Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced a plan to create 15,000 units of supportive housing over the next 15 years. Supportive housing is affordable housing with supportive services for those in need of mental and physical healthcare access, alcohol and substance abuse programs, and other social services.
“Every person in supportive housing and on the road to wellness is one fewer person in a City hospital, prison or shelter,” said de Blasio. “By making this historic investment, we are confronting the moral crises of homelessness and mental illness our city faces today.”
The City plans to make 15,000 units available, including 7,500 newly-constructed, congregate units and 7,500 scattered units. Developing the newly-constructed units will cost $2.6 billion in capital funds over the next 15 years. To cover total costs, $1 billion will come from the City, including $380 million budgeted through Housing New York, and the remaining $1.6 billion will come from low-income tax credits and private sources.
The plan will reach more New Yorkers than previous plans, including homeless veterans, domestic violence victims, and street homeless people. An aim of this plan is to reduce reliance on homeless shelters, hospitals and mental health institutions.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams thanked Mayor de Blasio for “stepping up and setting our city on course to create thousands of needed units of supportive housing. We face real challenges with domestic violence, homelessness, mental illness, and substance issue, challenges we cannot economically or morally afford to ignore. Supportive housing is a caring solution that can put troubled New Yorkers on the right track, a safe and healthy approach we can all get behind.”
“There are nearly 60,000 homeless people in New York City, many of them veterans of the Armed Forces or survivors of domestic violence. We have a shared responsibility to provide these individuals with access to affordable housing as well as the services that are critical to their health and safety,” said Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke.
Republican State Senator Marty Golden considers the plan to be an effective, long-term solution. “Not only are individuals provided with safe clean housing, they are offered counseling and programs to provide the necessary help to address their individual needs. I commend Mayor Bill de Blasio for his commitment of 15,000 units over 15 years and I am confident that New York State will agree to develop even more. Supportive housing provides an environment in which we can deal with the homeless with dignity, respect and care.”
“Supportive housing is not a hand-out, but instead a hand-up to transition individuals and families to help stabilize them. The billions of dollars to be invested in this program will not only provide homes for New Yorkers, it will provide them with some of the additional supports they will need,” said Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte.
“The de Blasio administration’s announcement of a commitment to fund 15,000 units of supportive housing over 15 years is a bold declaration that we have to do more than ever before to help those in greatest need of housing. This administration has seen the need and is rising to the occasion,” said Council Member Stephen Levin, Chair of the Committee on Social Services.
