(212) 471-0870
NEW INITIATIVE CREATED TO PURSUE ENDING,
RATHER THAN MANAGING, HOMELESSNESS
Brings Together Prominent Advocates For The Homeless
To Refocus Public Policy Debate
New Yorkers for Ending Homelessness has been formed in the belief that solutions to homelessness exist, that the right to shelter must be legally protected, and that the thrust of New York City’s and the broader community’s commitment, creativity, and resources should be focused on preventing and overcoming homelessness. The group seeks to build on the momentum created by Mayor Bloomberg’s “Five Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness” and other national efforts to advance this goal. New Yorkers for Ending Homelessness will work to educate the broader public and opinion-makers about emerging facts and successful experience and their implications for ending homelessness.
The initial Steering Committee of New Yorkers for Ending Homelessness includes:
- Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, Executive Director, Safe Space (Co-Chair)
- Rosanne Haggerty, President, Common Ground Community (Co-Chair)
- Eric Brettschneider, Executive Director, Agenda for Children Tomorrow
- Fr. John Felice, Director, St. Francis Residences
- Donna Galeno, former Administrator, Homeless Services, American Red Cross in Greater New York
- Tony Hannigan, Executive Director, Center for Urban Community Services
- Dr. Raymond Horton, Director, Social Enterprise Program, Columbia Business School
- Doug Lasdon, Executive Director, Urban Justice Center
- Robert McMahon, Executive Director, SCO Family of Services
- Fr. John McVean, Director, St. Francis Residences
- Jennifer Raab, President, Hunter College
- Ellen Schall, Dean, NYU Wagner
- Frederick Shack, Executive Director, Urban Pathways
- Dr. Sam Tsemberis, Executive Director, Pathways to Housing.
After more than 20 years of working with homeless individuals and families, we now know the following:
A small fraction of single adults who experience homelessness consume the majority of available services. In city after city, roughly 15 percent of the adult homeless population is using 50 percent or more of shelter bed days and government-supported medical assistance.
For most families, homelessness can be ended through securing affordable housing. Homeless families are overwhelmingly not troubled families.
For many individuals, homelessness follows a failed transition from an institutional setting (i.e., foster care, the military, jail, hospitals), and better links to housing and essential services—such as employment assistance, substance abuse services and mental health treatment—can significantly reduce homelessness.
For those families and individuals with complex or chronic health, mental health, or substance abuse challenges, comprehensive services linked to housing creates the stability in their lives that can eliminate homelessness.
Research across many states now makes us better able to target services and housing resources to those most at risk and to tailor those services to their needs.
The experiences of other cities and of exemplary New York programs that prevent and reduce homelessness demonstrate how progress can be made in fundamentally altering the present reality of homelessness in New York City.
“Research and experience tells us that it’s possible to end homelessness,” said Co-Chair Lilliam Barrios-Paoli. “New Yorkers for
Ending Homelessness will work to focus attention on that goal and ways of achieving it.”
“Ending homelessness is both realistic and achievable,” said Co-Chair Rosanne Haggerty. “What it requires is that public resources be focused on preventing homelessness and increasing access to affordable housing rather than simply responding to it on an emergency basis.”
New Yorkers for Ending Homelessness is intended to be a temporary organization, underscoring by its very nature that homelessness should not be permanent. New Yorkers for Ending Homelessness will function with loaned resources and will not raise funds. It intends to cooperate with and not compete with other organizations serving the homeless.
For further information on New Yorkers for Ending Homelessness, please contact Kelly Castagnaro at (212) 471-0870.
