Put simply: New York State’s supportive housing system is breaking down due to a lack of accountability by providers and oversight agencies to the tenants they are intended to serve.
Supportive housing applicants and tenants routinely experience bureaucratic and discriminatory barriers to accessing housing; hazardous conditions in their homes; abusive interactions with case managers; a lack of respect for privacy and personal space; onerous, patronizing and illegal “house rules,”; threats of eviction and actual eviction for reasons directly related to absence of adequate social services; and lack of recourse for issues related to housing or case management.
In April, 2023, SHOUT launched a comprehensive campaign to make supportive housing Safe and Accountable for Everyone (S.A.F.E.). The campaign proposes a major overhaul of the supportive housing system in New York City and State to ensure that supportive housing programs are accountable to the tenants and applicants they serve. These reforms will help course-correct the current dysfunction plaguing New York State’s supportive housing, creating clear and enforceable guidelines for providers, and protections for tenants and applicants.
S.A.F.E. CAMPAIGN DEMANDS
Supportive housing providers must:
Stop discriminating against supportive housing applicants on the basis of disability, language, race, gender, and sexual orientation.
Provide high quality repairs and services in all supportive housing.
Stop renting from known slumlords and take legal action to force negligent landlords to provide repairs and services.
Stop evicting supportive housing tenants. Instead, support tenants to resolve any issues and maintain their housing.
Stop relying on shared/roommate housing as a cost cutting measure, especially when shared housing is a known barrier to tenant safety, stability, and recovery.
Instead, ensure that all supportive housing tenants have access to stable and safe housing that meets their health and mental health needs.
Respect tenants’ privacy and personal space, including not entering units or accessing mail without permission or sharing private information without consent.
Meet tenants’ needs and requests for social services and supports, not just the minimum required by agency contracts. This includes meaningful assistance with referrals to high-quality social services, health and mental health providers.
Provide tenants with clear information as to their supportive housing and how to report issues with repairs and services, including copies of all relevant legal documents resolution.
Nothing about us without us! Supportive housing agencies should not enter into deals with landlords without including tenants in the decisions.
DOHMH and OMH must:
Stop contracting with bad actors who repeatedly break NYC and NYS housing and human rights laws.
Enforce the supportive housing guidelines as binding requirements in all NYC/NYS supportive housing.
Create a meaningful grievance process for supportive housing, including written records, complaint tracking and tenant inclusion in all steps of the resolution process.
Hire adequate staff to investigate tenant complaints and truly monitor the quality of housing and services in all contracted supportive housing programs.
Create a public-facing “landing page” where tenants can access critical information about their housing rights and how to file a complaint when those rights are not respected.
Create pathways to exit supportive housing for individuals who no longer require ongoing supportive services but still require a rent subsidy.
Create pathways for tenants to transfer supportive housing programs/providers when necessary to accommodate family growth or other changed life circumstances.
Conduct mandatory annual review of all program documents and policies to ensure they comply with the OMH supportive housing guidelines, their contractual obligations and New York State and City supportive housing guidelines and housing laws.
Require providers to certify annually that supportive housing units are not subject to any open housing code violations and/or provide a corrective action plan for resolving any open violations with a timeline for resolution.
Create mandatory pre-discharge and pre-eviction requirements, including required notice to OMH/DOHMH prior to commencing any eviction proceeding, begin tracking all evictions and “voluntary” exits from supportive housing.