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The Housing Help Program

Taking a strategic approach to fighting critical issues in our city, United Way of New York City is making prevention central in its effort to address the problem of homelessness.

Getting to the Root of the Problem

Thousands of individuals and families enter the shelter each year without receiving homeless prevention assistance that might have helped families remain housed. While eviction data is not tracked by neighborhood, we know that the Bronx has the largest number of evictions in the city. The yearly cost of sheltering a family in New York City is $32,000 -- based on the average family per diem of $86.54. In the South Bronx/Mott Haven community, approximately 20% of all shelter entries are directly the result of eviction, translating to at least $4 million in shelter costs each year from this community alone.

Experts across the field agree that the current crisis of homelessness has three central interrelated causes:

1. A shortage of affordable, transitional and supportive housing;
2. Economic hardship by New York City's low-income working families; and
3. Unmet needs of highly vulnerable populations.

The Community Action Approach

The housing court is a point of entry for families at greatest risk of losing their homes. To help these families remain housed, United Way of New York City and the Civil Court of the City of New York in 2004 created the Housing Help Program, an innovative new homelessness prevention program and the first of its kind in the nation. The Housing Help Program targets families living in zip code 10451 of the South Bronx/Mott Haven community, which the Honorable Judge Fern Fisher, Administrative Judge of the Civil Court of the City of New York, identified as one of the communities with the highest number of eviction filings. This is also one of the six community districts identified by the Department of Homeless Services and the Vera Institute of Justice as having one of the highest incidences of homeless shelter stays. This three-year pilot project is designed to help families who are facing an imminent housing eviction crisis by offering a range of integrated legal, social and financial services.

The Housing Help Program is one of eight homelessness prevention initiatives included in New York City's recently released five-year action plan to end chronic homelessness, an unprecedented collaboration among the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Program Goals

The two primary goals of the Housing Help Program are to (1) prevent the immediate threat of eviction and (2) stabilize families over time to reduce the risk of homelessness. Approximately 5,500 notice-of-eviction petitions are filed each year in Mott Haven, of which 2,500 cases come before the court. Based on the successful outcomes of this pilot project, United Way will work with the Department of Homeless Services to replicate the Housing Help Program in other high-need neighborhoods throughout the City.

Services Offered

The Housing Help Program consists of two integrated parts: a court-based unit operated by the Legal Aid Society and located right next door to the courtroom where these cases are heard; and a community-based unit, located near the Bronx Housing Court and operated by Women in Need. This concept of an enriched services courtroom with one judge dedicated to the zip code will foster knowledge of the community and problem solving around the issue of homelessness prevention. The court-based unit provides legal and general social services to prevent homelessness while an individual's legal case is pending, while the community-based unit offers more in-depth social services to prevent homelessness. Working as a team, the two units of the Housing Help Program offer:

• Full social service and legal intake and assessment
• Legal representation or advice
• Access to income-related government benefits
• Short-term supportive services to avoid current housing crisis
• Case management
• Long-term specialized services (such as job training, family counseling, substance abuse, domestic violence, financial literacy, etc.) to prevent future eviction by addressing the core economic and social issues contributing to their vulnerability.

Program Principles

• Accessibility: By locating a unit within the courthouse, the Housing Help Program makes services immediately accessible to families facing eviction. After the immediate housing crisis has been averted, the community based unit located near the Bronx housing court and in the neighborhood makes it possible for families to easily access services as long as they are needed.
• Responsiveness: The Housing Help Program addresses the full range of family needs, rather than a single problem at a time. Services identify and build on the strengths of the individual families and the available community services.
• Continuity of Care: The Housing Help Program provides continuous care for families -- from their initial housing crisis to their stabilization. This is accomplished through a team approach that ensures seamless services.

Program Highlights

The Housing Help Program originally was piloted in zip code 10451 of the South Bronx/Mott Haven community, which has one of the highest number of eviction filings and incidences of homeless shelter stays in the City. Soon after, the program was expanded to zip code 10456, also in the South Bronx. In July 2007, the program launched a successful expansion into Brooklyn (zip code 11207, East New York) in full partnership with the Department of Homeless Services and the Office of Court Administration.

In its first three years, the program has produced a 99% success rate and has helped close to 1,000 families in the South Bronx stay out of the shelter system.

Our Partners in the Housing Help Program  We rely on the expertise and support of several organizations to ensure the effectiveness of the Housing Help Program: Founding Partners United Way of New York City Civil Court of the City of New York Funding Partners The Bank of New York Mellon Booth Ferris Foundation Mizuho USA Foundation United Way of New York City Donors Community-based Providers The Legal Aid Society Women in Need Other Government Partners Department of Homeless Services

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