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Action What Works Action What Works Housing the Homeless Common Ground has helped reduce the number of people sleeping on New York City streets by opening a dozen residential buildings for the homeless and impaired in the last four years. By greg Beato Ask Brenda Rosen to describe the organization she Bloomberg administration and the state have definitely commit- oversees as executive director and she will say that its “two biggest ted to ensuring that more units were developed for people with lines of business are as a real estate developer and a property man- mental illnesses and other barriers to housing.” ager.” Given her location in New York City, this characterization hardly seems unusual—no doubt hundreds, maybe thousands, of creating quality housing other outfits in America’s most densely populated metropolis fit “This is architecture in which anyone would feel at home,” the that description as well. American Institute of Architects (AIA) noted when it named What makes Rosen’s description telling is the clientele her Schermerhorn, a 217-unit building in Brooklyn, N.Y., as one of its nonprofit organization, Common Ground, serves: chronically 2011 Housing Award recipients in the category of “Specialized homeless people whose adverse life experiences or debilitating Housing.” A joint effort between Common Ground, the nonprofit mental or physical health conditions have ostensibly rendered arts organization Actors Fund, two private developers, and Ennead them “unhousable.” Architects (the firm that designed the building), Schermerhorn Founded by Rosanne Haggerty in 1990, Common Ground oper- boasts a striking glass facade, a landscaped terrace on a second- ates on the principle that reducing homelessness isn’t just a public floor overhang, and a dance studio operated health or social services challenge, but a real estate challenge as well. The Domenech, a facility by the Brooklyn Ballet. Partnering with city agencies, private developers, and other non- built and managed by Other on-site amenities include a gym, Common Ground, houses profits, the organization has built, renovated, or started managing low-income and formerly a computer lab, cooking classes, and movie 16 buildings in New York and Connecticut that combine housing for homeless seniors. nights. The 266-square-foot studio apart- people who were homeless or who ments feature interiors so have special needs (such as severe streamlined that the AIA mental illnesses or AIDS) with described them as “ship-like in housing for low-income working [their] ingenuity.” A translucent adults. In recent years, Common glass panel wall keeps the small Ground has expanded rapidly. space light and airy. “What Between 2008 and 2012, it opened we’ve known for a long time is 12 buildings and increased the that people respond better with total number of units under its more light,” says Rosen. “So we control from 1,453 to 2,959. have been really intentional in According to Rosen, Common trying to bring natural light into Ground obtains financing for its our buildings as we continue to capital projects from tax-exempt develop them.” bonds, capital subsidies from city In the early 1980s, when ris- and state sources, and funds ing homelessness rates began to ground raised by selling low-income attract an increasing amount of housing tax credits. “We’ve had national attention, no one was common strong partners in terms of envisioning award-winning, OF capital and operational funding,” LEED-certified buildings whose she says. “The [Mayor Michael] facades are “fabricated with a courtesy Greg Beato is a contributing editor and high percentage of post-con- columnist for Reason magazine. His work sumer waste glass” as a poten- has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Week, and more than tial solution to the problem. hotograph P 100 other publications worldwide. Instead, cities started setting up Summer 2013 • STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW 63 Action What Works emergency shelters that offered temporary communal housing to for people who are homeless because of a recent crisis, such as the people who would otherwise be living on the street. But home- loss of a job or eviction from an apartment. lessness rates weren’t rising because there was a shortage of In 2004, to better serve people who had shown resistance to places where you could crash for a few nights in a large open room traditional outreach efforts, Common Ground introduced a with a bunch of strangers. They were rising because much of the program it calls Street to Home. “Generally, people who’ve been on housing stock that had traditionally served the lowest end of the the street for so long are hesitant to come inside for any kind of market had been eliminated in the preceding decades. services,” says Amie Pospisil, Common Ground’s associate director In the first half of the twentieth century, residents of New York of housing operations and programs. “So we bring everything to and other major cities had been served by a robust infrastructure them. Literally, we’re on the street doing psychiatric evaluations, of flophouses and single-room-occupancy hotels (SROs). Condi- addressing minor medical needs, completing paperwork for hous- tions in these dwellings were often squalid and unsafe, but they ing. In some cases, we’ve actually had people who we walked gave millions of urban-dwellers a way to maintain a private and through the entire process who never came into our office, not for autonomous foothold in the city. one second. The first time they came indoors for anything was Over time, however, New York and other cities began imple- when we moved them into permanent housing.” menting new zoning codes and regulations that made it harder Common Ground also works with the City of New York on a to develop and maintain these types of buildings profitably. In program called Safe Haven, which the city introduced in 2007 as an addition, efforts to eliminate urban blight and replace flophouses alternative to its traditional shelters. “Contrary to normal shelters and SROs with buildings that were aimed at families and higher- that have curfews and other rules, a Safe Haven essentially has no income tenants further reduced this type of housing. From the curfew, and the basic rules are no using [drugs or alcohol] on the mid-1950s through the mid-1980s, New York City lost more than premises, no violence, and no weapons,” says Rosen. “Besides that, 100,000 units of SRO housing. you can really come and go as you will, and staff is there to help you Social services alone could not combat that fact. Temporary move into permanent housing.” shelter programs could at best offer temporary relief. In large In each borough of New York, the city contracts with a single part, homelessness was an infrastructure problem. nonprofit agency to oversee the Safe Haven program. In Brooklyn In 1991, using a $28 million loan provided by the city of New and the Bronx, that agency is Common Ground. (Common York, Common Ground purchased its first building, the Times Ground also handles part of Manhattan as a sub-contractor.) Square Hotel, a landmark SRO. After major renovations, Common “Around 50 percent of the people we work with in the Street to Ground reopened it in 1992. Using an approach known as “support- Home program end up going to Safe Haven,” says Pospisil. ive housing,” Common Ground offered health care, employment In one of the buildings where Common Ground operates its counseling, and other social services on site at the Times Square. Safe Haven program, the Andrews in Manhattan, tenants live in But in contrast to many emergency shelter programs, it didn’t one-room cubicles that, unlike the studios in most Common require tenants to participate in any of these programs as a condi- Ground buildings, do not have kitchen facilities or private bath- tion of occupancy. It simply made them available. rooms. In other words, the Andrews is more like a traditional SRO Common Ground also asked its tenants for feedback. “We did or flophouse. Thanks to the Safe Haven program, there is no fee a lot of focus groups,” says Rosen. “We asked them about every- for occupancy. Otherwise, the Andrews functions much like the thing down to what kinds of appliances were working well for lodging houses of old, which gave city residents a bare-bones but them. Our programs and services are really designed around what flexible way to find shelter. Although Common Ground continues tenants have told us their needs are. We do a lot of listening.” to make permanent housing its primary goal, the Andrews and In almost every Common Ground building, some units are similar buildings help restore a crucial part of urban infrastruc- reserved for working adults who meet specific income thresholds. ture. As a result, homelessness in New York City is declining. At the Schermerhorn, 100 studios, which rent for $635 a month, are Every year, the New York City Department of Homeless intended for people making between $21,770 and $34,860 a year. Services conducts a one-night count of people who are living on This model not only generates revenue and integrates formerly the street (as opposed to those who are living in city-run shelters homeless people into a more socially balanced setting, but also or some other form of temporary housing). There have been some forces Common Ground to maintain a mindset that is more “real sharp fluctuations in the count over the last four years, but the estate developer” or “property manager” than “case worker.” overall trend is down. “From 2005 to 2012, we’ve reduced home- Renting units to people who are customers, not clients, encourages lessness [the number of people living on the street] from 4,395 it to create places that feel mainstream rather than institutional, people citywide to 3,262,” says Pospisil.
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