NYAPRS Note: The following comes from the Supportive Housing Network of NY.
All of the housing agencies of New York City and State joined together at the Supportive Housing Network’s 12th annual conference to announce that New York State would allocate at least $75 million a year to create thousands of units of supportive housing for high-cost Medicaid recipients, and that New York City would double its annual supportive housing production, from 500 units to 1,000 units a year. Speaking before a record-breaking 1,200 attendees, NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Mathew Wambua, NYC Housing Authority Chairman John Rhea and New York State’s Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner Darryl Towns pledged to combine their resources to greatly accelerate capital development of NY/NY III supportive housing over the next few years.
The joint announcement to double the City’s supportive housing development was made possible by a unique partnership between HPD, NYCHA, HCR and the NYC Housing Development Corporation (HDC) that pooled the development agencies’ capital subsidies, bonds and tax credits with NYCHA’s Section 8 rent subsidies and underutilized land. The resulting development will benefit not only chronically homeless individuals served by the NYNY III Agreement, but also NYCHA seniors and residents with special needs.
Commissioner Towns of NYS HCR officially announced the Governor’s newly-created Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) Supportive Housing Development Fund. The housing department heads were followed by State Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson and leaders from OMH, OASAS and OTDA, who discussed how the first year’s $75 million in funding would be apportioned to create as many as 1,600 new capital and scattered-site units in the first year. Included among these announcements was OTDA’s Beth Berlin’s very welcome news that the agency would be restoring $6 million in funding for the New York State Supportive Housing Program, (formerly SRO Support Services and Supportive Housing for Families and Young Adults), to make up for previous cuts to existing residences. Other disbursements will include:
– $14.3 million in capital to fund the OTDA Homeless Housing Assistance Program (HHAP) for Upstate supportive housing projects
– $7.3 million to fund a 175-unit permanent supportive housing residence on land owned by Metropolitan Hospital to help move patients at Coler-Goldwater Hospital;
– $10 million to fund OMH Supported Housing scattered-site rental and service subsidies: 350 in Brooklyn and 350 in the rest of the state.
– $5 million to fund 300 OASAS scattered-site rental and service subsidies.
– $5 million to fund 200 DOH AIDS Institute scattered-site rental and service subsidies
– $2.4 million to fund OPWDD community-based housing.
“The entire supportive housing community is grateful for the leadership of our State and City government partners in making this historic new commitment of resources to house the most vulnerable New Yorkers among us,” said Ted Houghton, Executive Director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York. “This is the culmination of more than a year’s work of advocacy and planning among all of the stakeholders in this agreement. We are excited to have been able to celebrate it at what turned out to be the Network’s best conference ever. We look forward to working with our government partners to hit the ground running and start creating as many new units as quickly as we can in the coming year.”