LAURENCE BELINSKY: The creation of more permanent supportive housing will help end homelessness among select high-need populations. New York City and our state elected officials must work with the federal government to ensure that Washington accepts the fact that it must play the major role in funding affordable housing for families.
MATTHEW WING: The City needs a major reprogramming of the way we approach homelessness in New York City. The efforts made toward combating homelessness over the past four years have been largely ineffective, and the City needs to bolster proven, cost-effective prevention methods, correct punitive city policies that disadvantage homeless New Yorkers and, most importantly, treat our city's homeless crisis like what it really is: a housing problem. The only way we can truly make progress toward ending homelessness is to simultaneously dedicate real resources to helping families avoid the costly and disruptive need for shelter, and provide real solutions for families exiting shelter for stable, long-term housing. If we are going to keep New Yorkers from being priced out of the city, and from cycling through the shelter system, we must complement the mayor's homelessness reduction goals with an ambitious housing plan that ends giveaways for developers, requires on-site affordable housing wherever practicable, and establishes tiered rental and homeownership opportunities that meet the real needs of an economically diverse New York.
PATRICK MARKEE: Here are three ways New York City can successfully reduce homelessness: One, studies consistently show that federal housing vouchers are highly successful at reducing family homelessness as well as reducing return visits to shelter. Two, permanent supportive housing combines affordable housing assistance with vital support services for individuals living with mental illness, HIV/AIDS, or other serious health problems, and thus enhances housing stability for individuals and families with special needs. And three, the fundamental cause of homelessness is the widening housing affordability gap. In New York City that gap has widened significantly over the past two decades, which have seen the loss of hundreds of thousands of units of affordable rental housing. At the same time that housing affordability has worsened, government at every level has cut back on already inadequate housing assistance for low-income people, and has reduced investments in building and preserving affordable housing. Finally, the weakening of rent regulation laws-which help keep half of all rental apartments in New York City affordable-has accelerated the loss of low-cost housing.
