SUPPORTIVE HOUSING Ends Homelessness, Reduces Use Of
SUPPORTIVE HOUSING Ends Homelessness, Reduces Use of Institutional Care and Saves Taxpayer Dollars An Integral Part of Governor Cuomo’s New Agenda Core Principle Supportive housing – permanent, affordable, nonprofit-operated rental housing linked to services – is the most humane housing option for homeless and ill-housed people with special needs. It is also the most cost- effective. Faced with an extraordinary structural budget deficit, the State must transform the way it cares for its most vulnerable (and expensive) citizens: chronically homeless individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS, mental illness and/or substance abuse; individuals leaving prison or other institutions; youth aging out of foster care; and now, veterans returning from combat. Supportive housing has had consistent success serving these diverse populations, while reducing both immediate and long-term public expenditures on them. It offers the best, most viable strategy for maintaining New York’s safety net for vulnerable people in face of the State’s new budgetary limitations. In his recent “Urban Agenda,” Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo proposes to transform New York’s response to prisoner reentry, recidivism and juvenile justice using many of the community-based strategies pioneered by supportive housing providers. Other pillars of Governor Cuomo’s agenda – relying on primary care over emergency treatment, maximizing federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits, using nonprofit community groups to drive neighborhood development, to name a few – are hallmarks of the supportive housing approach. Supportive housing can help the new administration achieve its ambitious goals for New York, while reducing Medicaid and State general fund spending on expensive emergency services for individuals and families with high service needs.
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