Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick will deliver the keynote address at the 13th Annual New York State Supportive Housing Conference on June 6. Mayor Myrick is a formerly homeless young adult who became the youngest mayor in Ithaca's history when he was just 24 years old. Photo credit: Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-Standard.

The nation's largest supportive housing conference takes place this Thursday!

More than 1,100 people have already registered to attend our signature day-long event, which will include 30 workshops, a keynote address, lunch, a cocktail reception and innumerable opportunities to meet old friends and make new ones. Online registration will close at close-of-business TODAY, so head to our registration site if you haven't already. If you can't make today's deadline, you can continue to register by fax until noon on Wednesday.

Head to our website for a full breakdown of the 13th Annual New York State Supportive Housing Conference. For a full list of workshop titles, presenters, times and locations, see here.

This year's conference promises to be the biggest and most ambitious event in the Network's history. We hope you'll come spend the day with our fabulous community this Thursday!

Partners gather on May 10 for the grand opening ceremony of D'Addario Residence, a 46-unit supportive housing residence for individuals and families in Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of Providence House.

On one of the year's most beautiful days -- May 10 -- friends and supporters of Providence House's first supportive/affordable housing residence gathered for the opening of the D'Addario Residence in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. The joyous occasion came a stunning seven years after the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) first approached Providence House with the City-owned property. The location, formerly an empty lot, is now home to 46 individuals and small families, many of whom have struggled with homelessness.

 

Sister Janet Kinney, Providence House's Executive Director, was among several of the day's speakers. Joining her were NYS Rep. Annette Robinson and representatives for NYS Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, NYC Councilman Albert Vann and Community Board 3 Chair Henry Butler. Sister Helen Marie Kearney gave the invocation.

 

HPD Assistant Commissioner Jessica Katz recalled an incident during Sister Janet's first visit to their offices. Upon entering the building, security found, of all things, a pocket knife on Sister Janet.

 

"We knew she was trouble from the start," Ms. Katz joked.

 

Bill Traylor, the Network's Board Chair and President of Richman Housing Resources, said he had the best job in the world as a syndicator of supportive housing residences. Mr. Traylor referred to himself as the Dolly Levi of supportive housing, a reference to the matchmaking central character in the musical Hello, Dolly!

 

Arlo Chase of Alembic Community Development congratulated Sister Janet on her good humor and tenacity.

 

"She was there for every meeting -- in the 100-degree heat and in the depths of winter," he said. "She was always a pleasure to work with...and deadly serious."

 

Longtime supporter Jim D'Addario of D'Addario & Company spoke on behalf of himself and his wife Janet, saying they wake up every day with the hope of making the world better than the day before. He also congratulated Capital One Local Distribution Executive Karim Hill for coming the closest of all the speakers to the proper pronunciation of his name.

 

The ceremony ended with the D'Addario Residence being blessed by by Sisters Marie Lenihan, Elaine Roulet and Paula Migliore with water taken from the women's prison at Bedford Hills.

 

The residence was financed by HPD, Richman Housing Resources and Capital One with pre-development funding from CSH. The NYS Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will fund on-site services. Alphonse Diaz and MegaContracting served as the architect and contractor, respectively.

 

Providence House won't take another seven years before it opens its second supportive housing residence. The organization hopes to open a 22-unit building in Brooklyn next spring. Congratulations to all involved in this lovely new residence! 

NYS Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) has announced capital awards for its 2012 Unified Funding Round, which distributes federal 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credits and HOME funding, Housing Trust Fund dollars and other capital funds to affordable housing development projects.

Based on the Network's preliminary analysis, HCR continues to demonstrate its commitment to supportive housing and housing for persons with special needs. The 2012 Unified Funding Round finances a total of 389 supportive housing units, which is a slight increase from the 378 units funded in 2011. This number accounts for 19% of the 2,060 affordable units that were funded this year; in 2011, 17% of the funded units were supportive housing. Including the supportive housing units, a total of 564 units funded are reserved for people with special needs, including 55 units for clients of the NYS Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). You can read the full list of awards here.
 
Of the 33 projects funded, eight include supportive housing. The total amount of Low Income Housing Tax Credits in supportive housing projects was $8.4 million. All but two of the awardees listed below are Network members:

• Arker Companies and Women in Need: Colgate Close, The Bronx, 33 supportive housing units
• Concern for Independent Living: Concern Bergen, Brooklyn, 55 supportive housing units
• DePaul Properties: Henrietta Apartments, Town of Henrietta, 33 supportive housing units
• Dunn Development Corp. and CAMBA: Bergen Saratoga, Brooklyn, 40 supportive housing units
• Happiness House/Finger Lakes United Cerebral Palsy: Canandaigua Apartments, City of Canandaigua, 10 supportive housing units
• Regional Economic Community Action Program: The Mill, City of Middletown, 13 supportive housing units
• Rehabilitation Support Services: Highridge Gardens, City of Poughkeepsie, 50 supportive housing units
• YMCA of the Capital Region: Broadway Apartments, City of Schenectady, supportive housing 155 units

We'd like to congratulate all of our members who were successful in this Unified Funding Round. We are grateful to Governor Cuomo, HCR Commissioner Darryl Towns and all of the staff at HCR for their continued commitment to supportive housing. 

We will update our members with a more detailed analysis as additional information becomes available.

Two federal agencies -- the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) -- announced $60 million in  HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Program (HUD-VASH) awards on May 29.  

New York programs will receive $5 million for a total of 535 VASH vouchers across the state. While the majority of funding will flow through housing agencies, this funding round marks the first time that the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) has been allowed to apply for funding via the VASH program. HPD received two awards totaling nearly $1 million.

Thanks in large part to increased investments in supportive housing, veteran homelessness has declined 17% nationwide since 2009. We thank HUD and the VA for their continued commitment to help end veteran homelessness in New York and across the country. You can browse the full list of awardees here. 

The NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) has awarded funding to develop 300 new units of supportive housing for high-need Medicaid recipients. The awards, which totaled nearly $5 million, went to 18 nonprofit organizations across New York State.

The target population for the OASAS Medicaid Redesign Team Permanent Supportive Housing Initiative is single adults with chronic substance use disorders and other psychiatric and medical conditions who are high-frequency, high-cost Medicaid consumers. Funding recipients will receive rental subsidies up to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) fair market rental rates for studio and one-bedroom apartments, housing and employment counseling services and support from direct service staff.

This initiative is part of the State's Medicaid Redesign Team Supportive Housing Program, which was funded at $86 million this year. The statewide program seeks to both reduce Medicaid spending and improve health outcomes for New York's most vulnerable citizens through investing in supportive housing. Of the 18 agencies that received this recent set of OASAS awards, nine are Network members: The Bridge, Central New York Services, East House, Fairview Recovery Services, Fortune Society, The Guidance Center, Lake Shore Behavioral Health, Liberty Resources and Palladia.

Visit OASAS' website to read the full list of award winners. To browse the complete SFY 2013-2014 allocation plan for the MRT Supportive Housing Development program, see here.

We congratulate all those who received funding and thank Governor Cuomo and OASAS Commissioner Arlene Gonz�lez-S�nchez for their continued support of supportive housing for New York's high-need Medicaid recipients.

Enterprise Community Partners is now accepting applications for its Pre-Development Design Grant program. This funding stream, now in its second year, provides capital for design exploration during the early stages of affordable housing development. These $20,000 grants cover specific costs during the pre-development process, including consultant fees, architect and developer fees, a "green charrette" and other expenses. For a full breakdown of the Pre-Development Design Grant program, see the funding section of the Network's website. 

 

Enterprise funded seven projects through the program in 2012. One of those projects was CAMBA Gardens Phase II, a project that will transform unused public hospital land in Brooklyn into affordable and supportive housing.

  

Applications for the RFP are due July 10.