Showing Posts by Date: 05/2019
05.30.2019
On May 17th, NYS HCR announced its 2018 Unified Funding Awards. In addition to the three supportive housing projects funded in the early round announced in January, there were 15 projects awarded in the regular round, bringing the total number of supportive housing units to 484 — 22% of the total residential units funded. Network members are involved in 14 separate projects across the state.
Continue Reading …05.30.2019
For the second time this budget cycle, Network Executive Director Laura Mascuch testified to the immediate need for $20 million in funding in the FY 2020 City budget to ensure that 1,800 formerly homeless people don’t become homeless again. Testifying at the New York City Council Committee on Finance’s budget hearing, she thanked the Council for including the additional funding for DOHMH scattered site supportive housing in its initial budget and urged the Council to help ensure the ask makes it into the final budget. Besides the human cost of possibly making 1,800 households homeless again, the City would face approximately $69 million in added shelter costs if these individuals and families re-entered the shelter system.
Continue Reading … | New York City05.29.2019
Photo credit for photo at right: Diane Cho for HPD.
On May 14th, overcast skies were brightened by purple and yellow balloons greeting guests at Network member Services for the Underserved’s (S:US) housewarming at 2264 Morris Avenue in the Bronx. Government partners, local elected officials, and private supporters celebrated the completion of the 11-story, mixed-income building, co-developed by S:US and Bronx Pro Group. The building contains 94 units, including 31 units of supportive housing: 17 for at-risk young adults and 14 for formerly homeless adults with mental illness.
Continue Reading … | New York City, Member News, Openings05.28.2019
On May 21st, Network member West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing (WSFSSH) celebrated the completion of Tres Puentes. The project included a refurbishing of Borinquen Court, which continues to house 145 seniors and/or people with physical disabilities in the community, and the creation of two new buildings welcoming 175 new residents. The name “Tres Puentes” refers to the complex’s views of the Willis Avenue, Madison Avenue, and Third Avenue bridges nearby, but was heralded as the perfect name for the various relationships that made the project possible.
“The goal is not just buildings, but a place where people can truly live,” said Sheldon J. Fine, President of the WSFSSH Board of Directors, who began the speaking program in a large, lively room.
Continue Reading … | New York City, Member News, Openings05.14.2019
On May 9th, the Network’s Policy and Planning Director Rebecca Sauer testified at the New York City Council Charter Revision Commission to offer suggestions on improving the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) as it pertains to supportive housing development. Testifying late in the seven-hour hearing, Rebecca emphasized that the critical need to develop as much supportive housing as quickly as possible in order to address New York City’s homelessness crisis needs to be balanced with the need to garner comprehensive community input, including voices from the local homeless community.
Continue Reading … | New York City05.03.2019
On May 2nd, Network Executive Director Laura Mascuch provided testimony at the New York State Assembly’s Committee on Housing’s public hearing on rent-regulated housing. While thanking Assemblymembers Latoya Joyner and Steven Cymbrowitz for advancing Bill No. A07115, which would provide rent stabilization provisions to nonprofit housing providers’ new scattered site supportive housing units, she encouraged the sponsors to accept a friendly amendment to the bill that would extend the protections to the 14,000 existing scattered-site units and formerly homeless disabled families and individuals currently living there.
Continue Reading … | New York State, New York City