Support for Neighbors in Need Means Stronger New York Communities « Services for the UnderServed

Support for Neighbors in Need Means Stronger New York Communities

May 20th, 2009

Posted by Donna Colonna, CEO, Services for the UnderServed:

Let’s try a group think! Do you agree that supportive housing can bring greater value to a neighborhood and if so doesn’t that mean we should invest in more supports to reach a higher level of neighborhood impact? What do you think? Send us a post.

NYU’s Furman Cente
r for Real Estate and Urban Policy examined the neighborhood impacts of several supportive housing developments across New York City’s five boroughs over an 18 year period and found that the prices of buildings nearest the supportive housing development experienced “strong and steady growth,” and appreciated more than comparable properties that were slightly further away. The New York Times stated, “the Furman study confirms what advocates have been saying for years: well run supportive housing can help both formerly homeless citizens and the neighborhoods in which they are built.”

SUS offers services to the challenged New Yorkers we work with (our consumers) so they can live with dignity in the community, direct their own lives, and attain personal fulfillment. Our supportive housing comes with a range of services that differ across SUS’ sister agencies but most include case management, employment services, physical and mental wellness programs, and education directed to knowledge, skills and daily activities.

An inclusive society that embraces the soft power of community action throughout New York City will make major changes in our global society. SUS will make its contribution through dedication to achieving a consumer-centered approach to community development. Our focus is on identifying ways in which our person-centered services can be programmatically integrated with current strategies for community development. A number of ideas are already on the table create a simple model:

Step 1: Assess the needs of SUS facilities for capital improvements, general maintenance, energy efficiency and other ‘green’ solutions;
Step 2: Develop a workforce of SUS consumers with the necessary skills who, working under the supervision of experienced professionals, will help resolve the needs of SUS facilities;
Step 3: Generate opportunities for the SUS workforce to be a resource to neighborhood homeowners helping them to meet their similar property management needs.

What are some of your ideas? We would love to hear back from you?

An SUS property management initiative based upon this model will do more to ensure better quality of life and stable property values for our surrounding neighborhoods. SUS consumers aware of their surroundings and the importance of building maintenance will become part of the asset base of their respective communities. Neighborhood residents can be invited to participate in SUS workshops so that they are better able to direct their time and financial resources to home improvement. The bonds between SUS consumers and local residents as members of the same community will be strengthened and reinforced through purposeful interaction.

This is how we make an SUS local initiative a replicable model for national change and model the strength of supportive housing with community building.

Please lend us your thoughts, ideas and things you have implemented in your neighborhood and community. How do you SUS?

Posted by donnacolonna | Filed under: Supportive Housing

Anonymous

When you say property management initiative, do you mean forming a property management company or writing a petition about property management goals? Please go into more detail, in plain language. I’m unsure what you mean.

Off hand, I’m thinking of a place on the extreme west side, called The Open Door, and Hope Christian Center, on Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. in the Bronx. The Open Door is affiliated with the Manhattan Archdiocese, and is a place where they provide temporary shelter for women, and dinner on Wednesdays (it used to be Mon. – Fri., but they’ve cut back, due to lack of funding.) It may or may not be under management by Progress for Peoples, due to the temporary aspect of shelter. I don’t know.

Hope Christian Center is a rehab facility with shelter for men, with a 6 mos. minimum commitment that can extend to one year, under some circumstances. The director happens to pastor a church in New Jersey, and some funding comes from this church. I found out about it when I called Times Square Church to obtain housing for a homeless friend (they used to have an extensive homeless program, but not any longer. The only place they had to refer me to, in the entire City of New York, was Hope. (My friend didn’t have a drug problem, and didn’t want to be housed with people who are quitting.)

Both these facilities above could definitely use an alliance with SUS. Temporary housing may solve a person’s immediate problem, but in this job marketplace, so much more is needed. They need another program, so they can go from temporary solutions, to more permanent solutions, and know they’ve got help coming in many ways, so they can get well and get back to work, knowing they won’t be tossed back out into the street. Some people are older and quite ill, and they need help getting disability, and somewhere to live, preferably near a hospital.

It just seems to me that if you built a liaison with these programs, so much good could be done for the people, and you may find unexpected, unanticipated help with programs and funding, from people who do the paperwork for such things every day, on a massive scale.