The city is changing the way it picks locations for new homeless shelters, officials announced late last month.
The Department of Homeless Services released a new, open-ended request for proposals to serve as a guide for nonprofits and developers or building owners who want to pitch a location for one of the 90 shelters the de Blasio administration has pledged to build by 2022. The new framework is the first update to the RFP process in 40 years, and is designed to encourage projects that better conform to the city’s needs.
“To achieve fundamental institutional reform, these kinds of in-the-weeds changes need to be made,” said Steven Banks, commissioner of the Depart of Social Services, which includes Homeless Services.
For example, while the old RFP solicited plans for a generic homeless shelter, the new document outlines specific goals based on who will be occupying the end product. For shelters that will house children, the RFP encourages plans that include education components. Proposals for adult shelters are advised to include provisions for medical attention that could include training in the use of naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
While the provisions of the RFP are extremely technical, the idea is to streamline the selection and development process and ensure that officials receive proposals that more closely adhere to the mayor’s 2017 Turning the Tide on Homelessness plan. But these changes must take place as the department still houses more than 60,000 shelter people on a given night.
“We are flying the plane while we’re rebuilding it,” Banks said.
A key component of the mayor’s plan is phasing out the use of subpar homeless housing arrangements and consolidating the shelter footprint to make oversight easier.
Out of the 90 proposed shelters, the city has selected 24 sites from submitted proposals and 17 of those are up and running. And while the department has shut down around half of cluster sites, a controversial program that stuck homeless households in violation-prone private apartments, that has also meant the city must lean more heavily on hotel rooms, another inadequate method, while it builds shelter capacity.
Earlier this month, the city
streamlined its rental voucher program, which along with the right to counsel in housing court is designed to prevent New Yorkers from ending up homeless in the first place, Banks said. However, advocates have repeatedly called on the mayor to include more units for the homeless in the city’s affordable housing plan.
COMMENTS
Anybody know what number new plan to help the homeless we are up to ? I’ve lost count on the number of “plans” promulgated by our Mayors just over the last 20 years to alleviate the homeless problem that have failed.. How many billions of dollars have been wasted on failed remedies? Anybody know?
We have an NYC Dept. of Homeless Services with lots of employees and a big budget – 1.7 Billion.. We’ve had one for many years. Here’s a novel thought – maybe just maybe the programs over the last several decades have failed and continue to fail because they are doomed to fail. They all follow some model created and operated by massive government bureaucracies. Maybe there is another way to approach the problem. Just maybe government is incapable of resolving the problem and our tax dollars would be better spent by eliminating public sector jobs and bureaucracy, directing those enormous monetary savings along with our tax money to lean organizations like The Salvation Army, Volunteers of America and similar reliable, credible, non-political non-profits. Out sourcing these problems to organizations that have a record of accomplishments will do more to help the homeless, mentally ill who live on the streets and children in shelters.
Let’s give the money to people and organizations who know what they are doing and get our funds directly to those who need them rather than the feckless, inept politicians and bureaucrats who are in the “homeless business”..
According to the Coalition For The Homeless:
In recent years, homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
In August 2018, there were 62,166 homeless people, including 15,189 homeless families with 22,511 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Families make up three-quarters of the homeless shelter population.
Over the course of City fiscal year 2017, 129,803 different homeless men, women, and children slept in the New York City municipal shelter system. This includes over 45,000 different homeless New York City children.
In 2015, families entering shelter came from a few clustered zip codes in the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. However, homeless families and single adults come from every zip code in NYC prior to entering shelters.
The number of homeless New Yorkers sleeping each night in municipal shelters is now 79 percent higher than it was ten years ago.
Yet Mayor Bill and his pals wins re-election in a walk ( as will his “pal” Andy) , the problem worsens but we can look forward to another new plan which will cost more and fail just like all the plans that proceeded it. . In NYC failure reaps rewards. Suffer the little children.
Well said. Additionally, people forget that “the homeless” are not an homogenous group. There are different groups of homeless with different needs. These people and organizations of which you speak are often specialized and are much more able to positively assist these disparate subgroups of homeless people. Some quick examples of these sub groups include the working poor who have suffered some misfortune, the mentally ill, drug abusers, etc. Each of these groups has different needs and usually there is a specialty organization that can best address these needs.
No comments:
Post a Comment