According to the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), New York City’s homeless population has exploded to overwhelming proportions. This unexpected surge purportedly justifies the creation of disruptive fly-by-night shelters, including two buildings on West 95th Street scheduled to receive 200 adult families by the end of this month.

Surprise, surprise … not really. Since 2008, homeless numbers have been trending upward almost without exception, growing an average of 0.5 percent per month, and approaching a whopping 30 percent increase over the past five years. Nevertheless, West Siders have been dealing with homeless “emergencies” for decades—no time to find or build appropriate locations, to hire and train qualified staff, to safeguard existing tenants, to prepare neighbors, or even to properly assess the needs of clients before they are placed. Most importantly, no time to keep people at home in the first place.

Honestly, though, it’s not all on DHS. The cause of this situation runs deeper than poor forecasting. City, state and federal policies on homelessness, housing, social services, zoning and commerce—all crafted with good intentions—often work at cross-purposes. We want more affordable housing, but have meager tools to address powerful counter-incentives. We want to create jobs, but foreclose opportunities to attract visitors and fuel local commerce. We want to prevent homelessness, but cut programs that keep families from losing their homes. We use safety violations to enforce zoning regulations. We let emergency shelters preempt long-term housing solutions. We have enough “pop up” problems to keep us busy for decades, but it’s time to do better.

Policies, like people, are interconnected. We need to look at the whole system, collect data and analyze trends, consider long-term consequences and work together to develop policies that make sense. Tenant leaders, landlords, developers, business owners, service agencies and policy makers on all levels are part of the system, and therefore, critically important to developing workable solutions. It will take unwavering commitment, meaningful collaboration and concerted effort to bring it all together, but anything is possible in the face of emergency. Let’s get to it.

is a systems engineer, entrepreneur and former Chairman of Manhattan Community Board 7. He is also a candidate for New York City Council representing the Upper West Side.

Photo by iheartfishtown, courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

When the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) announced in July that it would soon move 200 homeless families into two residential West 95th Street Buildings, community members, elected officials and Community Board 7 (CB7) objected. The buildings were designed as single room occupancy units for low income residents, they argued, and were not equipped to provide treatment for the homeless’ large population of addicts and the mentally ill.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, City Council Member Gale Brewer, Assembly member Linda Rosenthal and Community Board 7 chair Mark Diller sent a letter to DHS Commissioner Seth Diamond at the time asking him to suspend efforts to place the homeless families in the two buildings, 316 and 330 West 95th Street.

Yesterday, DHS decided not to listen. The Department moved 10 of the families into the former building, with plans to add the remaining 190 – a total of over 400 new residents – to both buildings over the next few months, according to Diamond.

“We’re absolutely furious about it,” one of the buildings’ 71 existing residents told New York Post. “No one was told anything at all.”

Now, Stringer, Brewer and Rosenthal are joining with State Senator Adriano Espaillat, Community Board 7 and Upper West Side residents in calling on DHS again to suspend immediately all efforts to refer clients to the buildings.

“[T]he proposal to house 200 adults, who are currently homeless, in 100 tiny rooms at 316 and 330 West 95 Street on a temporary basis is poor planning, poor policy, and includes little if any transparency,” said Brewer in a statement. “The process should have included a substantive planning discussion with Community Board 7, elected officials, current residents of the two buildings, and responsible neighborhood leaders to find a solution to the need for shelter for homeless individuals.”

Stringer agreed. “New Yorkers understand that all neighborhoods share in the responsibility to provide housing to those in need,” he said in a statement. “But abruptly moving a 400-person shelter into a residential neighborhood in the dead of summer with no community consultation, no contract and no long-term plan only creates bad will and sets back the cause of fighting homelessness.”

“By failing to conduct a dialogue with the community and the elected officials who represent it,” said Rosenthal, “DHS and its former commissioner Robert Hess have disrespected thoroughly this neighborhood.”

According to a letter sent to Community Board 7 on July 19, DHS will be contracting with a company called Aguila Inc. to operate transitional housing facilities at 316 and 330 W. 95th St. They will house 200 adult families, which could mean upward of 400 individuals.

When determining where and how to house its homeless residents, the city is pulled by two laws that sometimes place a greater burden on certain communities. New York is a right-to-shelter city, meaning that DHS is responsible for providing a bed for every resident, every night. It also has to adhere to the fair share doctrine that calls for every community district to house an equal number of the city’s homeless population—in other words, the city can’t place a cluster of shelters in one neighborhood in the Bronx and leave other neighborhoods without any shelters.

But when the number of homeless New Yorkers comes close to the number of available beds, an emergency situation is created that allows DHS to site temporary transitional housing in neighborhoods without regard to the fair share rules. It’s this emergency loophole that has Upper West Siders upset.

“All of [the elected officials] have gotten lots of emails from residents in the community who are just fed up with the city placing people on 94th and 95th Street corridors when there’s a homeless emergency,” said Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal. “This is a decade already that they’ve looked at this area as the go-to place. This is a very generous and giving neighborhood, but I think the people in the neighborhood have just reached their limit.”

Rosenthal joined City Council Member Gale Brewer, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Community Board 7 chair Mark Diller in sending a letter to DHS Commissioner Seth Diamond, strongly urging him to suspend the efforts to move people into the West 95th Street facilities.

Part of the objection from local officials stems from the fact that these buildings were designed as single room occupancy (SRO) units, small, inexpensive rooms with shared bathroom and kitchen facilities that could provide permanent housing for low-income residents. But owners and landlords of SROs have a greater incentive to rent to DHS, which Rosenthal said pays $111 per room per day, adding up to much more than a typical $600 or $700-per-month rent on an SRO unit.

Locals insist that they don’t object to housing the homeless in their community, but that they shouldn’t be burdened with a sudden influx of homeless adults when they already have a high number of shelters.

“The Upper West Side in general, and this corridor of the West 90s in particular, currently provides shelter to the homeless and other vulnerable populations through a variety of facilities. These buildings collectively serve thousands of people,” read part of the letter to Diamond.

“This is not NIMBY,” said Diller in an email. “In fact, there are existing buildings being used to serve vulnerable populations as close as a half-block from the location. Rather, it is about achieving the right kind of balance for the vulnerable population, the other residents of the proposed buildings and the surrounding community.”

DHS did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this article, and Rosenthal said that the agency has not been forthcoming with the community.

Robert Hess, a former DHS commissioner who is now the chairman and CEO of Housing Solutions USA, which will be merging with Aguila and operating the facilities, wrote in a letter to the Community Board that his company “seek[s] to meet [clients’] needs through a comprehensive continuum of care, knowing the lasting, positive change cannot occur unless the complexity of the problems our clients face is acknowledged and addressed.”

Hess would not speak with a reporter for this story, and his company repeatedly refused to answer any questions about the operations planned for 316 and 330 W. 95th St.

The agency that has been using properties throughout the city—including a hostel at 237 W. 107th St.—for emergency homeless clients rarely signs contracts with service providers or the buildings’ landlords, the audit found. Payments to these organizations and landlords are based on “cooked” or “inflated” invoices, according to Liu.

“There’s no opportunity to measure the performance of these agencies. There’s no way to monitor their compliance to what they’ve agreed to,” Liu said. “This is not the way that city agencies should be run.”

Comptroller John Liu (at podium) said the Department of Homeless Services needs to do a better job of creating contracts with service providers.

The audit dealt with how the department places clients in beds in “emergency” circumstances, much like the situation on West 107th Street. In that case, the department had been housing women at the hostel without a formal agreement, but was going to sign a contract for a full 135-bed shelter. The department ultimately backed out when questions were raised about the building’s condition and the landlord’s history of tenant harassment.

The audit, initiated by Liu’s predecessor William Thompson, showed that the department paid $152.7 million during the course of a year to 107 service providers without a contract. In one instance, a provider who was charging the department for duplicate lists of clients was getting between $800 and $4,800 per month per family, Liu said.

Liu stopped short of characterizing the agreements as illegal, but said that “hand-shake deals” are unheard of nowadays.

In a statement following Liu’s press conference, Department Commissioner Robert Hess said that the “emergency” declarations that involve verbal agreements are the “fastest procurement mechanism available at this point.” Hess also argued that the department requested, without success, that Thompson, the former comptroller, hash out other ways to have a timely procurement process.

“While those appeals were fruitless, we look forward to working with Comptroller Liu to find a better legal way to expedite shelter procurements and not leave the most vulnerable men, women and children out in the cold because of bureaucratic red tape,” Hess said in a statement.

The audit suggests that the department start signing formal contracts with all providers of shelter and social services; set up performance standards; and conduct spot checks and interviews with clients and building staff.

While the department agreed that it should start trying to establish contracts for its facilities when possible, it rebuffed the auditors’ opinion that per diem arrangements are subject to the city’s procurement guidelines. Contracts for these types of payments, the department said, are therefore not required.

The department also pointed out that these referrals frequently take place on a shorter timetable than the city’s procurement process allows.

“DHS must also refer families to emergency shelter space as needed, prior to completion of the procurement processes for additional facilities—processes that take, on average, seven to nine months from start to finish,” the agency responded in the audit.

Still, auditors highlighted that the
department had allowed non-contracted providers to continue providing services for up to 22 years, ample time to go through the contracting process.

This assessment is the latest in a series of audits that have repeatedly showed the department relying on verbal agreements with service providers and landlords.

Mark Hersh, owner of the West 107th Street hostel currently serving as emergency housing for homeless women, seems to have entered into this type of loose agreement with the department before. During a 2002 meeting, Community Board 7 quizzed then-Deputy Commissioner Maryann Schretzman about paying Hersh for empty rooms in his buildings.

“We have verbal agreements. We do not have contracts, so we cannot negotiate [prices] very much,” Schretzman said of the arrangement, according to board minutes.

Liu said he will collaborate with the Council, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and homeless advocacy groups to ensure the city fixes this issue internally.

“It’s been going on year after year after year. It’s unacceptable,” Liu said. “Instead of turning a deaf ear to problems, let’s get them to follow recommendations.”

Mary Brosnahan, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, asked Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Linda Gibbs, a former department commissioner and current deputy mayor, to follow through with promises to end this approach to contracting.

“It’s business as usual with the Bloomberg administration,” Brosnahan said at a press conference. “We have got to get out of the business of paying slumlords to put homeless families in these squalid conditions.” 

Robert V. (last name withheld)
West 107th Street

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.

The agency that has been using properties throughout the city—including a hostel at 237 W. 107th St.—for emergency homeless clients rarely signs contracts with service providers or the buildings’ landlords, the audit found. Payments to these organizations and landlords are based on “cooked” or “inflated” invoices, according to Liu.
“There’s no opportunity to measure the performance of these agencies. There’s no way to monitor their compliance to what they’ve agreed to,” Liu said. “This is not the way that city agencies should be run.”

Comptroller John Liu said the Department of Homeless Services needs to do a better job of creating contracts with service providers. Photo by Andrew Schwartz.

The audit dealt with how the department places clients in beds in “emergency” circumstances, much like the situation on West 107th Street. In that case, the department had been housing women at the hostel without a contract, but was going to sign a contract for a full 135-bed shelter. The department ultimately backed out when questions were raised about the building’s condition and the landlord’s history of tenant harassment.

The audit, initiated by Liu’s predecessor William Thompson, showed that the department paid $152.7 million during the course of a year to 107 service providers without a contract. In one instance, a provider who was charging the department for duplicate lists of clients was getting between $800 and $4,800 per month per family, Liu said.

Liu stopped short of characterizing this practice as illegal, but said that “hand-shake deals” are unheard of nowadays.

In a statement following Liu’s press conference, Department Commissioner Robert Hess said that the “emergency” declarations that involve verbal agreements are the “fastest procurement mechanism available at this point.” Hess also argued that the department requested, without success, that Thompson, the former comptroller, hash out other ways to have a timely procurement process.

“While those appeals were fruitless, we look forward to working with Comptroller Liu to find a better legal way to expedite shelter procurements and not leave the most vulnerable men, women and children out in the cold because of bureaucratic red tape,” Hess said in a statement.

The audit suggests that the department start signing formal contracts with all providers of shelter and social services; set up performance standards; and conduct spot checks and interviews with clients and building staff.

While the department agreed that it should start trying to establish contracts for its facilities when possible, it rebuffed the auditors’ opinion that  per diem arrangements are subject to the city’s procurement guidelines. Contracts for these types of payments, the department said, are therefore not required.

The department also pointed out that these referrals frequently take place on a shorter timetable than that city’s procurement process allows.

“DHS must also refer families to emergency shelter space as needed, prior to completion of the procurement processes for additional facilities—processes that take, on average, seven to nine months from start to finish,” the agency responded in the audit.

Still, auditors highlighted that the department had allowed non-contracted providers to continue providing services for up to 22 years, ample time to go through the contracting process.

This assessment is the latest in a series of audits that have repeatedly showed the department relying on verbal agreements with service providers and landlords.

Mark Hersh, owner of the West 107th Street hostel currently serving as emergency housing for homeless women, seems to have entered into this type of loose agreement with the department before. During a 2002 meeting, Community Board 7 quizzed then-Deputy Commissioner Maryann Schretzman about paying Hersh for empty rooms in his buildings.

“We have verbal agreements. We do not have contracts, so we cannot negotiate [prices] very much,” Schretzman said of the arrangement, according to board minutes.

Liu said he will collaborate with the Council, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and homeless advocacy groups to ensure the city fixes this issue internally.

“It’s been going on year after year after year. It’s unacceptable,” Liu said. “Instead of turning a deaf ear to problems, let’s get them to follow recommendations.”

Mary Brosnahan, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, asked Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Linda Gibbs, a former department commissioner and current deputy mayor, to follow through with promises to end this approach to contracting.

“It’s business as usual with the Bloomberg administration,” Brosnahan said at a press conference. “We have got to get out of the business of paying slumlords to put homeless families in these squalid conditions.”