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Releases & Statements
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 26, 2009
Contact: Anat Gerstein
(212) 669-4743
PA Gotbaum: End Costly Temporary Homeless Shelter Program
Program gives landlords incentive to push out rent-paying tenants, Does Not Connect Homeless with Permanent Housing
MANHATTAN - Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and homeless advocates today called on the city to end the cluster-site program, which provides homeless families with temporary shelter in approximately 1500 apartments. The program, which costs the city an estimated $59 million, is similar to the scatter-site program which was phased out by the Department of Homeless Services after it came under heavy criticism from Gotbaum and homeless advocates.
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said, “This program appears to do more harm than good. It provides limited assistance to homeless families and leaves rent-paying tenants worse off.” Gotbaum and the advocates recommend replacing the cluster-site program with federally funded housing by restoring homeless families’ priority status for Section 8 vouchers and public housing.
Problems with the cluster-site program include:
--The program gives landlords a perverse incentive to push out rent-paying tenants because the city pays landlords more for these apartments—an average of $1730 a month—compared to what residents living in rent-stabilized units pay.
--The program uses a limited stock of affordable apartments to provide the homeless with temporary shelter instead of using those apartments for permanent housing
--The city uses apartments in dilapidated buildings with dangerous conditions, such as peeling lead paint, cascading water leaking from the ceiling, and broken or defective fire retardant ceiling
Mary Brosnahan, Executive Director, Coalition for the Homeless, said, “Scatter site housing was a disaster for homeless people, renters and taxpayers. That’s why Mayor Bloomberg promised to end it in 2003. Now with the number of homeless families in New York City at an all time high, the Bloomberg administration has brought back this failed program, under another name. Instead of using apartment buildings as temporary shelters, the Mayor should be using federal Section 8 vouchers and public housing to move homeless children and families into permanent housing.”
"The city is shooting itself in the foot," said Steven Banks, the attorney in chief for the Legal Aid Society. "It is far more costly to house families in apartments as shelter than to house them in permanent housing."
According to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), 3001 Briggs Avenue in the Bronx, a building that is part of the cluster-site program, currently has 315 open violations, of which 29 are class C, which means they are immediately hazardous and may include inadequate fire exits, rodents, lead-based paint, lack of heat, hot water, electricity, or gas. The building also has four open violations with the Department of Buildings. At 1519 West Mosholu Parkway North, there are 13 open DOB violations and 169 HPD violations.
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