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Welcome to the November 2015 issue of Network News, the Supportive Housing Network of New York's monthly e-newsletter. You'll find lead articles on legislators across the state calling for a robust NY/NY4; the Network's Awards Gala; the NYC Housing Forum; the CSH report on homelessness in NYS; and some fabulous residence groundbreakings and an opening. Thanks for reading!

New Study Supports Widespread Call for 35,000 Units of Supportive Housing Statewide  
Legislators across New York State calling for a robust NY/NY4.

There have been bipartisan calls for 35,000 new units of supportive housing across the state in recent weeks, most notably in Rochester and in Buffalo, as well as in New York City.

On September 22 at Project Homeless Connect, the annual event that provides services to more than 600 Buffalo area homeless individuals, state legislators and community leaders called on Governor Cuomo to fund 35,000 supportive housing units across the state to help address homelessness among the neediest New Yorkers. "New York State should make a significant investment in supportive housing here in Western New York and across the state," said Assembly Member Sean Ryan."The need is great in our community and that is why I support the creation statewide of a 35,000 unit supportive housing program," said Dr. Gale Burstein, Erie County Commissioner of Health. "With the need for supportive housing across New York State at an all-time high, those residents most in need cannot go ignored," said Senator Marc Panepinto. Senator Tim Kennedy added "For so long, Buffalo has been branded the City of Good Neighbors, and now more than ever we need to live up to that name." Also lending support for a 35,000-unit statewide supportive housing initiative were City of Buffalo Comptroller Mark Schroeder and Assembly Member Mickey Kearns.
The Network's Annual Awards Gala Was a Spectacular Success!   
Laura Mascuch addresses the audience.

New York's supportive housing community came together on October 14th for the Network's annual Awards Gala. More than 600 guests joined us at Capitale, the spectacular Stanford White-designed Beaux Arts national landmark, on a lovely Wednesday evening to celebrate the outstanding individuals of supportive housing and our amazing community.

The mood was festive during the 90 minute cocktail hour as friends and colleagues revived old friendships and forged new partnerships.

The night's festivities continued with our awards ceremony. This year, we honored four remarkable people, two outstanding and innovative residences, and two groups that have been steadfast supporters of supportive housing: the New York State Assembly as Government Partner of the Year, and the Affordable Housing Group at Nixon Peabody LLP as Private Sector Partner of the Year.
NY C Housing Forum Educates the Public on the Need for 35,000 Units of Supportive Housing Statewide
The Network helps lead the charge.  
Left: The crowd of hundreds of supporters of supportive housing at the NY Society for Ethical Culture. Right: Faith Leaders at NYC Housing Forum. Photo credit, right: Trish Anderton
The Network joined forces with the Campaign 4 NY/NY Housing at the NY Society for Ethical Culture with a diverse coalition of faith leaders, legislators and a huge crowd of supporters to call for 35,000 units of supportive housing statewide on October 23rd. The event brought together hundreds of housed and homeless New Yorkers to learn about the history of supportive housing in New York as an organic, highly successful and respectful solution to homelessness among the most vulnerable as well as a high-energy endorsement for a statewide NY/NY 4 agreement.
 
Anne Klaeysen from the NY Society for Ethical Culture welcomed the crowd. Steve Coe of Community Access MC'ed the event, and other speakers from the supportive housing community included Kristin Miller of CSH, the Network's Laura Mascuch, Stephan Russo of Goddard-Riverside Community Center, and Ralph Fasano of Concern for Independent Living.
CSH Releases Report on Need for Supportive Housing in New York State
36,164 homeless households need supportive housing  
The first-ever data-driven attempt at assessing the total need for supportive housing in New York State, CSH released Real Supportive Housing Need in New York State October 26th. The product of more than ten months of data collection, interviews with more than 100 stakeholders and vetting by all major state and local government stakeholders, the assessment estimates that 36,164 homeless households (30,311 adult, 5,853 families) were in need of supportive housing in 2013. The assessment did not attempt to capture the percentage of people in either the corrections or domestic violence systems that are in need of supportive housing. Using estimates for turnover, the study puts the current need for additional supportive housing at 31,745 units.   
 
   
Rochester Legislators and Community Leaders Call for 35,000 Units of Supportive Housing 
A forceful showing at DePaul's Carriage Factory Apartments 
Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle 

Virtually every area dignitary -- Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle, State Senator Rich Funke, Assembly Member Harry Bronson, Rochester City Councilman Michael Patterson, and Deputy Commissioner of Neighborhood and Business Development for the City of Rochester, Kate Washington -- joined economic development organizations, local businesses and community leaders for a news conference October 22 calling for the creation of 35,000 supportive housing units statewide.

The event was held at DePaul's award-winning Carriage Factory Apartments -- the former carriage (then automobile, then airplane) factory that the nonprofit DePaul developed into a beautiful mixed use supportive housing residence last year.

 
 
Win's The Glenmore Breaks Ground
Largest family supportive housing residence opening Fall 2017
On October 19th, after twelve years in the making, Win broke ground in Brooklyn on a new affordable and supportive housing project, The Glenmore, which will provide homes for a mix of homeless and low-income individuals and families. The project is scheduled to open in the fall of 2017. The six-story building will feature 161 units of housing, with 96 units of supportive housing for families with disabilities and 65 units of affordable housing for individuals and families. The development will also include retail and community space on the ground floor and will provide parking. 

"We are overcome with the generosity of all of our funding partners, both public and private, that helped to make The Glenmore a reality," said Bonnie Stone, retiring President and CEO of Win.


True Colors Bronx Residence Opens
The residence provides 30 studio apartments for LGBTQ young adults.
Cutting the ribbon at True Colors Bronx.
On a beautiful, sunny September 22, West End Residences held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for their newest permanent, supportive housing project, True Colors Bronx. The residence is modelled after the thriving True Colors Residence in Harlem, New York City's first permanent, affordable housing residence with on-site support services for homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. The residence provides 30 studio apartments for LGBTQ young adults.  This new Bronx residence continues the partnership between West End Residences and Grammy award-winning artist Cyndi Lauper, and her manager, Lisa Barbaris.

 
 
SUS House Warming for New Third Avenue Residence in the Bronx
The residence provides 63 units of supportive housing to a mix of low-income and formerly homeless individuals.
 
Third Avenue Residence in the Bronx from SUS.
On the blustery afternoon of October 29th, Services for the Underserved (SUS) welcomed guests to the House Warming of their new supportive housing residence at 3361 Third Avenue in the Morrisania neighborhood of the South Bronx. The residence, which provides 63 units of supportive housing to a mix of low-income and formerly homeless individuals, is a joint venture project between SUS, contractors Strategic Development and Construction Group, and BronxPro Group.

Nicknamed the Lego Building by neighbors - a nod to both its brightly colored window accents, and the fact that it was built with modular units created at Capsys Corp. Designed by James McCullar Architecture, the LEED Gold project features a landscaped rear yard, sunken inner courtyard, and rooftop garden for resident gardeners. Open space and large windows bring bright light into the common areas, with a kitchen, computer room and lounge space for community gatherings. The residence has sparkling new studio apartments, a laundry room, and even a storage room for bicycles.
 
 
Report on Joint Venture Partnerships for Supportive Housing Development
Guidelines for nonprofits to consider when entering into joint ventures and best practices when structuring joint ventures. 
 
The Network's first Alan Epstein Fellow presented her final report, Joint Venture Partnerships for Supportive Housing Development, October 26. The fellowship honors the late Alan Epstein, long-time Network board member, partner at the law firm Hirschen Singer & Epstein, and a champion of supportive housing. The funded fellowship is open to law school students who have completed at least one year of law school and recent law school graduates who are interested in policy and advocacy related to supportive housing . This year's research project focused on a particular concern of Alan's: joint ventures between private and nonprofit developers.

Our first Alan Epstein Fellow, Sarah Baldwin, graduated from Fordham Law School in May of this year. She spent the first half of the summer at Hirschen Singer & Epstein assisting with development financing, and the rest of the summer with the Network preparing a paper that reviews the recent history of joint ventures in New York. The paper analyzes ownership, fee structures, risk allocation and management of partnerships.  The majority of her research consisted of interviews with nonprofit and for profit Network members, development consultants, attorneys, government partners, banks and tax credit syndicators. The paper offers guidelines for nonprofits to consider when entering into joint ventures and best practices when structuring joint ventures.

SHNNY.ORG is now easy to access on your phone or tablet
Mobile optimization and a design upgrade make shnny.org more user-friendly.
Our website now scales to your device

Please check out our mobile optimization and design refresh of our website!
 
When our site was first designed, the iPhone wasn't a phenomenon - and so our site wasn't designed with it in mind.  Mobile optimization simply means that the view you see of our website depends upon what device you are using to access the site - it is 'responsive' i.e.  it scales differently depending on whether you are on your mobile phone , tablet or desktop - and of course, this scaling makes the interface more user-friendly.
 
Over 30% of visitors to shnny.org come via smartphones and tablets, and this percentage is growing, so it was the right time for us to transition to a mobile-friendly site design.
 
Remember to refresh your browser (to see our new structure and design elements).
 
Some highlights in mobile:  you'll see that our homepage slides fill the screen and create a more powerful impact; when you scroll down beneath the homepage slide, you'll see three newly featured areas "Funding Resources," "Find Housing," and "Network Newsfeed" - which have perennially been the most highly trafficked areas of our site, so it makes sense to make it easier for visitors to navigate there rapidly.  The hamburger menu (the three little vertical lines) in the upper right corner offers the sub-navigation options as a drop down menu. 
 
Your feedback is very welcome - please email your thoughts and notes about any changes you'd like to see to sschenck@shnny.org.
 
The Network enlisted HSS to create the site refresh and mobile optimization. Jason Summerfield, of HSS advises, "There are a few different approaches you can take in order to make a website mobile-friendly. In some cases, you may create a separate site specifically for mobile. But in the case of the Network, we took the increasingly popular approach of developing a single 'responsive' website that can scale across all devices - this approach makes maintenance much more efficient, rather than maintaining two separate sites."
 
And here's a tip from Jason: If you're not sure whether or not your website is mobile-compatible, here is a link where you can check your site with Google's Mobile-Friendly Test. All you have to do is enter your website's URL and it will tell you whether or not it is mobile-friendly to Google's standards.
 
Many thanks to our fabulous design/tech team from HSS, Jason Summerfield and Mike Hessling, for their great work.
Robert Neugeboren Passes Away
Long-time resident of and spokesperson for supportive housing.
First Lady Rosalyn Carter with Mr. Neugeboren & Mr. Mutton

This is a guest post by Jim Mutton, Director of NYC Operations, Concern for Independent Living, who worked closely with Mr. Neugeboren when he was a tenant at Project Renewal's Clinton Residence, where Mr. Mutton was the Director. Mr. Mutton worked closely with both Robert and his brother Jay Neugeboren advocating for a variety of issues including a robust NY/NY II.
 
I was saddened to read in the New York Times about the passing of Robert Neugeboren recently at the age of 72. However, I was fortunate to participate in one of the most successful and enjoyable decades of Robert's life, while he resided in supportive housing at Project Renewal and later at Fountain House, two of New York's most successful nonprofits. From 1999 to 2006, Robert was perhaps one of the most famous residents at Project Renewal's Clinton Residence, a supportive housing program for 57 formerly homeless men and women recovering from mental illness in midtown west. Robert was the subject of several books by his brother, noted author Jay Neugeboren; in addition to a Carter Center award-winning documentary"Imagining Robert" by filmmaker Larry Hott, and his own book of memoirs from young adulthood, "The Hillside Diary And Other Writings".

   

Funding Updates

Two New OMH RFP's for Supported Housing
In New York City, there are 121 units available and in Long Island there are 8 units available.

The Office of Mental Health released two Requests for Proposals (RFPs) in NYC and Long Island for supported housing for individuals with a serious mental illness who are current patients of NYS OMH Psychiatric Centers who were admitted into the State Psychiatric Center immediately following a prison sentence.

In New York City, there are 121 units available and in Long Island there are 8 units available:
  • Sixty-one (61) supported housing units are designated to serve individuals with a serious mental illness who are patients of Manhattan Psychiatric Center and who were admitted into MPC immediately following a prison sentence.  Two agencies will be awarded 30 and 31 units each. 
  • Thirty-one (31) supported housing units are designated to serve individuals with a serious mental illness who are patients of Kingsboro Psychiatric Center and who were admitted to Kingsboro Psychiatric Center immediately following a prison sentence.  One agency will be awarded 31 units.
  • Twenty-three (23) supported housing units are designated to serve individuals with a serious mental illness who are patients of Creedmoor Psychiatric Center and who were admitted there immediately following a prison sentence.  One agency will be awarded 23 units.
  • Six (6) supported housing units are designated to serve individuals with a serious mental illness who are patients of Bronx Psychiatric Center (BPC) and who were admitted into Bronx Psychiatric Center immediately following a prison sentence. One agency will be awarded 6 units.
  • Eight (8) supported housing units are designated to serve individuals with a serious mental illness who are current patients of Pilgrim Psychiatric Centers who were admitted into the State Psychiatric Center immediately following a prison sentence and are not ready for discharge to Suffolk or Nassau Counties. Four (4) units are designated for Suffolk County and four (4) units are designated for Nassau County. Up to two (2) agencies will be awarded 4 units.
Eligible applicants are not-for-profit agencies with 501(c) (3) incorporation that a) have experience providing housing and supportive services for any special needs group that is contracted for and monitored by a city, state or federal government agency and/or b) provide mental health services to persons with serious mental illness through programs that are licensed by OMH or are under contract with OMH or the county local government unit.

Contractors will receive annual funding at the current supported housing rate, $15,874 in New York City and $16,124 per unit in Long Island   This funding is for rent stipends, housing case management services and contingency funds as specified in the Supported Housing Guidelines.
Letters of Intent are due on November 12, 2015 and proposals are due on December 9, 2015.
In This Issue
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Network 
Jobs Board 
Check out these job openings and many others on our Jobs Board. Network members can post their employment opportunities for free!    
 
Recovery Peer Specialist for the Fortune Society
 
Program Assistant for the Fortune Society

Program Director for Comunlife

Respite Case Manager for Comunilife

Overnight Counselor for Brooklyn Community Housing & Services, Inc.
Upcoming Events

CUCS/Network Trainings:

Understanding Compulsive Hoarding
Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Time: 9:30am-3:30pm
Location: CUCS
Address: 198 East 121 Street, 5th Floor, NYC 10035
Register here.

Critical Time Intervention
Date: Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Time: 9:30am-3:30pm
Location: CUCS
Address: 198 East 121 Street, 5th Floor, NYC 10035
Register here.
News Clips  
 
A news conference in Rochester on October 22 calling for the creation of 35,000 supportive housing units statewide was covered by WROC-ROC (CBS), Rochester, NY
Time Warner Cable News, Rochester, NY, Minority Reporter
Democrat & Chronicle.

On September 22 at Project Homeless Connect, the annual event that provides services to more than 600 Buffalo area homeless individuals, state legislators and community leaders called on Governor Cuomo to fund 35,000 supportive housing units across the state to help address homelessness among the neediest New Yorkers. This event was covered by: TWC News BuffaloWKBW; WBFO; and The Buffalo News.

CSH released a report that underlines the need for new supportive housing, Real Supportive Housing Need in New York State.The study was reported in Politico NewYorkThe Albany Times UnionThe Buffalo News
Comings and Goings          

Mark Hurwitz is leaving SUS November 13 to join One City Health as Head of Strategy and Special Projects.