Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi announced this past spring that he helped broker a deal that would allocate $440M toward homeless services. Included in this package:
• $220M over 4 years for rental subsidies for
domestic violence victims, seniors and
working families that can’t afford rent
• $15M for a new pilot program designed to
prevent evictions by increasing housing
allowances
• $40M for rental subsidies that will prevent
families from becoming homeless
• $4.5M to target runaways and homeless
youth
• $1M for emergency homeless needs
• $34.2M for shelter, transitional housing and
homeless prevention programs
• $124.5M to provide services that would
allow people to move from shelters to
independent housing.
This is expected to cover 5,000 units of
housing.
One question that no elected official seems to want to answer is that if we have all these plans in place to eliminate homelessness, and we have a budget that will reduce the burden on shelters by 5,000 units, then why is the city actively seeking new locations for shelters and signing new contracts with homeless shelter providers?