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Q&A
Discussion on housing needs for individuals with severe mental illness
0:58:54
·
157 sec
Council Member Linda Lee and DOHMH officials discuss the critical role of housing in addressing mental health issues and the current state of supportive housing in New York City. They explore the challenges and needs in this area.
- DOHMH operates over 12,000 units of supportive housing, but this is still insufficient to meet the demand
- The total supportive housing units in NYC is around 35,000-36,000, with DOHMH managing about a third
- There is a significant waitlist for supportive housing, highlighting the acute housing crisis in the city
- The discussion emphasizes the need for substantially more housing units to address homelessness and support individuals with severe mental illness
Linda Lee
0:58:54
I cannot agree more because I think the housing piece is so important and us making sure that we're not criminalizing and automatically jumping to conclusions because I think that's what happens in a lot of these cases and so I cannot emphasize more just how important the preventative pieces and the prevention pieces of these programs are.
0:59:16
So it's it's good to know that you all share that philosophy and I totally trust that the professionals are, they don't have an easy task and so it's good to know that they are working on those things step by step and looking at that assessment carefully.
0:59:29
And just going back to what you mentioned because housing is such an important piece to this and I know that Chair Brandon asked a lot about JISH, but for folks that are experiencing severe mental illness or homelessness or drug addiction and actually lack housing, what is the sort of, do you have a sense of what the wait time is for folks that are looking to go into housing and what that sort of time period looks like and also what the percentages of people who get into it versus are still waiting that we know Sure,
Michelle Morse
1:00:01
can start and then I'll pass it to Jamie Nichols for some additional details.
1:00:04
Think part of what I think is so important is that we are already running over 12,000 units of support housing.
1:00:11
And that unfortunately is still not enough.
1:00:13
There is a wait list.
1:00:15
And this is again part and parcel to the housing challenges that New York City faces.
1:00:20
That those housing challenges impact people with severe mental illness and other health concerns in a way that is disproportionate and certainly impacts their health outcomes in very, very challenging ways.
1:00:30
So knowing that we already have over 12,000 units and that that's still not enough tells you something again about how acute of a crisis we have when it comes to housing.
1:00:40
I will pass it to Jamie Nichols to share a little bit more about the timeline for being listed to receiving supportive housing.
Jamie Neckles
1:00:49
Thanks Doctor.
1:00:49
Morris.
1:00:50
So the city's supportive housing is accessed through the Department of Social Services application and system.
1:01:00
So unfortunately, I don't have the data.
1:01:01
I can't speak with authority on that.
1:01:03
Our housing is about a third of the universe of supportive housing in New York City.
1:01:07
So there's about 35, 30 six thousand units across New York City.
1:01:11
So ours is focused on people with serious mental illness and substance use, and about 12,600 of those.
1:01:17
And so the application and wait times are managed by DSS.
1:01:20
Can't report on that.
Linda Lee
1:01:21
If you could wave your magic wand, how many more would you say ideally we would need?
Jamie Neckles
1:01:26
How many people are homeless?
Winn Periyasami
1:01:28
A lot.
Linda Lee
1:01:30
A lot, right?
1:01:31
Yeah.