NYC Homeless Prevention Program to be Axed

A forum Thursday evening, February 26th was held at the Citizen’s Advice Bureau to discuss the effects of ongoing cuts in social services. The Bureau put together a panel of staffers, with Ken Small, CAB Development Director as the moderator of the panel. Ms. Chris Winward of the Human Service Council spoke on inequities in the NY State Income Tax system , Julie Belizaire-Spitzer spoke on the effect of eliminating homeless prevention programs, Elisa Istueta spoke on youth issues and Clara Batstein spoke on mobilizing to prevent these cuts. These cuts will have a big impact on the Bronx and Harlem.

The Homeless Prevention Program has been helping families avoid eviction and homelessness. According to Ms. Julie Belizaire-Spitzer, the HPP is currently scheduled for total elimination by the end of March 2009. This cost-effective program prevented more than 6,800 evictions last year. It provides an average of $750 per family involved in rental assistance. When families become homeless, it costs the city an average of $36,000 a year to put them in a shelter. HPP provides help to tenants filing applications for Family Eviction Prevention Supplements. This program costs $5 million throughout the city, but shelter for evicted families ends up costing $100 million a year. Other programs that face dramatic cuts are transportation help for senior citizens, and the senior citizen meals-on-wheels program. The HPP employs 90 people at five Urban Neighborhood Houses, including the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, who are scheduled to be laid-off. When teams of skilled social workers are broken up, it can take months or even years to reconstitute them. Problems trickle up as tenants are evicted. Landlords can have trouble paying their mortgages and more properties suffer foreclosure in the already weak housing market. Other programs affected by cuts in the state and city budget include after-school programs for High School students.

Ms. Chris Winward, of the Human Service Council talked about inequities in NY State Taxes. Currently, she points out that the tax rate for all tax payers is 6.85-percent. She recommends that the wealthy be taxed a larger percentage of their income for state taxes, in order to more fairly distribute the tax burden. With the spotlight recently on huge bonuses received by certain financial executives, this proposal has some definite interest. Despite fears that higher-income people will leave NY State if their taxes are raised, studies indicate that this does not generally happen. For more information, contact the CAB Community Center, 1130 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10456, telephone (718) 508-3069, contact Ken Small.