POLICY MATTERS
A monthly update on policy issues in the fight against homelessness in NYC.
|
|
How HUD Wants to Help Poor Tenants by Raising Rents, And Cutting Housing Assistance
|
Last Wednesday, shockingly, federal HUD Secretary Ben Carson and the Trump administration endorsed federal legislation to raise rents on the neediest households in America. The legislation released during National Fair Housing Month would change long-established U.S. housing policy currently based on low-income tenants in federally subsidized housing paying 30% of their gross household income in rent, increasing the tenant share of subsidized rent to 35% of gross income, or in some cases more.
(Read more here)
HUD’s proposed new legislation, ironically titled the “Making Affordable Housing Work” Act of 2018, offers no new assistance and creates no new housing. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities noted, “It isn’t clear that there’s any policy rationale behind this. If you work, they raise your rent. If you don’t work, they raise your rent. If you’re elderly, they raise your rent.”
(Read more here)
The proposed legislation also provides authority for “alternate family rent structures” to include “tiered rents, stepped rents, or timed escrow”, though these alternatives could further erode protections provided in a rent cap. The bill allows for a minimum work requirement rule as a condition for housing for people under 65 years of age and not disabled. Even reviews of decreases in household income, which would decrease tenant rent under a 35% rental cap rule, would only be required every 3 years unless household income falls by “20 percent or more”.
For our clients at CFH, many of whom live on fixed incomes far below the poverty threshold, these kinds of draconian rent increases present an enormous obstacle to finding and maintaining stable housing. This policy proposal that would hurt millions of vulnerable Americans comes at the same time the Agriculture bill making its way through Congress threatens to reduce SNAP food subsidy supports, challenging long accepted government programs to provide both food and housing to people in desperate need.
(Read more here)
HUD’s new proposal won’t reduce the housing crisis in America or New York City, and it certainly won’t reduce income inequality or lower barriers to social mobility. It can only make things worse. And raising rents and cutting people in need from basic housing programs won’t save public resources, either.
(Read more here)
The HUD proposed bill hasn’t yet been introduced in Congress, where it would have to pass both the House and the Senate before the President could sign it into law. But it’s not too early for advocates concerned about the basic right to housing for vulnerable people to let their members of Congress know how unacceptable this bad policy proposal is, and that providing stable housing for people in need is both the right thing to do and a cost savings for all of us. You can find your representative
here.
|
|
|
|
CFH Joins 30,000 Homes For Homeless New Yorkers Campaign
|
|
Last week client leaders serving on the CFH Consumer Advisory Committee held a discussion on the unavailability of housing for extremely-low-income people and households living in deep poverty. Not surprisingly, their conclusion was that the number one housing policy problem facing New Yorkers struggling to find and maintain housing is the unavailability of housing units for the most vulnerable in our city.
The CAB discussion came as the group endorsed Care for the Homeless joining the “30,000 Homes for Homeless New Yorkers” campaign. The advocacy effort, made up of 35 advocacy organizations, called for New York City to increase the number of newly developed housing units targeted to people experiencing homelessness in our city. In a letter to Mayor de Blasio, the 30,000 Homes for Homeless New Yorkers campaign urged creating 30,000 new stable housing units for homeless New Yorkers by 2026 as part of the City’s affordable housing plan.
The letter noted that the current plan targets just 15,000 units for homeless households, and “most of the 15,000 set-aside units will be preservation of existing occupied units and thus not available for move-in by homeless families currently languishing in shelters.” In fact, the New York City Housing Preservation and Development Department predicts no more than a few hundred units in the City’s plan will go to households currently experiencing homelessness.
“In contrast,” the 30,000 homes campaign letter says, “at a time when the shelter census was only a fraction of what it is today, Mayor Ed Koch created nearly 15,700 units of homeless housing – constituting more than 10% of the units in his 10-year plan. Nearly all those units were immediately available for occupancy by homeless families in shelters.” The campaign’s request is that the city’s goal be at least 30,000 stable housing units for people experiencing homelessness, with at least 24,000 being newly constructed.
“This plan will require the City to build roughly 2,000 new units of homeless housing each year between now and 2026…homeless housing production on the scale we recommend is not only financially achievable, but morally imperative,” the letter says. You can read the entire 30,000 Homes for Homeless New Yorkers letter to Mayor de Blasio
here.
|
|
Honoring People Who Overcome Obstacles To Find And Keep Stable Housing
|
|
Care for the Homeless will be joining with Broadway Community to hold our Fifth Annual Summer Solstice Success Celebration at Broadway Community Church (601 West 114th Street in Manhattan) at 4:30 p.m., on June 21st, the date of the summer solstice. This celebratory observance, invented by CFH and now celebrated in a number of cities in the United States, always features inspiring stories, good entertainment and great food. It’s free and open to all who are interested.
Care for the Homeless clients, like everyone with the lived experience of homelessness, have their own unique personal story. Each include challenges and obstacles, but very often they include incredible examples of laudable efforts to overcome those obstacles that result in inspiring real-world examples of successfully obtaining and maintaining housing and overcoming healthcare challenges to achieve great healthcare outcomes. This year, on the longest, brightest day of the year, we’ll be honoring currently or formerly homeless people who have overcome housing or healthcare challenges, or who have achieved outstanding advocacy success.
Too often, people experiencing homelessness are stigmatized and publicly humiliated – but we know many people experiencing homelessness have had great successes at points in their lives – and many of them work hard to achieve success and overcome major challenges as they transition from unstable to stable housing. These successes against the odds should be recognized and celebrated. In doing so we also hope to raise consciousness about how and why people suffer from unstable housing, and how we can all help to end homelessness as we know it.
|
|
The Busy Advocate's May Calendar
|
|
Mon., May 7th, 5:30 p.m., CFH First Monday Policy Briefing, “Not A Crime To Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty”,
CFH Conference Room, 30 E. 33rd Street, Manhattan.
RSVP here.
Wed., May 9th, 1:30 p.m., Stated Meeting, New York City Council.
New York City Hall, New York, NY 10007.
Tue., May 15th, 10:00 a.m., NYC City Council Year 2019 Executive Budget Hearing,
targeted on Mayor's proposed budget. This meeting will focus on HRA/Homeless Services. New York City Hall, New York, NY 10007.
Sun., May 20th, 9:30 a.m., AIDS Walk NYC in Central Park,
enter at 59th Street and 5th Avenue and follow the signs to the team tables. To sign up for the Care for the Homeless team
register here.
Wed., May 23rd, 12:30 p.m., CAB Client Leader Meeting,
CFH Conference Room, 30 E. 33rd Street, Manhattan.
Thur., May 24th, 4:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m., NYU Furman Center panel on “Changes in NYC’s Housing Stock”,
NYU Law School, Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Sq. So., Manhattan.
Mon., May 28th, Memorial Day.
Thur., June 21st, 4:30 p.m., CFH 5th Annual Summer Solstice Success Celebration,
celebrating the healthcare, housing, and advocacy successes of currently and formerly homeless New Yorkers. It will also feature live entertainment and a free meal. Broadway Presbyterian Church, 601 W. 114th Street, Manhattan, NY.
RSVP here.
|
|
|
|
A monthly update on policy issues in the fight against homelessness in NYC.
Thank you for your generous support of our mission.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
