Ending Homelessness
How Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo Can Do It
A Report from
Homes for Every New Yorker
April 2015
Overview: The Affordability Crisis and the Homelessness Epidemic
It is no secret that New York City is in the midst of a housing crisis that affects people in every
neighborhood throughout the five boroughs. The cost of housing continues to skyrocket. A
recent Census Bureau survey found that, since 2011 alone, median New York City apartment
rents rose more than 3 percent faster than the rate of inflation, while median renter incomes
barely increased at all. And over the same period, the number of apartments affordable to lowincome renters fell by 13 percent.
But by far the most disturbing toll of New York City’s worsening affordability crisis – and its
greatest cost in human terms – is the highest level of homelessness since the Great Depression.
A record 60,000 homeless New Yorkers, including more than 25,000 children, sleep each night
in municipal shelters. During the Bloomberg administration, the homeless shelter population
rose a shocking 71 percent and the number of homeless families increased by 83 percent.
During the last fiscal year, 1 of every 42 children in New York City slept in the homeless shelter
system, including 1 of every 17 African-American children and 1 of every 34 Latino children.
The widening gap between housing costs and incomes is a major cause of New York City’s
record homelessness. As wages continue to stagnate and housing prices continue to rise, more
and more New Yorkers find themselves in a more uncertain and precarious position. Many in
our city are living one missed paycheck or one rent increase away from homelessness.
Moreover, NYC’s unprecedented levels of homelessness stem directly from disastrous
Bloomberg administration policies that eliminated permanent housing resources from
homeless children and families.
This report shows specifically how Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo can
literally end homelessness in New York City by 2020. What follows are key policy
recommendations that – if enacted together – will have a transformative impact on
homelessness over the next five years.
Our city must provide homes for every New Yorker in need. That is why a new campaign has
come together to develop this report and ensure that the de Blasio and Cuomo administrations
take action.
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Homes for Every New Yorker includes the following organizations:
ALIGN: The Alliance for a Greater New York
CASA New Settlement Houses
Coalition for the Homeless
Community Voices Heard
District Council 9 New York IUPAT, Painters and Allied Trades
Legal Aid Society
Make the Road NY
Metropolitan Council on Housing
Mutual Housing Association of NY
New York Communities for Change
QUEEROCRACY
Real Affordability for All
VOCAL-NY

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Recommendations: Nine Strategies for Ending Homelessness
This report brings together the best thinking and policy analysis on homeless solutions to show
how the de Blasio and Cuomo administrations can eradicate mass homelessness by 2020.
Below are nine key strategies that, if pursued together, can create homes for every New Yorker
over the next five years. They are described in more detail in the next section of the report,
which provides extensive background and a rationale for each proposed strategy.
1. Set Aside 10% of All New City-Assisted Housing for Homeless New Yorkers
2. Target More NYCHA Public Housing Apartments to People in the Shelter System
3. Renew a City-State Agreement to Create Permanent Supportive Housing
4. Enhance City-State Rent Subsidies to Prevent Homelessness and Rehouse the Homeless
5. Invest in Cost-Saving Programs to Prevent Homelessness
6. Convert So-Called “Cluster-Site” Shelter Back to Permanent Housing
7. Expand Rental Assistance to All Low-Income New Yorkers Living with HIV
8. Raise the Minimum Wage to $15 Per Hour in New York City
9. Build Housing with Developers Who Use Local Hire Goals and Union Labor

In Depth: How de Blasio and Cuomo Can End Mass Homelessness
1. Set Aside 10% of All New City-Assisted Housing for Homeless New Yorkers
The de Blasio administration should ensure that its affordable housing plan allocates at least
10% of all new housing units to homeless families and individuals. Through this allocation, the
City will create and preserve at least 1,000 affordable apartments per year targeted specifically
to homeless families. This is in addition to the estimated 1,000 supportive housing apartments
per year that would be created under the Mayor’s housing plan.
The administration should also ensure that all City-subsidized apartments designated for
homeless families, as per their regulatory agreements, are in fact currently housing homeless
families, and that as they become vacant, such apartments are provided to homeless New
Yorkers.
Background and Rationale:
Affordable housing created or preserved under Mayor de Blasio’s 10-year housing plan is a
critical housing resource for homeless New Yorkers.
Indeed, in the late 1980s, City-assisted housing created under Mayor Koch’s “Housing New
York” plan played a vital role in sharply reducing family homelessness. But under the Bloomberg
administration, very little City-assisted housing was created for homeless families.
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From 1990 through 2005, more than 11,000 homeless families with more than 20,000 children
moved from shelters to City-subsidized apartments – most of them apartments created under
Koch’s ten-year plan.
Under Koch’s “Housing New York” plan, 63.3% of all housing units – 95,420 of the total 150,682
units – went to low-income households; and 10.4% of all housing units (15,674 units) went to
homeless households.
In contrast, under Bloomberg’s “New Housing Marketplace” plan, only 34.2% of all housing
units – 42,513 units of the 124,418 units created or preserved as of 2014 – went to low-income
households. And only 4% of all housing units – 4,816 units out of 120,629 completed as of 2012
– went to homeless households.
Mayor de Blasio’s housing plan aims to create or preserve 200,000 housing units over the next
decade. But City officials say that only 8% of those units will be targeted to the poorest New
Yorkers (those earning below 30% of Area Median Income [AMI]), and only an additional 12%
will go to households earning under 50% of AMI. The Mayor’s own “Housing New York” plan
needs to be improved and enhanced to address the needs of homeless families and individuals.
2. Target More NYCHA Public Housing Apartments to People in the Shelter

System
The de Blasio administration should allocate at least 2,500 NYCHA public housing apartments
each year to homeless families and individuals, including families residing in domestic violence
shelters, and give at least one third of available Section 8 vouchers each year to homeless
families and individuals.
Background and Rationale:
Previous New York City mayors – from Ed Koch to David Dinkins to Rudy Giuliani – targeted
federal housing resources to move homeless families out of expensive, emergency shelters and
into stable, permanent housing. Beginning with Mayor Koch, the City helped thousands of
homeless families relocate to permanent housing by allocating a modest share of scarce federal
public housing apartments (administered by the New York City Housing Authority, or NYCHA)
and federal housing vouchers, known as Section 8 vouchers.
From 1990 through 2005, the City helped more than 53,000 homeless families – including more
than 100,000 children – move to long-term, permanent housing using these federal housing
programs. Research shows that the vast majority of those formerly homeless families and
children remained stably housed and did not return to homelessness.

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In 2005, the Bloomberg administration eliminated priority use of federal housing programs
(public housing and Section 8 vouchers) for homeless children and families. In essence, Mayor
Bloomberg cut off access to NYCHA public housing for homeless New Yorkers. The result over
the past decade is clear to see: soaring family homelessness that is breaking records in New
York City.
Mayor de Blasio and his administration reversed the Bloomberg-era cut-off policy. However,
they are allocating only 750 NYCHA public housing apartments annually to homeless families.
This represents only 12% of available NYCHA apartments each year and is far less than what the
City provided even under the Giuliani administration, when roughly one-third of NYCHA public
housing apartments and Section 8 vouchers were allocated to homeless families.
At the same time, the de Blasio administration has continued a misguided Giuliani-era policy
that prioritizes NYCHA public housing apartments for households with no demonstrated
housing needs, including some households with annual incomes over $50,000. In the first six
months of 2014, nearly 60% of NYCHA public housing apartments went to such households,
despite record and rising homelessness.

3. Renew a City-State Agreement to Create Permanent Supportive Housing
Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio should renew a City-State agreement to create and fully
fund services for 30,000 units of supportive housing over the next ten years. There have been
three City-State “New York/New York Agreements” to create permanent supportive housing –
the first in 1990, the second in 1998, and the third in 2005. Combined, all three NY/NY
agreements have created more than 14,000 new supportive housing units since 1990.
NY/NY supportive housing agreements have been successful in reducing the use of other public
systems and have produced significant cost savings.
This renewed “New York/New York Agreement” would do the following:






Create 30,000 units of permanent supportive housing over ten years for homeless
individuals and families living with mental illness and other special needs, in particular
homeless individuals residing on the streets and in other public spaces;
Ensure that half of all new supportive housing units (15,000) are new construction, and half
would be scattered-site apartments;
Continue to prioritize those with long histories of homelessness and illness;
Provide adequate funding to operate housing and provide support services; and
Set aside two-thirds of the units (20,000 units) for individuals, with the remaining one-third
of units for families (8,700 units) and youth (1,300 units).

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Background and Rationale:
Permanent supportive housing combines affordable housing with support services to help
people with disabilities like serious mental illness live with stability. Supportive housing has
proven to be the most successful and cost-effective solution to ending homelessness for
individuals and families otherwise at risk of cycling between homelessness, emergency and
institutional systems without affordable permanent housing and support services.
A December 2013 analysis by the City’s health department found that the “NY/NY III
Agreement” reduced use of shelters, hospitals, psych centers and incarceration, for an average
net public savings of $10,100 per unit per year. Studies have also found significant cost savings
from previous NY/NY agreements. NY/NY III also decreased chronic homelessness among single
adults by 47% in first five years, and provided stability, with more than 75% of NY/NY III tenants
remaining housed after two years.
It is estimated that at least two-thirds of the street homeless population; 30-to-40% of
homeless adults without children in shelters; and 10-to-15% of homeless families with children
are in need of permanent supportive housing.
There is a great need for new supportive housing resources. More than 20,000 households per
year are found eligible for supportive housing, but there is currently only one housing unit
available for every six eligible applicants. This ratio will only worsen if a new City-State
supportive housing agreement is not reached soon. The “New York/New York III Agreement” is
drawing to a close. There are no units available for new supportive housing projects, and there
will be no operating or service dollars going forward unless we have an agreement.
The de Blasio administration has taken positive steps toward providing resources for a new
NY/NY Agreement. Mayor de Blasio’s capital budget includes funding for more than 12,000
supportive housing units over the next decade.
But Governor Cuomo’s January 2015 executive budget proposal, and the recently completed
2015 State budget, fall far short of the resources needed to address record homelessness. The
Governor’s proposal for a NY/NY IV Agreement – which was not negotiated with the City – calls
for only 3,900 supportive housing units over seven years in New York City, or only 560 units per
year – far less than the NY/NY III Agreement.

4. Enhance City-State Rent Subsidies to Prevent Homelessness and Rehouse
the Homeless
While new City-State rental assistance programs are a significant improvement on the deeply
flawed rent subsidies of the Bloomberg era, they can be improved to better protect families

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and ensure housing stability. The programs also need continued State funding and
commitments in order to assist more homeless families and individuals in the coming years.
The City-State rental assistance programs can be enhanced through the following strategies:



The State and City should increase Family Eviction Prevention Supplement (FEPS) rent
levels to reflect federal “Fair Market Rent” levels, like those used in the successful
Section 8 voucher program.
The new Living in Communities (LINC) rental assistance programs must be improved to
become more viable and effective. The programs should:
a. Establish a good-cause waiver allowing families to continue to receive rental
assistance after five years upon demonstration of ongoing need;
b. Use more realistic work requirements, such as at least 20 hours per week,
rather than 35 per week;
c. Include families, such as those with disabilities or receiving public assistance,
who do not have employment income;
d. Allow those whose benefits may have been cut off in error into the program;
and
e. Use Fair Market Rent levels as the benchmarks for the program.

Background and Rationale:
In 2005, the City initiated the Family Eviction Prevention Supplement (FEPS) to replace the old
Jiggetts relief system, through which families with children who receive public assistance and
were facing eviction can obtain a subsidy in addition to the welfare housing allowance to
preserve housing stability and avoid evictions. Through the FEPS program, families on public
assistance who are facing eviction or who have recently been evicted receive an additional
subsidy above their welfare housing allowance based on their family size.
Rents in New York City have increased dramatically in the ten years since the FEPS program was
approved. Many new and current FEPS recipients cannot find or maintain housing under the
current inadequate rent levels. Unfortunately, the Cuomo administration has to date rejected
efforts by advocates and City officials to enhance the FEPS program. In the recently completed
2015-2016 State budget, the State Assembly fought to include $15 million for a demonstration
program to enhance the FEPS program – but while this is a positive step forward, much more
needs to be done.
After months of negotiations with the Cuomo administration, the de Blasio administration
announced new City-State rent subsidy programs, called the Living in Communities (LINC)
programs. These rental assistance programs, which are limited to five years, are designed to
help approximately 4,000 homeless families – including working families, survivors of domestic
violence, and families with multiple shelter stays – move from shelters to permanent housing.
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The de Blasio administration has expanded the existing LINC programs to assist an additional
2,100 homeless single adults, including seniors, working individuals and people with serious
medical problems.
However, the LINC programs can be improved. The State must not only continue its
investments in the programs, but should share the costs of the programs. Currently, the City
pays the total cost of three of the five existing LINC rental assistance programs and has had to
pay the total cost for recent enhancements to the programs.

5. Invest in Cost-Saving Programs to Prevent Homelessness
Preventing homelessness is both effective and fiscally smart. The average annual cost of
sheltering a homeless family in New York City is more than $38,000, and the annual cost of
sheltering an individual is $24,000. In comparison, prevention programs like anti-eviction legal
services or rent arrears grants cost a fraction of the cost of shelter.
To better prevent homelessness, the City should:

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

Coordinate prevention services among prevention agencies so that at-risk families and
individuals know where to go to get help;
Create a “right to counsel” for low-income tenants facing eviction in housing court, and
enhance funding for anti-eviction legal services to help many more low-income tenants;
Increase funding for rent arrears, which will ensure that more families can avoid costly
emergency shelter and remain in their own homes;
Negotiate with the State to administer the Family Eviction Prevention Supplement (FEPS)
program at neighborhood welfare offices and/or other sites, to make the FEPS benefit more
widely available to at-risk families; and
Seek immediate approval from the State to increase FEPS subsidy rent levels equivalent to
those in the Section 8 program, as well as remove restrictions that prevent families from
accessing the FEPS subsidies, such as the requirement that the family be sued in housing
court, exposing them to inclusion on the "Black Lists" at tenant screening bureaus.

Background and Rationale:
New York City’s housing courts are fundamentally an unfair playing field tilted in favor of
landlords. More than 90% of tenants in housing court do not have legal representation, while
nearly all landlords do. And despite the efforts of legal services organizations and community
groups, there are simply not enough resources to help all low-income tenants facing eviction in
the city’s housing courts.
Eviction remains one of the major causes of family homelessness in New York City, and data on
evictions show that the problem is growing more severe.
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Over the past decade, the number of evictions in New York City rose from 22,000 per year to
more than 27,000 – and that data accounts only for evictions actually completed by a City
marshal, not the larger number of informal evictions.
At the same time, both the number and percentage of families who entered the NYC homeless
shelter system directly after an eviction rose even more dramatically. From 2002 through 2012,
the number of homeless families annually entering shelter after an eviction tripled, from 1,000
families (17% of the total) to more than 3,000 families (32% of the total). During 2014, around
one-third of all homeless families entering the shelter system did so immediately after an
eviction. Currently, according to City data, 32% of all homeless families enter the New York City
shelter system directly after an eviction.
While the de Blasio administration has increased funding for anti-eviction legal services, both
the City and State must do more. Fundamentally, what is needed is a “right to counsel” for lowincome tenants facing eviction in housing court. In addition, the State should increase rent
levels and make other improvements to the FEPS program, one of the major prevention
programs in New York City, and increase funding for rent arrears grants.

6. Convert So-Called “Cluster-Site” Shelter Back to Permanent Housing
The City’s use of apartment buildings as costly temporary shelter – a disastrous policy begun
under Giuliani but dramatically expanded under Bloomberg – is deeply misguided and
illustrates the historic failure of the last administration’s approach to the problem of
homelessness. Simply put, under the failed scatter-site/cluster-site shelter model, the City
favors costly temporary shelter over cheaper permanent housing, ultimately contributing to
rising and all-time record homelessness in New York City. The City should:






Convert “cluster-site” shelter units back to permanent housing to help significantly
reduce the number of homeless families;
Provide City-State rent subsidies to allow families in “cluster-site” units that meet
Section 8 quality standards to secure leases for the very apartments in which they
already reside;
Commit to a definitive public timeline to reduce – and ultimately eliminate – City
reliance on “cluster-site” shelter while instituting strong deterrence measures to
safeguard against the harassment of tenants in former “cluster-site” buildings by
property owners; and
Utilize aggressive code-enforcement to address code violations and hazardous
conditions for tenants currently residing in these units while transitioning from this
model.

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Background and Rationale:
Instead of embracing cost-effective policies to reduce homelessness, the Bloomberg
administration chose to expand the costly shelter system. And to increase family shelter
capacity, the primary mechanism Bloomberg used was a dramatic expansion of the misguided
scatter-site/cluster-site shelter model. From 2011 to 2013 alone – during the period when the
administration eliminated all housing assistance for homeless families – the number of families
sleeping each night in scatter-site/cluster-site shelter units increased by a remarkable 64%,
from 1,577 to 2,587 families. The administration’s primary response to record and rising family
homelessness was to use more and more apartments as costly temporary shelter.
The City pays an exorbitant rate for this model of shelter: more than $3,000/month or nearly
$38,000/year, which is far more than the rent on these apartments for lease-holding tenants.
Thus, the program provides enormous financial incentives for owners of the apartment
buildings to displace lease-holding tenants in order to engage in lucrative deals with the City
and its intermediary contractors. Moreover, the cluster-site program frequently uses apartment
buildings with hazardous housing conditions and numerous code violations.
The de Blasio administration, to its credit, has sought to reduce the exorbitant rate paid to
cluster-site landlords, and to recycle the savings from that lower rate to partially finance the
LINC rental assistance programs. In addition, the de Blasio administration has pledged not to
create new cluster-site shelter units. But more can and should be done.

7. Expand Rental Assistance to All Low-Income New Yorkers Living with HIV
An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people living with HIV (including 800 to 1,000 people living with
HIV residing in NYC homeless shelters on any given night) remain medically ineligible for
housing assistance and benefits provided for persons with symptomatic HIV infection through
HASA, and an estimated 2,000 to 6,000 people living with HIV in the balance of the state
outside NYC have an unmet housing need.




New York City must expand and update the enhanced rental assistance, transportation
and nutrition programs and 30% rent cap, and expand the public benefits and services
currently available to all persons living with AIDS or clinical symptomatic HIV illness to all
income-eligible New Yorkers living with HIV.
The rental assistance rate for the NYS HIV Enhanced Rental Assistance program must be
updated and increased from $480/month for single individuals and $330 for additional
household members. This is insufficient to support even a studio apartment in any part
of New York. The rates linked to HIV-specific programs need to be updated to fairmarket rental rates in localities.

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Background and Rationale:
To achieve Governor Cuomo’s plan to end the AIDS epidemic in New York State by 2020, it will
be necessary to solve the greatest unmet need of low-income New Yorkers living with HIV: lack
of basic housing, nutrition and transportation benefits. Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo
must work together to get this done.
These services consist of case management and assistance in applying for public benefits and
services, including: Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, cash
assistance, emergency transitional housing, non-emergency housing, rental assistance, home
care and homemaking services, transportation assistance, Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
or Social Security Disability (SSD) application and appeal, and information on and referrals to
community-based organization services.
Since the 1980s, the NYC Human Resources Administration’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration
(HASA) has provided a single point of entry for access to HIV-related enhanced rental assistance
and other public benefits. This includes a $190/month HIV-specific transportation allowance,
which enables recipients to be food secure and able to travel to essential medical and support
service appointments. The HASA system has been extremely effective at delivering coordinated
benefits and services, but HASA eligibility is currently limited to people living with HIV who have
had a diagnosis of AIDS or advanced HIV disease. That means that in order to be eligible for
HASA services, a person needs to meet an out-of-date NYS Department of Health AIDS Institute
definition of “clinical/symptomatic HIV infection.” In other words, people living with HIV have
to get extremely sick before being granted access to critical enablers of effective HIV treatment,
including a safe, stable place to live, adequate nutrition and the ability to travel to health care
and supportive services.
Studies consistently show that people living with HIV who lack stable housing after an HIV
diagnosis are more likely experience discontinuous care; are less likely to be on antiretroviral
therapy (ART); and are less likely to achieve sustained viral suppression. Yet current NYS
treatment guidelines and HIV prevention strategies recommend early treatment for people
living with HIV, along with care and support to encourage viral suppression. Research shows
that by dramatically increasing the number of New Yorkers with HIV who know their status, the
number who are on treatment, and the number who are virally suppressed, it is possible to end
the state’s AIDS epidemic. However, many New Yorkers living with HIV continue to have serious
unmet subsistence needs that create barriers to effective HIV care and treatment.
Homeless people with asymptomatic HIV infection, including a high number of recently
diagnosed LGBT youth, are forced into the impossible choice of initiating treatment and
remaining homeless or delaying treatment until they qualify for rental assistance or supportive
housing.

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An enhanced rental assistance program for people living with HIV was introduced in the 1980s
as part of New York’s response to the AIDS epidemic. The program subsidizes clients’ rents in
private market apartments and is used by some supportive housing programs to cover a portion
of operating costs.
Given the limited availability of supportive housing in NYS, the program is by far the most
significant potential housing resource for low-income people living with HIV who face
homelessness and housing insecurity.
However, the enhanced rental assistance program and the enhanced rental assistance rate
both need to be updated and expanded to address today’s HIV epidemic in New York City and
throughout the state.
The rental assistance rate for the NYS HIV Enhanced Rental Assistance program has not been
updated since it was established in the 1980s and is currently $480/month for single individuals
and $330 for additional household members, which is insufficient to support even a studio
apartment in any part of NYC The rates linked to HIV-specific programs need to be updated to
fair-market rental rates in localities.
Every new infection averted saves an estimated $400,000 in lifetime health spending for a
person living with HIV.

8. Raise the Minimum Wage to $15 Per Hour in New York City
The Cuomo administration should raise the minimum wage for New York City to $15 per hour
to help reduce poverty and to provide the much-needed relief for working homeless families
across the city. By December 31, 2015, the minimum will be $9 per hour, which is not enough
for families to survive on in New York City.
Background and Rationale:
Currently nearly one-third of homeless families sleeping each night in the New York City shelter
system are working, some of them two jobs. But most are trapped in low-wage jobs, such as
security guards, fast-food workers, home health aides and retail sales workers.
Under the current minimum wage, a full-time worker earns only $1,400 per month, well below
the monthly “Fair Market Rent” of $1,480 for a two-bedroom apartment – and most low-wage
workers’ employers don’t give them full-time work schedules.
A recent study about poverty in New York City shows that increasing the minimum wage to $15
per hour can reduce the poverty rate by 17% across the city, by 18% among non-elderly adults
and by 19% among children. It would also result in a $3.322 billion reduction in government
spending due to savings from government benefit programs and increased tax liabilities, since
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fewer people would have to rely on safety net programs and more people would be paying
taxes.

9. Build Housing with Developers Who Use Local Hire Goals and Union Labor
The administration should work in partnership with organized labor and the building trades to
ensure that jobs for construction and building operations workers include decent wages,
healthcare, retirement benefits and adequate safety training to make career paths in
construction more viable. Additionally, the administration should prevent irresponsible, lawbreaking contractors with records of wage and hour, minimum wage, prevailing wage and
safety violations from working on subsidized housing. NYC can both meet our housing needs
and help alleviate poverty by providing careers, not just jobs, like those provided by labor
unions.
Background and Rationale:
When housing is constructed by workers who haven’t been given the opportunity to participate
in an apprenticeship program and are paid low wages, we know that we get housing that is
more likely to be dangerous and to deteriorate more quickly. We also know that if people are in
permanent jobs, like those provided by labor unions, then it is highly unlikely that they will
remain in or return to homelessness.

Conclusion
Homelessness is not an intractable problem, but if the number of homeless individuals and
families continues to grow at the pace it did over the past decade, it will become one. This
report outlines a few recommendations that would go a long way toward actually ending mass
homelessness in New York City. These policy changes require the action of both Governor
Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio, who must do much more to target permanent housing resources
to help the neediest families and individuals in New York.

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