Homelessness experts, including The Coalition for the Homeless, Community Service Society, The Legal Aid Society, VOCAL-NY, Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development, Neighbors Together, and CSH have released “Housing is the Solution: A Plan to End Mass Homelessness in NYC.”

The comprehensive policy blueprint outlines concrete, realistic strategies to address New York City’s homelessness crisis. As mayoral candidates develop their platforms for the upcoming election, experts are urging all candidates to make ending homelessness a central campaign issue and to adopt the plan’s recommendations which include:

• Creating more affordable housing by building 12,000 new deeply-subsidized units annually for homeless and low-income households and completing 15,000 supportive housing units within three years.
• Prioritize homeless households for federal housing resources by increasing Section 8 vouchers for re-housing to 3,000 and allocating at least 3,000 NYCHA units yearly for shelter residents.
• Fix and expand eviction prevention programs by implementing CityFHEPS expansions, streamlining application processes, combating source-of-income discrimination, and increasing Right to Counsel funding to $350 million annually.
• Ensure access to mental health care and low-barrier shelters by implementing true “Housing First” programs at scale, opening 4,000 new Safe Haven beds, expanding Intensive Mobile Treatment teams, removing NYPD from homeless outreach, and increasing public bathrooms.

“The ‘Housing is the Solution’ plan provides a clear, actionable roadmap to ending mass homelessness in New York City, and the next mayor must embrace its recommendations with urgency,” said Adriene Holder, Chief Attorney of the Civil Practice at The Legal Aid Society.

“Decades of failed housing policies and underinvestment have fueled this crisis, but we now have a real opportunity to change course,” she continued. “By expanding truly affordable housing, strengthening tenant protections, and fully funding proven homelessness prevention programs, we can finally ensure that the people we serve and all New Yorkers have access to stable, permanent homes.”