In 2015/2016, the Campaign 4 NY/NY Housing won pledges from the Mayor and Governor to create 15,000 and 20,000 units of supportive housing over 15 years respectively. The Mayor’s commitment launched at the end of 2016 and was eventually called NYC 15/15. The Governor’s commitment was the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative (ESSHI) and was launched in 2016. Funding for the first five years/6,000 units of ESSHI was included in that year’s budget. Year 6 was funded in last year’s budget.
The first six years of ESSHI funding has now been exhausted and a new expanded commitment is needed in order to keep urgently-needed development going. New York State was experiencing a homelessness crisis pre-COVID, and the situation has exponentially worsened due to the pandemic, furthering the desperate need for funding for supportive housing.
It is now time to re-commit to supportive housing creation as well as to preserving existing residences. The Campaign calls on Governor Hochul to support NYS 20K creating 14,000 units of new supportive housing statewide as well as preserving 6,000 existing units in the next ten years. Additionally, we seek to increase service and operating funding to reflect increased costs. Finally, we need the Governor to fund the first half of NYS 20K in next year’s budget to ensure investor confidence.
STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE EXECUTIVE BUGDET
THE HOUSES THAT NYS 20K BUILT
