Care For the Homeless

Home Stability Support (HSS) Assembly-member Hevesi speaking at Homeless Persons' Memorial Day 2018   Assembly member Andrew Hevesi is continuing his fight in Albany to pass the Home Stability Support (HSS) Legislation, something that he spoke about at our 2018 Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. Care for the Homeless and our client leaders, have been advocating for this legislation to raise the housing subsidy available to New Yorkers receiving public assistance up to 85% of the average fair market rent established by the federal Department of Urban Development (HUD), for a community based on family size.  HSS is a statewide rent supplement for families and individuals who are eligible for public assistance benefits as well as for those facing eviction, homelessness, or loss of housing due to domestic violence or hazardous living conditions. There are currently 171,000 households in New York receiving the public assistance “shelter allowance”, but the...

Jeff Foreman, Director of Policy New Yorkers can celebrate the opportunity for a tool to move people experiencing homelessness from shelters to stable housing because of the last-second success of advocates and policy makers in removing language from the New York State budget that prohibited it. Yesterday, as state legislators and Governor Cuomo enacted the new state budget, they removed language prohibiting any city in New York of over 5 million (that’s only New York City; the second largest city, Buffalo, has a 260,000 population) from using state money to fund a rental subsidy program for homeless people. That language prohibiting state and federal funding from the old city Advantage program in 2011 has remained in each budget since then. Just 5 days before this year’s March 31 st deadline the prohibitive language was still firmly in place. There were media stories reporting policy makers were saying it was too late in the process to change it. But client leaders, ad...

Jeff Foreman, Director of Policy For the past year, Care for the Homeless client leaders and our certified client advocates have fought for extending a “30% rent cap” to all people living with HIV/AIDS in city subsidized HASA (HIV/AIDS Services Administration) housing programs. So it was with extreme pleasure that we got the word last week that the Mayor and Governor have jointly taken action to guarantee the 30% rent cap to more than 10,000 New Yorkers in HASA housing. Mayor de Blasio hailed the city-state effort, and so do we! Unlike most extremely low income housing and subsidized housing for poor households with disabilities, HASA housing never guaranteed a 30% rent cap. It always should have. Governor Cuomo said, “By implementing a 30% income cap for low-income renters with HIV/AIDS, we are protecting New Yorkers in need and making our communities stronger, healthier, and more compassionate for all.” Our client advocates spoke out for this most recently Wednesday mor...

A Chance for Review, Reflection and New Start Yesterday (5/28), Seth Diamond, the NYC Commissioner of Homeless Services, announced his resignation to accept a post in the Cuomo administration. Commissioner Diamond led the agency at a particularly trying time and had a reputation for hard work and long hours. But like any changing of the guard, his departure should be both a time to recognize his work and to reflect on policy. Care for the Homeless believes bad public policy decisions are the cause of modern day homelessness, and better policies can end homelessness as we know. Perhaps the biggest driver of modern homelessness was cuts in federal funding for affordable housing. But New York City can and must lead the way to better policies to prevent and end homelessness. Consider this: For decades the City targeted one-third of its federal housing resources – mostly public housing units and Section 8 rental vouchers – to placing homeless people in permanent housing. In 2004,...