Posted on October 17, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone Homelessness is a citywide problem stemming from the severe lack of affordable housing in every borough. More than half of New Yorkers are dealing with unaffordable rents, one unforeseen circumstance away from falling behind and facing eviction. Fortunately, if New Yorkers do fall into homelessness, the City’s legal right to shelter guarantees that they won’t have to sleep out on the streets. This vital safety net is why we don’t see the massive tent cities that mark other places around the country, but it also necessitates opening new shelters when there are more New Yorkers in need. As the City struggles to address record homelessness, some communities have resisted the sheltering of homeless New Yorkers in their neighborhoods. Rather than protesting shelters, communities should call for more proven, housing-based solutions that will enable more of their neighbors to avoid or escape the trauma of homelessness. The City has already taken key steps, such as creating rental subsidies and increasing legal services funding, but they should allocate more public housing units and Section 8 rental subsidies for homeless families, and strengthen enforcement of laws that prohibit source of income discrimination for people who would use subsidies to pay rent. The State, meanwhile, should immediately release nearly $2 billion for supportive and affordable housing resources that is currently sitting idle. The State should also adopt Assembly Member Hevesi’s statewide Home Stability Support plan. In a recent interview with Josh Robin on Inside City Hall, Department of Social Services Commissioner Steve Banks provided context for the homelessness numbers and explained the steps the City has taken to slow the rate of increase of the shelter census. “In New York City, homelessness has increased 115 percent between 1994 and 2014. In January 1994, there were 24,000 people in the city’s shelter system. In January 2002, there were 31,000 people in the New York City shelter system. By January 2014, there were 51,000 people in the shelter system. As we said when we announced the reforms of this 20-year-old problem just five months ago, we would be at 67,000 people in the shelter system today if we hadn’t implemented a number of changes. Currently, it’s about 60,000 people in the shelter system. “It’s a high number, not as high as it would’ve been if we hadn’t increased the funding for legal services from $6.5 million to $62 million – a tenfold increase. Or if we had not provided rental assistance to prevent people from having to come into shelter, or helping them move out. That’s 45,000 people who otherwise would’ve been in the shelter system. There are some 53,000 people we gave special rent arrears payments to, to keep them from being evicted. One of the big changes we’ve made is to focus on prevention and really have a prevention-first approach. … “This is a citywide problem. We have a legal and moral obligation to provide shelter. No one wants to see people end up on the streets.” … “The people in our shelter system are New Yorkers. They’re people with a connection to New York, they’re people who are here.”
