Today’s Read: Homeless in New York City, an Unending Crisis

New York City’s record homelessness deserves a coordinated, strong response from both the City and the State, not just empty words.

Our elected leaders have decried the homelessness crisis while simultaneously failing to fully commit to supportive housing – a proven, cost-effective solution to homelessness that gives people with mental illness and other special needs the dignity and stability of a permanent home with vital on-site services. Unfortunately, there is only one supportive housing unit for every six eligible applicants, and the current City-State agreement is set to expire next year. Despite the unprecedented need and the clear evidence that this strategy works, Governor Cuomo’s budget proposed only 3,900 units of supportive housing over seven years. Unless the City and State agree to create the necessary 30,000 units in NYC over the next decade, the number of people languishing in shelters and on the streets will continue to grow.

As The New York Times pointed out in today’s editorial, it is not enough for politicians to just talk about how bad the homelessness crisis is – they must take immediate, bold steps toward ensuring that every man, woman and child has a home.

It’s an inescapable fact that the number of people forced to live on the streets of New York City rises and falls based on political calculations made far up the Hudson River, in Albany, and in the nation’s capital. And, of course, on the willingness and ability of City Hall to grapple with the problem.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in his State of the State address in January, called the rise in homelessness “simply a disgrace.” But calling something disgraceful and doing something about it are two different things. Though Mr. de Blasio has placed affordable housing at the core of his vision of a fairer city, and has pledged — unsuccessfully so far — to get a grip on the homeless crisis, there are limits to what he can do without Mr. Cuomo’s help.

For decades, a city-state partnership called New York/New York, established in 1990 under Mayor David Dinkins and Gov. Mario Cuomo and periodically renewed, has created thousands of units of supportive housing — apartments coupled with services to help those with mental illnesses and other disabilities leave the streets.

The program is set to expire in June 2016, and advocates for the homeless have been pressing for funding for a new New York/New York agreement to create 30,000 supportive-housing units — a huge number, but one that fits the scale of the problem. Mr. de Blasio recently went to Albany to plead for 12,000 more units in the city. Mr. Cuomo’s budget proposes a bafflingly meager number: 3,900. Supportive housing is by no means just a bleeding-heart idea — the State of Utah and the Department of Veterans Affairs are among those that have recognized its cost-effectiveness and aggressively embraced it, with excellent results. Mr. Cuomo and Mr. de Blasio need to strike a deal to bring about the huge potential benefits — in reduced expenses for homeless shelters, hospital care, policing and other things — from an upfront investment in permanent apartments for the chronically homeless.