If a House is Not a Home, Then What is a Shelter? Bridging the Disconnect Between Local and Federal Affordable Housing and Homelessness Policies Affecting New York City’s Mass Homelessness Crisis

Abstract

Every night, tens of thousands of homeless people sleep in New York City Shelters, despite the City’s multi-billion dollar annual homelessness budget. This social and public health crisis has almost consistently worsened annually–even as taxes steadily increase–leaving New York residents increasingly frustrated and hopeless for finding a solution. Due to the City’s unique “right to shelter” mandate, NYC is forced to allocate most of its homelessness budget to shelters, which solely serve as a short-term solution. Similarly, most federal and local efforts treat symptoms of homelessness and neglect cost-effective, long-term solutions such as funding affordable housing for extremely-low income individuals. The modern homelessness crisis is a culmination of a multitude of factors on both federal and local levels, further worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic. Through a historical analysis and synthesis of both federal and local efforts to combat the 1970s and 1980s uptick in American and New York City homelessness, I point to flawed philosophies, disjointed policies, and other occurrences that started and progressed the homelessness crisis. While one might understandably expect that New York City’s “right to shelter” mandate would be a helpful foundation for the City’s homeless population, the lack of affordable housing, neglect of aid to the most at-risk individuals, and the Callahan consent decree pose unique hurdles with insurmountable barriers to achieving effective homelessness policy. On top of this, sustained federal disinvestment from affordable housing, scarce housing voucher availability, few monetary incentives for affordable housing development, and the City’s budget constraints from Callahan have caused New York City to rely on shelters, therefore neglecting the cost-efficient, effective “Housing First” approach to eradicating modern homelessness. This thesis concludes that as long as the local and federal government neglect the inextricable link between affordable housing and homelessness rates, specifically the “Housing First” philosophy, the City will continue to spend billions annually on a worsening homelessness crisis.