City Limits’ series on family homelessness in New York City is supported by Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York and The Family Homelessness Coalition. City Limits is solely responsible for the content and editorial direction.
During the 2021 fiscal year, just 297 households using Special One-Time Assistance (SOTA) grants found apartments in another state. It was the first time that the majority of SOTA recipients remained in the five boroughs.
‘Universalizing Section 8 would address poverty, boost the economy, and even stimulate affordable housing production–ultimately benefiting everyone, not just the recipients.’
Prior to the pandemic, city policy forced entire families—including each school-aged child—to show up at a Bronx facility known as the PATH intake center to complete an initial assessment, which often meant missing at least a day of school.
Con Edison cut the gas to the West 145th Street building—a former cluster site shelter housing dozens of formerly homeless families—on May 14, after inspectors found dangerous corrosion on the line leading to the street. Tenants are still waiting.
Families with children now spend nearly 18 months on average in Department of Homeless Services (DHS) shelters—two and half months longer than the previous fiscal year, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s annual management report.
It’s the first time that New York City has received the grant, despite counting roughly 7,400 homeless young people under age 24 without an adult head of household—often referred to as runaway and homeless youth (RHY)—in 2019
In June, the city spent $122 million to purchase 14 former cluster site buildings, turning them over to nonprofit organizations to fix up and operate as permanent housing. The organizations have their work cut out for them: There were more than 1,100 open Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) violations across the portfolio at the time of purchase.
‘For every supportive housing slot there are six applications. Nearly 45,000 New Yorkers, including 14,000 children, fill the shelter system. What we need now is the political will to invest in this long-term goal while offering shorter-term pathways to housing.’
The city’s previous policy, which City Limits reported on last month, blocked adults approved for supportive housing—permanent apartments with on-site staff, typically reserved for people with mental illness—from even applying for the roughly 8,000 new rental subsidies.
The soon-to-be governor recently pledged to re-strengthen the state’s eviction moratorium after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key portion of the law, which expires at the end of this month.