Permanent Rental Housing

New York State is the fifth most expensive state in the country to live due in part to the cost of living in Long Island. The Nassau and Suffolk areas rank ninth and tenth respectively as the most expensive counties for housing in the United States and together form the seventh least affordable metropolitan area. As of April 2010, an hourly wage of $30.62 -- or more than $63,680 annually -- is the minimum required to afford a 2-bedroom unit in these communities, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's “Out Of Reach 2010 Report”. A minimum wage entry-level position pays $7.25 an hour, or an annual salary of about $15,000. Homeless and low-income individuals  cannot compete in the Long Island housing market. (See chart below.)

Without affordable housing, families and individuals become homeless or live in overcrowded and unsafe conditions. Families are separated, and children live with instability and often, without stable school environments. Affordable housing enables essential workers to live in and support our communities -- -- health aides, school bus drivers, retail workers, teaching assistants and clerical assistants.

A major component of the mission of Community Housing Innovation (CHI) is to develop affordable, permanent housing. CHI has successfully combined state, federal and local grants with private bank financing to create cost-effective solutions to the affordable housing crisis.  In recent years, there has been an emphasis on the creation of Workforce housing. Many of these units are available for rent without programmatic restrictions of any type. CHI has developed 650 units of homeless and affordable housing, approximately 150 of which are on Long Island.

In all of CHI’s units, staff members are dedicated to assisting residents with housing retention.

NASSAU-SUFFOLK METRO REGION

Although homelessness can be a consequence of the lack of affordable housing, many other factors have an impact. For this reason, permanent housing with supportive services has become one of the most successful tools in combating homelessness. Many of the participants in CHI’s emergency and transitional housing programs are fully employed and simply do not earn enough to get out of the homeless system, including some who are two-parent families with both parents employed. Others have special needs which prevent them temporarily or permanently from attaining and retaining housing without supportive services.  These barriers to independence may include physical or mental illnesses, histories of substance abuse, living with domestic violence and the lack of educational, vocational or daily living skills necessary to be financially and personally independent. Two programs have helped CHI to provide housing with supportive services to formerly homeless individuals: the HUD Supportive Housing Program (SHP) and the Homeless Housing and Assistance Program (HHAP).

The HUD Supportive Housing Program (SHP)

The HUD Supportive Housing Program (SHP) has been one of the most successful methods of creating affordable permanent housing for formerly homeless individuals and families whose heads of households live with disabilities. Beginning in 1995, the Nassau-Suffolk Coalition for the Homeless initiated a Continuum of Care process as a result of a HUD notice of funding availability. A new partnership model was developed in response to the well-documented, extraordinary need for housing and services for homeless persons with disabilities. At that time, the number of homeless persons was estimated to be more than 40,000 island-wide. Over the course of 13 years, CHI and 11 partners were awarded more than $13.7 million through the HUD Supportive Housing Program. An additional $1.5 million was obtained through the Nassau County Office of Housing and Intergovernmental Affairs, and private lenders committed mortgages of $3.5 million to augment the costs of acquisition and rehabilitation. These funds permitted CHI to create permanent housing with supportive services for 30 homeless families and 55 singles with special needs. CHI manages the housing and provides specialized case management services directly or in collaboration with its partners, including other mainstream community agencies. For this program, CHI has been awarded national recognition from HUD for Best Practices.

The NYS Homeless Housing & Assistance Program (HHAP)

Grants of $3.3 million awarded through the New York State Homeless Housing & Assistance Program (HHAP) enabled CHI to develop 30 units of affordable permanent housing to benefit homeless families. 23 of the permanent units are in Suffolk County. Using $837,500 in HHAP funds, five additional units were developed on Long Island to provide transitional housing for a special population of homeless families.