Alliance Note: New York City continues to struggle to put new supportive housing units online, further fueling the current crisis of homelessness. The New York City 15/15 initiative, first announced by former NYC Mayor de Blasio, committed the City to develop 15,000 units of supportive housing by the end of 2030. Nearly 10 years into the initiative, the City has only created 3,853 units with production of new units slowing tremendously over the last two years.
The City must commit more resources to creating more supportive housing units to better assist people with mental health and substance use challenges who are experiencing homelessness. Housing is essential to recovery and must be viewed as the first step to getting people true support. New York should place more focus on increasing housing stock instead of funding initiatives to remove people from the street which only further traumatizes people in need and does little to get them the stability needed to enter recovery.
The Supportive Housing Network of New York (The Network) is calling for more capital investments and increases in program rates to support the creation of more supportive housing units so the city can meet the goal of 15,000 new units by 2030. Properly reallocating funding to create more housing units now will be critical to reducing the number of people struggling with housing while offering people the support they deserve. Read the Network’s recently released analysis, “Reimagining NYC 15/15: A Comprehensive Reallocation Plan to Save New York City’s Supportive Housing Initiative,” using the link below. Read the article below to learn more about NYC’s struggle to get more housing up and running.
Reimagine_NYC_1515_2023.pdf (shnny.org)
Supportive Housing Production Falls far behind Schedule
By Janaki Chadha | Politico | May 13, 2024
NEW YORK — The city’s plan to create 15,000 supportive housing units over 15 years is falling far behind schedule — delaying a critical resource for homeless New Yorkers.
Only 3,853 units of supportive housing — low-cost apartments paired with mental health and substance use services — have been completed since 2016, according to figures City Hall officials shared with POLITICO.
Mayor Eric Adams committed two years ago to accelerate his predecessor’s 2015 goal and instead reach 15,000 homes by 2028.
“Not only is the city not going to meet its commitment and its goal, but in real human terms, we have a huge crisis on our hands of homelessness — over 100,000 people on any given night in New York City are in shelter or on the street,” said Pascale Leone, executive director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York.
The advocacy organization is sounding the alarm ahead of a City Council mental health committee hearing Monday.
The city’s record housing shortage is obstructing the public-private model that was expected to generate half of the planned 15,000 units.
Just 1,092 of the planned 7,500 units, known as “scattered site” apartments, have been created since 2016. And production has recently dwindled: Just 60 of those apartments were created in 2021, compared to 635 in 2017. None were created in 2022 or 2023, according to the supportive housing network. City Hall said they’ve reached agreements with non-profit providers to fund about 200 additional units but those units don’t yet have tenants in them, are under renovation or providers have not been able to identify suitable apartments on the market.
“Historically, ‘scattered site’ has been seen as the better option to get units online fast, so that was the thinking of splitting this equally — just how much time it takes to build new construction,” Leone said. “But that is not panning out when you have a market like New York that is just so tight, and quality affordable units are so sparse.”
Just 1.4 percent of rental apartments in the five boroughs are vacant and available, according to the city’s latest housing and vacancy survey — the lowest level in more than 50 years.
“Scattered site” apartments also receive less city funding for services than apartments in supportive housing developments: $10,000 per resident, compared to $17,500, the Supportive Housing Network said.
The other 7,500 supportive units are slated for new developments where tenants are in one building with services on site. Of those, 2,761 units have been completed and 1,381 are under construction. The city has awarded contracts to providers for around 2,458 additional units that are in various stages of pre-development, according to City Hall.
William Fowler, a mayoral spokesperson, acknowledged the challenges facing the “scattered site” model.
“We’ve committed to fulfilling the previous administration’s goal of bringing 15,000 supportive housing units online, and we’re thinking creatively about how we get there,” Fowler said in a statement.
“Dealing with the realities of a severe housing shortage, an aging housing stock, and limited capacity for service providers, we are evaluating shifting our focus towards the single-site model, which may provide a higher-quality product while preserving our existing scatter site units,” he added.
The Supportive Housing Network is calling on the Adams administration to reduce the number of “scattered site” units, place them within city-financed developments and put more resources toward new construction and preservation.
Additionally, the network is pushing to increase rent subsidies and service rates across supportive housing. The operating funding that’s currently available falls “way below [fair market rent],” Leone said. Without an increase, new development “will not be financially viable.” Capital subsidies, she noted, also haven’t kept up with rising costs.
The group is hoping additional operating and capital funding are included in the upcoming city budget.
The City Council, in its response to the mayor’s preliminary budget last month, included $19.6 million to help reach the 15,000-unit goal, and an additional $50 million in capital funding for supportive housing.
“We must act now to address challenges within the NYC 15/15 Initiative and ensure the continued creation and equitable access to supportive housing for all individuals and families in need,” City Council Member Linda Lee, who chairs the mental health committee, wrote in a letter to her colleagues, which was provided to POLITICO.
Twenty-two Council members have signed on to the letter so far.
“If you don’t invest in the capital needs now, we’re looking at more shelters, we’re looking at more staff on the ground to deal with the social service needs of folks on the street, we’re looking at higher emergency room visits,” Leone said.
Fowler noted the city financed a record 1,670 supportive housing units last year.
Adams’ wide-ranging “City of Yes” proposal to boost housing production across the five boroughs would help spur additional supportive housing as well.