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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Allison Wilkey, Director of Government Affairs and Strategic Campaigns at Coalition for the Homeless
4:37:47
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146 sec
Allison Wilkey from the Coalition for the Homeless testifies about the city's housing crisis, highlighting the unprecedented number of people in shelters and the lack of affordable housing for extremely low-income New Yorkers. She emphasizes the need for more targeted housing solutions to address the homelessness crisis.
- The shelter census as of February 2025 exceeded 114,000 people, with an 11.5% increase in longer-term New Yorkers in shelters from December 2023 to December 2024.
- Only 20% of new rental units built from 2014 to 2024 were for extremely low-income families, with recent production focusing more on middle-income housing.
- Wilkey calls for the city's commitments and the $500 million from the state to be directed towards extremely low-income housing and homeless families.
Allison Wilkey
4:37:47
Yeah, name's Allison Wilkie.
4:37:49
I'm the director of government affairs and strategic campaigns of the coalition for the homeless.
4:37:52
Thank you, chair and council members for this opportunity to testify.
4:37:57
The city's housing crisis has resulted in unprecedented number of people sleeping in shelter with a census as of February 2025 of over 114,000 people.
4:38:09
And this is not just a crisis that has resulted from asylum seekers and new arrivals.
4:38:15
From December 2023 to December 2024, the number of longer term New Yorkers in shelter increased by 11.5%.
4:38:26
So it's more important than ever that the city's resources are being used to stem the flow of people who are entering shelter and to help people who are in shelter exit.
4:38:36
But the fact is the city's affordable housing is simply not meeting the needs of the lowest income New Yorkers.
4:38:43
And in my testimony, you'll see on page four a chart that represents newly built affordable rental housing completions by income bands.
4:38:53
So often when the city is reporting on their affordable housing, they're including supportive housing, they're including preservation, and they're including home ownership.
4:39:02
While all of that is really important, those are not necessarily new affordable housing units in the way that we sort of think about affordable housing.
4:39:11
So you'll see from the chart here when you're breaking out just new rental units, like new units that are coming on the market from 2014 to 2024, only 20% of those units coming online are for extremely low income families.
4:39:26
And you'll actually see in the most recent years looking at the top green bands, that's where the most production has been completed, and that is for middle income families.
4:39:36
And to just lay that out for you, that's families making a single household making a hundred and 36,000 or a family of three making a hundred and $75,000.
4:39:48
So we are just really not meeting the needs of our extremely low income families, and we will not be able to make a dent in our crisis in shelter unless we ensure that both the city's commitments and that 500,000,000 that we just got from the state actually goes to extremely low income housing and to homeless families.
4:40:08
Housing that actually meets their needs and their income levels.
4:40:12
Thank you.