Blaz homes in on solution
Make ‘clusters’ permanent apts.
With the exploding number of homeless still hovering at record levels, Mayor de Blasio will announce Tuesday a nearly done deal to convert 468 shelter apartments into permanent, affordable apartments for the homeless.
Known as “cluster site” apartments, the units are scattered throughout 17 privately owned buildings in Brooklyn and the Bronx and are expected to provide long-term housing for more than 1,000 homeless New Yorkers, administration officials said.
“Homeless families have for decades been haphazardly sheltered in temporary accommodations that are too often poorly maintained and disconnected from services,” de Blasio said Monday. “We’re converting these buildings into higher-quality, permanent affordable housing for formerly homeless New Yorkers turning their lives around.”
The city is still in negotiations with the building landlords and two nonprofits to finalize the deal, which covers a total of 729 apartment units, 468 of which are currently used to shelter the homeless.
An administration official said the purchase of the properties would be at market-rate values, but did not rule out using eminent domain for others parts of de Blasio’s ambitious goal to shutter all cluster sites by 2021.
Christine Quinn, president of the homeless service provider WIN, said the desire to convert the apartments into permanent, affordable housing is “100% wellplaced,” but that “the devil is in the details.”
The use of eminent domain could pose a significant obstacle, she added. “Eminent domain can often mean lawsuits,” said Quinn, the former City Council speaker. “That could cause delay, and delay is not a good thing.”
Under the plan, which is being overseen by the city Housing Preservation and Development Department, homeless families “eligible for rental assistance and prepared for housing permanency” would live in those 468 converted units.
The remaining 261 units would be for tenants who aren’t homeless but are entitled to rent-stabilized lease deals.
City Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks said no current homeless residents would be asked to leave under the plan.
Eliminating cluster sites by converting them into permanent housing addresses two administration priorities – reducing homelessness and creating long-term affordable housing for people living in poverty.
According to administration estimates, the city has brought down the number of cluster units by more than half since January 2016, when use was at a high of 3,650 units.
The city’s use of clusters has come under criticism because of their cost and sometimes squalid living conditions.
A 2015 city Department of Investigation report estimated it costs $2,451 a month on average for a cluster unit. The policy also came under increased scrutiny two years ago after a radiator exploded, killing two infants in a Bronx cluster-site apartment.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani kicked off the city’s use of cluster sites in 2000. Unlike with centralized homeless shelters, the city is not required to notify host communities of their use as homeless units.
The 468 units to be converted as part of the first phase of de Blasio’s plan are in several Bronx neighborhoods, including Longwood, Mount Eden and Belmont, as well as Brownsville, Prospect Heights and Crown Heights in Brooklyn.
Under the plan, the city would finance the acquisition of the properties through two nonprofits, Neighborhood Restore and the Joint Ownership Entity NYC, which would work with other, local nonprofits to manage the buildings and coordinate services like health care and job placement.
The local nonprofits include Banana Kelly, the Fifth Avenue Committee and the Settlement Housing Fund.
Despite his plan and the reduced use of cluster sites since 2016, battling homelessness has been fraught territory for de Blasio.
As of last Wednesday, the total shelter population in the city stood at 60,934 people – 22,493 of whom are children – according to city statistics. In January 2014, 53,615 people were living in shelters.
Aside from the statistics and prospect of using eminent domain, de Blasio has come under fire for what some describe as his administration’s lack of transparency.
His budget director, Melanie Hartzog, took heat at a City Council hearing when she refused to detail how much of an additional $169 million budgeted for homeless shelters would go to cluster sites.
The administration declined Monday to detail the cost of converting the 468 units as well, saying the deal hasn’t been finalized.