Paul Bass Photo
Okafor: On to policy 2.0.
The Harp administration put out an annual call for bidders to help house the homeless — with a caveat that they also help link people to jobs and health care.
The call came in the form of a request for proposals (RFP) for $1 million in total city contracts for emergency shelter services for individuals and families this coming year.
The RFP, which the administration issued Monday, includes this language:
“In particular, the City is interested in funding organizations that will demonstrate direct linkage (onsite or off-site) to a continuum of care services for the homeless including preventive health, mental health, and/or substance abuse treatment workforce development, job training and placement, education, and employment placement services.”
That language reflects a change, based on a new report the Harp Administration also released Monday at a City Hall press conference. The report — funded by the Harp Administration, the United Way, the Community Foundation, and the Melville Charitable Trust — assessed the city’s homeless situation and suggested next steps.
City of New Haven
(Click here to read the report. Click here to read the report’s executive summary.)
The report’s message: We have a lot of services in town. We’ve been successful getting more people into long-term housing. Now we need to do better keeping them there.
Toward that end, the administration seeks through the RFP to tie immediate help for the homeless to the health care, training and job opportunities needed to ensure people can stay un-homeless.
Or, as city Community Services Administrator Martha Okafor put it, to help people “not only get housed, but sustain[ed] in their housing.”
Mayor Toni Harp said the city isn’t increasing how much money it spends on homeless services with the RFP. “Some people may have to do more” than in the past to obtain or keep contracts, she said.
The report follows a community-wide effort last April to house 100 chronically homeless people in long-term housing within 100 days. Since then, the effort has found homes for 160 chronically homeless people, according to United Way Executive Vice-President Jennifer Heath (pictured at Monday’s press conference). She said all those 160 people remain housed (though one of the 160 is currently housed in jail). In tandem with the 100-day campaign, agencies that help the homeless figured out new ways to work together on each identified homeless person’s case. Read about that here.
In addition to the RFP, the city plans to increase its work with agencies that already offer services homeless people need, such as the Regional Workforce Alliance. The Alliance’s chief, William Villano, spoke of an upcoming pilot programing with city government’s Livable City Initiative (LCI) to link housing, transportation, and job-placement efforts.
A 2014 unofficial count identified 566 homeless individuals in town. An annual “Point-in-Time” count last month found just 49 homeless people on the streets during a frigid night. At Monday’s press conference, housing authority Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton (pictured) offered a sobering statistic pointing to the basic sheltering challenge that remains: her agency has 9,658 families on its waiting list. It generally has 350 openings a year, between vacated apartments at public-housing complexes and relinquished rent-subsidy vouchers.
This is a election year.Again snake-oil being sold,Plus warm weather is coming,They can now throw the homeless under the bus.The solution is to sue for The Right to Shelter for the Homeless.
The Right to Shelter for Homeless New Yorkers
What is the Right to Shelter and why is it unique?
New York City and State have a legal obligation to provide shelter to homeless New Yorkers. Shelters must also meet minimum health and safety standards. Most cities in the United States have no right to shelter, and when shelter facilities are filled to capacity other localities can and do turn needy people away.
How was the right to shelter established?
In 1979, the Coalition for the Homeless brought a class action lawsuit against the city and state arguing that the New York State constitution provides homeless people with a right to shelter. That case, known as Callahan vs. Carey, was settled in 1981 when the city and state entered into a consent decree which established the right to shelter for homeless men. Through additional lawsuits, advocates were able to extend the right to shelter to homeless women and to homeless families with minor children.
You see this lawsuit covers the whole state of New York,Not just New York city.Also How come we can not use the goffe street armory as a homeless shelter?
City expands housing at Park Slope Armory homeless shelter,
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/park-slope-neighbors-wary-expansion-women-shelter-article-1.1545126