his new piece for the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Lopez tells the inspiring story of Step Up on Second, a supportive housing residence that’s home to 36 adults in Santa Monica.
The piece, available here, offers a profile of one tenant in particular: Alex, a formerly incarcerated man who’s life has changed dramatically since entering Step Up on Second. Alex estimates that he’s been incarcerated “maybe 20” times. He’s also cycled through numerous mental institutions.
Continue Reading … | Press08.13.2013
Our September 10 workshop on hoarding has sold out! Fortunately, we’ve been able to add a second session for those who couldn't RSVP in time for the first.
See this website to purchase tickets for our new workshop on Tuesday, September 17, from 9:30am-3:30pm. This workshop, like the first session, will take place at CUCS’ Training Center, located at 198 East 121 Street in Manhattan.
This full-day training, titled “Understanding Compulsive Hoarding,” will offer an overview of hoarding and lessons on how to best engage, assist and manage those who hoard. This workshop is presented by the Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS) and the Network. To learn about all of the Network's upcoming workshops, head over to our Upcoming Events page.
Continue Reading … | Network Events08.08.2013
NYS Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) has released its proposed 2013/14 Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) for the federal and state Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Programs. Some initial key changes the Network has identified in the QAP include:
08.06.2013
The Urban Institute has released its findings on Youth Count, an effort held earlier this year to count the number of homeless youth in nine cities across the country. The federal government selected New York as one of the nine pilot cities to participate in the count, which was designed as a demonstration project to better understand how best to count homeless youth.
The Institute's report and findings will help shape future youth counts in the city. This invaluable evaluation will help advocates learn from cities across the country about their experiences with this year's youth count. You can read the report here. The Urban Institute also released a video on this year's effort, which features homeless youth from around the country as they discuss the importance of the count effort. See the video below:
Continue Reading … | New York City, Research