Bipartisan Group of Elected Officials Calls for New Program to Fight Homelessness

ALBANY – With state budget negotiations fast approaching, more than a dozen lawmakers are calling for the final spending plan to include enactment of a program to reduce reliance on homeless shelters.

The renewed bipartisan call to adopt the Home Stability Support program comes months after the Daily News reported on Coalition for the Homeless data that showed New York State has more than a quarter of a million homeless people, including 152,839 school-age children.

Assembly Social Services Committee Chairman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens) for several years has pushed the Home Stability Support program, intended to reduce reliance on homeless shelters by creating a new rent subsidy to keep people in their homes.

The measure, which has widespread bipartisan support in the Legislature and among local government officials, would cost $400 million over the first five years and then $400 million annually to keep it running.