Homelessness in New York City
... diminished swiftly over the past decade. Between 1991 and 1999, New York City lost more than 510,000 apartments with gross rents below $500 per month, a decline of 55 percent in this shrinking housing stock. (Patel and D”Cruz). The problem is apparent and two decades of federal cutbacks in housing assistance have not helped the problem. These dramatic housing assistance cutbacks can be seen when comparing 1970 to the present. In the late 1970s, the Federal government provided housing assistance to more than 360,000 new households each year. In the 1990s, fewer then 70,000 new households each year have received housing assistance. As well as the Federal Cutbacks, Congress has eliminated funding for new rentals vouchers. The Congress abolished funding for new Section 8 rental vouchers, the largest housing assistance program in the United States. In New York City, there are more than 210,000 households on waiting lists for Section 8 assistance and the average wait for a rental voucher is up to eight years. (Oakley). In addition to these housing woes for New York the homeless situation persists and is increasing. Currently there are 36,000 homeless men, women, and children sleeping in municipal shelters on a nightly basis. Once again when compared to as recently as 1998, there only 21,000 persons per night. Additionally, homeless families with Children are on the up rise as well. Unfortunately these homeless families make up the fastest growing segment of the homeless population in New York City. Currently there are a record number of homeless children sleeping in New York City shelters, and homeless children and their families make up three-quarters of the homeless shelter population. (Oakley). The problem has been clearly defined; it is the solution that is not so clear-cut. According to Rubin and Rubin before implementing a community organization project, as in this case for housing and homeless, a set of steps should be done in the initial plan. County profile issues that need to be analyzed before implementing a housing project include completing a profile of the county. This is necessary so that you know the population and the statistics of the amount of housing that is needed, average incomes in the area and other pertinent information in regard to the community. As well, community issues need to be evaluated. This is necessary in order to benefit the community; you must know what the issues the community is facing are so the correct plan can be implemented. (Rubin and Rubin). Another important step in the process of developing a community organization plan is to set priority objectives. If nine out of ten people are homeless a homeless shelter has to deal with the situations more pressing then building affordable rental homes. The affordable rental homes are important but if the homeless rate is that high a shelter needs to be implemented first to deal with the immediate problem. I would certainly have that as a priority if I were leading this project. I would tend to the needs of the homeless and special needs populations as my top priority. Neighborhood development is important to persevere any positive steps that are initiated to better the housing situation in a community. Once the plan has been implemented in order to maintain its objectives an annual action plan must be devised. A plan such as this may have to be altered as housing and community needs change that is why an annual evaluation is necessary. In order to implement a community plan such as the one that is going to be proposed to assist the housing situation in a New York community, planning and citizen participation is a very important step to the plan. The community must be involved to insure the success of the project. The last step before putting the plan in writing is to do needs assessment. The needs assessment can include educational programs in the community, social events and other plans to imitate a sense of camaraderie within the neighborhood. (Rubin and Rubin). The solution to this problem is not a simple one. As well it involves the efforts of many governmental organizations, non-profit organizations and the community members themselves. The first step would be to contact the Federal government. The Federal Government should establish minimum housing allowances for extremely low-income households that is, all households with incomes below 30 percent of area median income (income thresholds ranging from $15,000 to $23,000 depending on the region). (Oakley). There are currently 5.8 million extremely low-income households nationwide who are not receiving housing assistance. Of these, 4.1 million households (70 percent of the total have severe housing problems – i.e., pay more than half of their incomes for rent or live in substandard physical conditions. The Federal government should establish minimum housing allowances for extremely low-income households. Modeled on the tenant-based Section 8 assistance program, these allowances would assure that no eligible household pays more than 30 percent of its income for rent. (Patel and D”Cruz). Depending on contribution rates, the annual cost of the minimum housing allowance would range from $15.0 billion to $17.5 billion. Another part of this community organization plan would be to implement investments in new affordable housing developments. If I were in charge of this plan, I would imitate such a plan as this after I exhausted my governmental sources. The Federal government must develop and fund a comprehensive plan for expanding investments in new affordable housing for very-low-income households (i.e., households earning less than 50 percent of area median income). (Oakley). This portion of the plan consists of initiatives to finance the development of affordable housing in cooperation with private developers and financial institutions. The Federal government should develop new affordable housing units for at least 100,000 new, very-low-income households per year, and provide operating assistance through project-based subsidies. (Oakley). The annual cost for capital development would be $6.5 billion, and the annual cost for project-based subsidies would be $600 million. Other sources to implement that I would certainly depend on, as a viable resource is the Right to Housing for Mentally Ill Americans. The rea...