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04.12.2021
On March 11th, the Network joined the supportive housing community for our 2021 Annual Meeting to reflect on and celebrate the past year in accomplishments and challenges as well as vote in our 2021 Board of Directors.
The Network’s Board Chair and CEO of Breaking Ground, Brenda Rosen, kicked off the speaking program, thanking the Network for our advocacy this past year. Concern for Independent Living Executive Director Ralph Fasano followed and presented the Network’s financials. Network Executive Director, Laura Mascuch then welcomed five new members to our board: Lorraine Collins, Joe DeGenova, Bernell Grier, Nancy Harrington and Valerie White. She also gave attendees a summary of the progress made by the supportive housing community in 2020: the opening of 23 new supportive housing residences creating 1,664 new units of supportive and affordable housing as well as scattered site units and set-asides in affordable projects for a grand total of 2029 supportive housing units. She also recalled the many ways our community came together to support staff and continue serving tenants despite the constantly evolving problems of COVID-19.
New York City Health Commissioner David A. Chokshi was our featured speaker and addressed the 125 attendees with gratitude for our community’s tireless work and close long-standing partnership with the Health Department during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
“Your organizations and staff were so essential in our City’s response to COVID and ensured the City’s most vulnerable populations were safely housed. On behalf of the Health Department, I want to sincerely thank you for continuing to serve your residents with the best care possible despite the tremendous obstacles COVID caused. Your staff may be more unsung than others recognized, but from my vantage point, they are truly COVID heroes.”
He ended his remarks enlisting our community’s help to act as vaccine ambassadors and continuing this work together to “make our public health messages more contagious than the virus itself.”
A slideshow of images and development details of all the newly opened supportive housing buildings and affordable housing with supportive set-asides ran as people joined the event and spun in and out of break-out rooms and can be viewed here.