Supportive housing is the single most effective and cost-efficient way to reduce homelessness. It strengthens communities and helps integrate people with disabilities and other special needs into the life of their neighborhood.
It ends homelessness:
Supportive housing is the single most effective solution to ending homelessness. It provides housing and critical support services to those that need it most- chronically homeless, those with mental and physical disabilities, and/or substance abuse disorder among others. How we know it works? Because many studies show high retention rates – only 5% of those people housed in the NY/NY III Agreement, for example, returned to shelter.
Read the DOHMH study that shows the success of supportive housing.
It enriches the community and drives up property values:
In 2008, the NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy conducted the largest and most rigorous study ever done of supportive housing’s impact on neighborhoods. Examining eighteen years of data on sales of properties near 123 residences in New York City, the study concluded that, contrary to popular opinion, the values of properties closest to supportive housing residences actually rose over the norm. Contributing factors may include developers’ use of blighted properties and buildings, which, when rehabilitated into quality housing instantly improve a block’s visual appeal; developers and investors’ insistence on high quality design, construction and property management; supportive housing’s 24/7 staffing which frequently leads to improved neighborhood safety; long-term oversight by multiple private and public agencies; and local accountability associated with operation by local non-profits.
It is the most cost-effective solution to combating homelessness:
Study after study attests to the cost-effectiveness of supportive housing. Not only is it significantly less expensive than the institutional alternatives that homeless and disabled people often cycle through - including shelters, institutions and hospitals - it ends tenants' dependence on emergency services for healthcare and treatment.
To see how others have reported on the supportive housing model and its successes in communities throughout New York, please visit our News page.