Sample Talking Points, Norreida Reyes NYS Senate Majority Leader, Spring 2010

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SRO and SHFYA FUNDING TALKING POINTS

As Senate Majority Leader and Chairman of the Housing Committee, I have indicated to my colleagues that

we must reject the cuts to affordable and supportive housing programs proposed by the Governor.

Specifically, we must restore $4.6 million to fully fund OTDA’s SRO Support Services program at $22.2

million and restore the $5 million TANF cut that would eliminate OTDA’s Supported Housing for Families

and Young Adults (SHFYA) program.

I know what it is to be young and homeless, and the help SHFYA provides to youths transitioning out of

foster care is often the one difference that puts a young person on the right path and away from the dangerous

cycle of violence and drugs and crime that they are too often susceptible to.

SRO and SHFYA have successfully served hundreds of thousands of people of all ages around the state over

the years. And there is still more to be done. There is an overwhelming need for affordable housing in my

home borough in the Bronx, where almost a third of the households live in substandard housing and almost

50% are in poverty.

In my district, there are 15 existing programs with 663 units that rely on SRO Support Services funding, and

another 13 programs with 822 units newly constructed that will need that funding as well, or risk standing

empty. It makes no sense to build affordable housing, and then leave perfectly good units empty with needy

families on the streets. That’s a waste.

Fully funding SRO Support Services and SHFYA will continue the vital work of programs like the New

Destiny Housing Corporation, with its 37 units that largely serve families that have been victims of domestic

violence. Women and children, traumatically forced from their homes to escape persecution – needing not

only a safe place to sleep, but help through the criminal justice system, care for physical and emotional

healing, and guidance to find their way onto a path of economic self-sufficiency.

And the Jericho Project is opening up new units for homeless veterans, people who have made sacrifices so

for our freedom and deserve so much more from us than having to sleep in the streets. The least we can do

for our brave veterans is make sure that we fully fund SRO Support Services so those new units can open

their doors.

I will, as Majority Leader and Housing Chair, continue to lend my voice to our joint effort in making sure

that my colleagues understand the importance of these funding streams and the continued safe and effective

operation of New York’s supportive housing residences.

Sample Talking Points, Norreida Reyes NYS Senate Majority Leader, Spring 2010

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BACKGROUND

Supportive Housing Network of NY was established in 1988. It represents over 184 nonprofit

organizations that develop and operate supportive housing across the state.

Supportive housing combines permanent affordable housing with services—health and mental

health care, substance abuse treatment, and employment counseling—that are proven to help

chronically homeless people achieve housing stability and independence.

Last year they fought for funding for : NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, NYS

Office for Children and Family Services, $9.4 million in critical homeless prevention funding.

This year they are concerned with items mentioned in above talking points, as well as other

important service funding streams such as those that pay for housing-based services in supportive

housing built under the NY/NY III Agreement. These funds at OMH, OASAS, OCFS and

DOH/AIDS Institute, have all been preserved this year, though they want to ensure that they stay

funded in the final budget agreement.

Members are also concerned about two larger cuts: the cut to over $200 million in TANF programs,

including SHFYA, homelessness prevention programs, job training and summer youth

employment.

Domestic violence survivors and their children represent 31% of those in the entire NYC homeless

shelter system.

According to their literature, the change in shelter reimbursement proposed by the government will

cut $65 million from the New York City Department of Homeless Services single adult shelter

budget. This will not only eliminate program services in shelters, force the City to charge for

shelter and increase street homelessness, but will also force the City to eliminate almost all non-

mandated programs, including SRO Support Services, Safe Havens, Street Outreach and Drop-in

Centers.