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TESTIMONY

Pascale Leone, Executive Director of Supportive Housing Network of New York, on improving NYC's 15/15 Supportive Housing Initiative and workforce support

4:26:00

·

3 min

Pascale Leone outlines three key points to improve supportive housing in New York City and support its workforce.

Proposes improvements to the New York City 15/15 Supportive Housing Initiative, including reallocation and expansion of supply, and addressing issues with the scattered site model
Advocates for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for the human services workforce, requesting $150 million for the current fiscal year and an additional 3% for fiscal year 2026-27
Calls for fully staffing critical city agencies involved in developing and operating supportive housing to address delays in affordable housing development
Suggests developing a dedicated supportive housing preservation program within the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)
Recommends investigating an affordable housing overlay model, aligning rates with NYC 15/15 scattered sites for parity among models

Pascale Leone

4:26:00

Thank you.

4:26:01

Good evening, madam, chair Sanchez, and members of the committee as well as staff.

4:26:06

My name is Pascal Leon.

4:26:07

I'm the executive director of the support of housing network of New York.

4:26:12

And I wanna thank you for the opportunity to testify this evening.

4:26:16

I have 3 quick points.

4:26:18

I won't read through all my testimony you have in here written.

4:26:21

My first one will be focus as Gabriel had mentioned.

4:26:24

On improving the New York City 1515 supportive housing initiative.

4:26:28

The second one being just pay and ensuring that our human service workforce gets a cola.

4:26:34

And lastly, fully staffing critical city agencies that are associated with developing and operating supportive housing in New York City.

4:26:42

And so with with regard to New York City 1515, this is the city's primary mechanism for support of housing development.

4:26:49

But sadly, it's falling short of its goal of meeting 15,000 units by 2030.

4:26:55

The the the model the the program relies on scattered site model which we're non profit rent units off of the private market and bring services to tenants.

4:27:06

But as Gabriela mentioned with the housing vacancies, finding accessible, affordable, and quality units is very difficult, functionally 0 in New York City.

4:27:17

And as a result, we see in this model particularly on the scattered site that only 17% of scattered site units under their New York New York sorry.

4:27:26

New York City 1515 were awarded after 8 years where they should be around 50%.

4:27:32

Just by comparison for the congregate, the new construction, they're about 80% that are awarded open or in construction.

4:27:39

And so we developed a very comprehensive plan that talks about the reallocation quickly expanding the supply Secondly, we're not trying to get away from the scatter site model, but we wanna reduce how many more awards there will be and fix them with the structural issues.

4:27:56

Also to dedicate to develop a dedicated supportive housing preservation program.

Pierina Ana Sanchez

4:28:04

Would you like to complete your testimony?

Pascale Leone

4:28:06

Yes, please.

4:28:08

To develop a supportive housing preservation program in HPD, And then lastly, to investigate this affordable housing overlay model looking at peering scattered site in HPD finance buildings like Sarah and like Ella.

4:28:21

You know, we really wanna align the rates with New York City 1515 scattered sites.

4:28:26

So there's parity amongst the models.

4:28:29

And ensure that, as Gerardo mentioned, that we could extend the program for folks experiencing survivors of domestic violence as well as folks who are exiting prisons and jails.

4:28:40

And then just quickly, you know, the success of the support of housing is really predicated on the investment in our workforce.

4:28:45

So we need a cola.

4:28:47

Asking that 150,000,000 for this fiscal year with an additional 3% in fiscal year 2627, totaling 16% over 5 years.

4:28:56

Keeping pace with union workers.

4:28:58

And then lastly, fully funding staff at city agencies as was discussed this morning, just the impact in those the com tools report.

4:29:06

On the understaffing and city agencies that's causing delays in development of affordable housing.

4:29:11

Thank you for your time.

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Gabriela Sandoval Requena, Director of Policy and Communications at New Destiny House, on addressing domestic violence, homelessness, and affordable housing access in New York City

Next Chapter →

Barika Williams, Executive Director of Association for Neighborhood And Housing Development (ANHD), on Community Housing Preservation Strategies and Housing Production Challenges