Housing & Homelessness
High housing costs, foreclosures, unemployment, family violence or disagreements can lead youth and families to become homeless, live on the streets, or live in unsafe, crowded conditions. New York State and New York City have a variety of programs and services to develop affordable housing, prevent eviction, provide shelter to homeless families and youth, and provide services to secure permanent housing for those who are homeless.
CCC’s Housing and Homelessness Work
Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York is committed to ensuring every child has a safe and stable home in which to live.
CCC advocates to:
Eliminate family homelessness:
- We advocate for programs and services that prevent families from being homeless, such as anti-eviction legal services, the New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS) HomeBase program, and the Family Eviction Prevention Supplement (FEPS).
- Secure trauma-informed care and services in shelter.
- We promote solutions, such as supportive housing and rent subsidies, which help homeless families obtain permanent housing and leave the shelter system.
Ensure affordable housing for families:
- We advocate for programs that make housing more affordable for families, such as a Renter Tax Credit and an increase in the number of Section 8 Housing Vouchers.
Current and recent issues:
- We convened the Family Homelessness Task Force to draw attention to the family homelessness crisis in NYC and advance solutions.
- We pressed the city administration to increase funding for Bridging the Gap, a program that places social workers in schools that serve large numbers of homeless students.
- We are advocating for increasing opportunities that will facilitate economic security, such as on-site child care services for caregivers enrolled in adult education, literacy or ESL courses.
- We are calling for a pilot of an alternative to shelter program model for domestic violence survivors that permits survivors to remain in their current housing, if they can do so safely, or move quickly to other permanent housing.
- We are advocating to improve and expand aftercare services for homeless families leaving shelter for permanent housing by using family advocates and formerly homeless parents to help homeless families adjust to their new communities and housing.
