1 / 24

Right Under Our Eyes

Right Under Our Eyes. Poverty, Hunger and Homelessness in Affluent Westchester County (And Our Hidden Homeless) Presentation to the College of New Rochelle March 5, 2019 By Karl Bertrand, LMSW. Don ’ t people on welfare get enough money for rent?.

eabraham
Download Presentation

Right Under Our Eyes

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Right Under Our Eyes Poverty, Hunger and Homelessness in Affluent Westchester County(And Our Hidden Homeless) Presentation to the College of New RochelleMarch 5, 2019 By Karl Bertrand, LMSW

  2. Don’t people on welfare get enough money for rent?

  3. How many hours/week at minimum wage do you need to afford a 2-BR apartment in Westchester without being “housing cost-burdened”? • A) 54 • B) 82 • C) 112 • D) 135 • Answer: D) 135 (= 3.375 full-time jobs) Source: “Out of Reach 2017,” National Low Income Housing Coalition.

  4. How many people of Westchester’s 949,113 residents live in poverty? 77,827 (8.2%) Source: Census 2010 Demographic Profile Data via American FactFinder.

  5. How many people in Westchester receive public assistance? Source: 2018 Westchester County Operating Budget-Proposed, pp. C198 and C-202, public assistance caseloads are 2017 estimates and Food Stamps is actual data for June 2017.

  6. Don’t Food Stamps give people enough money for food? • One in seven Americans now get Food Stamps.That’s 45.7 million Americans. • The average Food Stamp benefit is $31.50 per person per week (Jewish Council for Public Affairs.) • This translates to $1.50 per meal. • 64.4% of people in poverty in Westchester do NOT receive food stamps (U.S. Census 2010 American Community Survey.)

  7. How widespread is hunger in Westchester? • 30 cities/towns have emergency food programs • 30 soup kitchens • 68 food pantries • Over 7.4 million pounds of food distributed annuallyby the Food Bank for Westchester • Westchester’s Food Bank estimated 200,000 Westchester residents are “food insecure.”

  8. What % of Westchester households experience “food hardship”? “Food Hardship” = not enough $ for food in last 12 months Source: “Food Hardship in America - 2010,” Food Research and Action Center, March 2011.

  9. Does affluent Westchester have homeless people? • In August 1989 Yonkers alone had more homeless persons than 51 upstate New York counties combined. • As of April 1990, 1.4% of all Yonkers households were living in shelters, more than 3 times the proportion in NYC. • By 1990 Westchester County was believed to have the highest per capita rate of homelessness in the nation.

  10. What caused Westchester’s high rate of homelessness? • Poverty • Inadequate welfare rent allowances • Co-op/Condo conversions (Yonkers lost 10,000 rental units (20% of total) to conversion in 5 years (1980-1985) • RACISM (71.7% of Westchester’s homeless are Black and 24% are Hispanic) • Deinstitutionalization • Drugs (e.g. crack epidemic in 1980s)

  11. What caused Westchester’s high rate of homelessness? • Divorce and failure to provide child support • Less acceptance of domestic violence • Returning veterans with mental health or drug problems • Declines in Federal housing subsidies • Aging out of foster care • The “pipeline to prison” and increasing “disproportionate minority contact” • Poor education and lack of job skills

  12. Does Westchester still have a homeless problem? Today Westchester STILLhas more homeless peoplethan any other New York county outside NYC and Long Island.

  13. Who are Westchester’s homeless? • 153 adult women without children • 446 adult men without children • 487 adults in 396 families • 739 children • 1,827 total people Source: Westchester County Continuum of Care Partnership for the Homeless, Point-In-Time Count 1/25/18.

  14. So is homelessness in Westchester a problem we are powerless to fix? NO!

  15. Westchester Has Cut Homelessness by 60% Since It Peaked in 1991 Source: 1985-2011: Westchester County Department of Social Services Monthly Shelter Counts; 2012-2017: Westchester County Continuum of Care Partnership for the Homeless, Annual Point-In-Time Homeless Counts.

  16. How did Westchester cut homelessness by 60%? • Built or renovated over 2,000 affordable housing units • Got NYS approval to double the rent allowance for 908 formerly homeless households • Got ongoing HUD funding to pay Fair Market Rent for 720 disabled and formerly homeless households • Created mobile case management systems for 1,580 mentally ill and/or chemically dependent people • Cut length of stay by focusing on “rapid rehousing”

  17. The Other “Hidden” Homeless • All the Westchester numbers you’ve ever seen are the official homeless counts. • They only include those living in shelters or on the streets. • This is the definition of homelessness used by HUD, New York State and Westchester. • They don’t include the “doubled-up” homeless, those squeezed – with no legal right of tenancy – into other people’s housing.

  18. Westchester’s McKinney-VentoSchool Homeless Data 2017-2018

  19. Estimated Percentage of Homeless Westchester Students Who Were Doubled-Up In 2016 * Source: Data from each school district's designated Homeless Liaisons collected by Southern Westchester BOCES' Homeless Student Program. ** Source: Westchester County Continuum of Care Partnership for the Homeless Homeless Management Information System, number of children aged 5-18 reported as unsheltered or living in emergency or transitional shelters in Westchester at any time during calendar year 2016.

  20. Westchester’s Hidden Homeless • This is one of the first public estimates of the number of doubled-up homeless children in Westchester • Westchester has over 1,800 homeless doubled-up school-age children • Westchester has twice as many homeless schoolchildren living doubled-up as it has living in homeless shelters • Doubled-up households are NOT eligible for homeless housing subsidies from HUD, NYS or Westchester County • Doubled-Up families ARE called homeless by U.S. Ed Dept. • No one has ANY statistical data on the living conditions of these 1,800 'hidden homeless" schoolchildren

  21. What We Don’t Know About Westchester’s Hidden Homeless • How many don’t have beds • How many have lost everything in a fire, domestic violence or hurried eviction (e.g. living out of a plastic bag) • How many are “severely overcrowded” (>1.5 per room) • How many are “unstably housed” (i.e. “families with children or unaccompanied youth (up to age 24) who: • have not had a lease or ownership interest in a housing unit in the last 60 or more days, • have had two or more moves in the last 60 days, and • who are likely to continue to be unstably housed because of disability or multiple barriers to employment.”

  22. Why Minimum HousingStandards Matter • WCDSS “Homeless Diversion” units won’t place families in shelters if safe & adequate alternative housing is available • Shelters = case management, meals, housing placement & eligibility for “shelter supplement” doubled rent allowance • NYS offers operating & supportive service funding (Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative: ESSHI) for new permanent homeless housing that can serve doubled up

  23. What We Need To Do • Collect and assess the need data • Build public and political support for establishing minimum standards for alternative housing: • WITH a bed, • not “severely overcrowded” • NOT “unstably housed”

  24. Karl Bertrand, LMSW Co-Chair, Westchester County Continuum of Care Partnership for the Homeless President/CEO, Program Design and Development, LLC 47 Wayside Drive White Plains, NY 10607 (914) 592-1272 KBertrand@programdesign.com www.programdesign.com

More Related