May 26, 2026 Today, Coalition for the Homeless Executive Director David Giffen issued the following statement in response to the City’s Block by Block housing plan: “New York City cannot solve homelessness without solving the housing crisis, and it is a step in the right direction that the City is finally talking about housing and homelessness together. For years, the Coalition for the Homeless has called for a coordinated and cohesive housing and homelessness plan that recognizes the full scope of this crisis: the lack of deeply affordable housing, the rising cost of rent, the barriers that keep people stuck in shelter, the needs of people sleeping unsheltered on the streets and subways, and the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who are doubled up because they have no home of their own. This plan reflects a more coordinated and holistic view of those challenges than we have seen from past Mayors. It is especially significant that the City is explicitly treating homelessness as a housing problem and acknowledging doubled-up homelessness as part of the crisis, while also recognizing that keeping people in their homes before they enter shelter must be a central part of any solution The City is putting real resources on the table, even if far more will ultimately be needed to meet the scale of the need. Some of the proposals in this plan appear very strong. Others are promising steps that could make a meaningful difference if implemented well. Still others need much more detail before they can be fully evaluated. The test will be whether this plan results in more homeless and extremely low-income and homeless New Yorkers actually moving into safe, permanent, affordable homes. That means committing to the scale this crisis requires: creating at least 12,000 new deeply subsidized affordable apartments for extremely low income households each year for the next five years. It also means following through with urgency, funding, and accountability. We look forward to working with the Mamdani administration to strengthen this plan and ensure that the New Yorkers with the greatest housing needs are not left behind.”
