Today, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and homeless advocates called on the city to end the cluster-site program, which provides homeless families temporary shelter in approximately 1500 apartments. The program is similar to the scatter-site program, which was phased out by the Department of Homeless Services after it came under heavy criticism from Gotbaum and homeless advocates.
Gotbaum said, "This program appears to do more harm than good. It provides limited assistance to homeless families and leaves rent-paying tenants worse off."
Gotbaum and the advocates
recommend replacing the cluster-site program with federally funded housing by
restoring homeless families’ priority status for Section 8 vouchers and public
housing.
Problems with the cluster-site program include:
The program gives landlords a perverse incentive to push out rent-paying tenants because the city pays landlords more for these apartments—an average of $1730 a month—compared to what residents living in rent-stabilized units pay.
The program uses a limited stock of affordable apartments to provide the homeless with temporary shelter instead of using those apartments for permanent housing
- The city uses apartments in dilapidated buildings
with dangerous conditions, such as peeling
lead paint, cascading water leaking from the ceiling, and broken or
defective fire retardant ceiling
Read full Press Release
Below are pictures from apartments in a Bronx building used in the cluster-site program:
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