“As rents steadily rose and low-income wages stagnated, chronically poor families like Dasani’s found themselves stuck in a shelter system with fewer exits” – Andrea Elliott, “Invisible Child: Dasani’s Homeless Life” The New York Times, 12/19/13

Every night in New York City more than 60,000 people, including over 23,000 children, go to sleep homeless. The number of New Yorkers living in shelters has risen by 75% since 2002 while wealth has concentrated disproportionately, according to the Coalition for the Homeless.

On July 9th, at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Greater NYC for Change hosted a panel discussion on homelessness. The focus what has changed in the six months since Elliott’s inspiring series brought Dasani and thousands of children like her into focus. Panelists addressed the urgency of the situation, Mayor de Blasio’s affordable housing plan, and ways that average citizens can fight back against the deepening crisis of homelessness. The moderator was Ben Max of Gotham Gazette, and our panelists were James Dill, Executive Director of Housing & Services, Inc., Lisa Lombardi, Deputy Executive Director of Urban Pathways, and Heidi Schmidt, Department of Homeless Services‘ (DHS) Office of Government and Special Events Coordinator. Our co-sponsors were Village Independent Democrats (VID), Manhattan Young Democrats, Democracy for NYC, and Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing.

Following the panel, the assembled broke out into groups, and discussed actions to take. Group shared ideas and a resources list was developed:

Breakout Groups Actions
1. More transparency from the administration about city-owned property. Residential buildings should be listed and counted, then made available for housing the homeless (Refer to HPD)

2. Tax incentives/requirements for developers to include housing for homeless individuals. (Refer to HPD Low Income Housing Tax Credits)

3. Require property owners with vacant buildings make them available for homeless housing units. 
 
4. Push for stronger rent regulations. Questions: Could we pay people directly to rent their own apartments for less? How do we educate people about what homelessness really looks like? Which programs work and how can we replicate? (Refer to DHS Temporary Housing Assistance)

5. Re: getting people legal help for housing court, the New York County Lawyers’ Association has a pro-bono program where attorneys give free advice to walk-ins (see Resources).
 
6. Taxing vacant lots/units. Identifying where system fails. Promote inter-agency collaboration.
 
7. Stronger workforce development with homeless, and children, with better coordination between agencies. Community outreach teams to homeless or create a number/office that people can call other than the police (see resources, 311). Provide better training to NYPD. 

8. Give community boards the right to petition for legal representation and immediate court dates for community members facing eviction or similar due to backlog in housing court scheduling. Raise awareness that eviction and resulting homelessness hurt communities as well as individuals and families.

Resources
Call 311 for outreach to homeless individuals.
Download the 311 app:
http://www1.nyc.gov/connect/applications.page
 
NYC DHS Homebase map of Homeless Prevention Network:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/downloads/pdf/homebase_map.pdf
 
Met Council on Housing Nonprofit tenant’s rights org. Resources for tenants, including legal: http://metcouncilonhousing.org/help_and_answers
Walk-in clinic: http://metcouncilonhousing.org/tenants_rights_walk_in_clinic
 
New York County Lawyer’s Association http://www.nycla.org/
 
CLARO NYC Civil Legal Advice and Resource Office provides limited legal advice to low-income New Yorkers being sued by debt collectors.
http://www.claronyc.org/claronyc/default.html
 
New Alternatives Outreach to LGBT homeless youth:
http://www.newalternativesnyc.org/
 
NYC Councilman (7, West Harlem) Mark Levine’s “Right to Counsel” Bill:
http://www.markdlevine.com/bill_number_int_214_2014
 
A Recent Post from Bronx Defenders on the proposed legislation:
http://www.bronxdefenders.org/the-bronx-defenders-joins-rally-to-demand-justice-in-housing-court/
 
NYC Nonprofit providers of supportive housing:
Housing and Services, Inc http://www.hsi-ny.org/
Urban Pathways http://www.urbanpathways.org/
 
Panelist Jim Dill of HSI-NY provided the following additional resources:
 
Housing New York: A Five-Borough, Ten Year Plan
An ambitious, weighty tome of principles and guidelines. The Mayor’s plan acknowledges that the current homelessness crisis is a subset of the affordable housing crisis. We all eagerly await further details. Specifics addressing homelessness begin in Ch 4, p 78:
www.nyc.gov/html/housing/assets/downloads/pdf/housing_plan.pdf
 
NYC Homeless/Permanent Supportive Housing Advocacy Groups:
Supportive Housing Network of New York www.shnny.org
United to End Homelessness NYC www.endhomelessnessnyc.org
Campaign 4 NY/NY Housing & Services www.nynycampaign.org