After years of pressure from local advocates, Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki announced plans on Monday to build 9,000 units of supportive housing over the next 10 years. The city and state will share expenses for the $1 billion pact, known as New York/New York III. Two previous New York/New York agreements helped create roughly 5,300 units of homeless housing with onsite services, primarily geared toward single, mentally ill adults. This new initiative will also serve recovering substance abusers, homeless individuals with HIV/AIDS, families with a disabled head of household, youth aging out of foster care, and others. “This is just unprecedented,” said Connie Tempel, director of the New York office of the Corporation for Supportive Housing, a nonprofit that pushed for the pact. “There’s no place else in the country that does anything near this. It really covers the full spectrum of people vulnerable to homelessness.” (C. Feldman) [11/07/05]
