Frank R. Lipton, M.D.
Frank Lipton accepts the Tim O'Hanlon Unsung Hero of the Year award. Left to right: Father John McVean, Father John Felice, Ted Houghton and Frank Lipton.
Dr. Frank Lipton is the quintessential unsung hero. A key government partner at the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA) for almost three decades, he has played an instrumental, behind-the-scenes role in the supportive housing movement. With little fanfare, Dr. Lipton helped to create the program design, referral and data tracking mechanisms that made supportive housing the successful, widely-replicated model it is today. Thanks to his service, thousands of formerly homeless and disabled New Yorkers have a home tonight.
Dr. Lipton has been a constant behind New York’s historic New York/New York supportive housing agreements. He helped guide the design and passage of NY/NY I under Mayor Ed Koch and its ultimate signatory, Mayor David Dinkins. He helped usher in NY/NY II under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and then in 2005 was at the forefront again for a NY/NY III agreement under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. When all is said and done, the combined NY/NY commitments will have created nearly 15,000 supportive housing apartments – by far the largest supportive housing program in the country.
“Frank was a major mover and shaker in the creation of the first NY/NY Agreement, and he has remained a steadfast friend and advocate of supportive housing tenants and providers for the past 25 years,” says Tony Hannigan, Executive Director of the Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS). “Our community has been truly fortunate to have the quality and dedication of his leadership during four administrations.”
Drawing on his academic and professional background, Dr. Lipton has been a vital source of data on the outcomes associated with supportive housing. He and his team at HRA have kept rigorous records on tenant success measures, helping to bring inter- and intra-agency accountability for this unprecedented commitment of resources.
He also established the processes used to determine supportive housing eligibility – bringing much-needed streamlined uniformity to the housing placement process and, through his leadership, has helped shepherd improvements to these processes over time as the knowledge base of the community grows and the environment shifts.
“Frank’s stewardship of the NY/NY eligibility process has given integrity to the programs and a guarantee of fairness to its applicants,” says Laura Jervis, Executive Director of the West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing. “We in the New York City supportive housing community are so fortunate to have a person with Frank’s deep professional and personal understanding of mental illness as a champion for the folks in our housing.”
For his commitment to the most vulnerable New Yorkers and to the expansion of supportive housing, Dr. Frank R. Lipton is the second recipient of the Network’s Tim O’Hanlon Unsung Hero of the Year award.