Few ‘homeless’ apts. despite Blas boast

Nearly two years after Mayor de Blasio announced a plan to create 15,000 units of supportive housing to deal with the homelessness crisis, just 48 units are ready and occupied, The Post has learned.

Top city officials had initially said at least 250 units would be operating in 2016 — the first year of the initiative — but didn’t manage to sign the first contracts with providers until December 2016.

Since then, only 48 of the 550 units promised under those contracts have come to fruition, a delay that advocates say stems from the administration’s inability to find enough landlords willing to participate.

“There’s a real challenge in New York City right now — which is too many rental vouchers chasing too few affordable apartments,” said JoAnne Page, CEO of The Fortune Society, a nonprofit serving the formerly incarcerated.

“It’s getting harder and harder to find landlords willing to rent because there’s so many vouchers out there for what’s not a large number of affordable units” added Page, a member of the mayor’s Supportive Housing Task Force. “[So] a core part of this is increasing the supply.”

City officials announced the $2.6 billion plan in November 2015, calling for 7,500 units to be newly constructed and 7,500 units to be leased with vouchers at so-called “scattered” sites.

Residents in supportive housing get additional services to help deal with health, social and addiction issues.

But some affordable-housing experts said the glut of rental vouchers exceeds availability by such a large margin that the city should rethink its plan — even if it causes delays.

“There’s just no apartments left to rent,” one expert told The Post. “The mayor should shift more of the scattered-site units in his supportive-housing plan to be new capital units. It will take longer, but it needs to be done.”

Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks insists the program is proceeding as planned, with 87 people set to be placed in new units by the end of October.

An additional 144 homeless individuals have already been matched with providers for placement.

Banks said giving the task force six months to make recommendations in 2016 was pivotal for making sure the initiative was set up properly.

He also said the format for funding the program — with expenses for rent separate from those for resident services — means the vouchers won’t lose value as rents go up.

“We’re on track to get 500 clients into housing by the end of the year,” he said.