The Supportive Housing Network helped lead the successful Campaign 4 NY/NY Housing, a three-year education, media, and advocacy effort pushing for a new city-state supportive housing agreement that would create 35,000 new units and which led to our winning separate commitments from New York City (15,000 units over 15 years under the new NYC 15/15 program) and New York State (20,000 units over 15 years under the new Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative [ESSHI]) that, in combination, match this ambitious goal. This combined commitment is nearly four times the number of units created under NY/NY III, which had been the largest such pact in the country’s history.
NYC 15/15
In 2015, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio committed to creating 15,000 units of supportive housing in New York City over the next 15 years. Half of these units are to be new construction single site (at least 50% of units are set aside as supportive) and half scattered site (private market apartments rented on behalf of eligible tenants with social services provided on-site by nonprofit providers). For the first time, the services and operating functions of both the single and scattered site contracts are split, so that rental subsidies can rise with costs. Services under both programs are to be contracted through the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; housing subsidies will be contracted through HPD. See here for more information about the single site Services RFP; see here for scattered site services and operating. Information about the single site rental subsidy RFP is available here .
NYC 15/15 focuses on serving chronically homeless families and individuals coping with chronic behavioral issues as well as young adults and young adult families who are homeless or at-risk of becoming so. The Initiative is informed by recommendations from the Supportive Housing Task Force.
Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative
In 2016, in his State of the State address, NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo committed to creating 20,000 units of supportive housing statewide over the next fifteen years, a program called the Empire State Supportive Housing Program. While full funding for the first 6000 of those units was not appropriated until April of 2017, the State did fund the first 1200 units at the end of the legislative session in 2016 and announced the availability of Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative (ESSHI) Service and Operating funding at the Network’s 2016 Conference June 2nd. The State made its first conditional awards totaling 3700 units that fall. The second round of ESSHI funding availability recently closed at the end of July, awarding conditional awards for over 5400 units. Once a conditional award is in place, organizations then pursue capital funding through the NYS Supportive Housing Opportunity Program and the Homeless Housing Assistance Program and other sources.
ESSHI seeks to serve a broad swath of individuals and families that are either homeless or at-risk of being homeless, including those leaving institutions and high cost/high need Medicaid recipients.
Below is a short video summarizing the breadth of partners, advocacy, media coverage, and announcements by NYS Governor Cuomo and NYC Mayor de Blasio about the campaign.
2016: "Campaign 4 NY/NY Housing"