From Carol Corden, Executive Director:
On April 24, 2018, I testified at a hearing on the NYC 15/15 Initiative conducted by the New York City Council Committee on General Welfare, which is the de Blasio Administration’s 2014 commitment to developing 15,000 units of supportive housing over the next 15 years.
My testimony addressed who is NOT served by NYC 15/15 – families with children and domestic violence survivors – due to two requirements that they cannot meet: the definition of chronic homelessness and documentation of a medical disability. Despite the fact that victims of domestic violence were the third largest sub-population in the 2017 NYC Point in Time Count (PIT), it is likely that NYC 15/15 as currently structured, will not be available to most homeless families. This was the case for NY/NY III, which served only a small number of families with children, and even fewer families headed by domestic violence survivors.
There are two ways to address this situation. One is by making the eligibility criteria more appropriate for homeless families; the other is to develop and fund new models to serve vulnerable families. To adequately serve the most vulnerable we need to document who is – and who is not—being served by supportive housing. For this reason, New Destiny supports Intro. 147.