Supportive Housing: Myths and Facts

MYTH: Supportive housing is like a shelter.

FACT: No: supportive housing is permanent housing in which on-site support, health, employment and therapeutic services are provided. Prospective tenants are screened to ensure they are good candidates for supportive housing (can live independently, are interested in becoming housed, healthy and being good neighbors). Residents have leases and must abide by the terms of those leases. Apartments are typically efficiency or one-bedrooms for individuals, multi-bedroom for families, just like every other apartment building.

MYTH: My property values will plummet.

FACT: NO: There is no evidence that property values diminish at all as a result of supportive housing development while there is both statistical and anecdotal evidence that property values INCREASE. The only study quantifying the impact of development on neighborhoods, the Connecticut Supportive Housing Demonstration Program Evaluation Report (www.csh.org), showed that surrounding property values substantially increased in eight of the nine neighborhoods surveyed. In New York, there is overwhelming anecdotal evidence that supportive housing has boosted surrounding property values. Common sense supports this notion since sponsors either turn blighted buildings into attractive new housing or build on abandoned empty lots that are frequently magnets for illegal activity.

MYTH: We need affordable housing, not supportive housing.

FACT: Most supportive housing is a mix of supportive and affordable housing, with 40% of most residences’ apartments reserved for low-income people in the neighborhood.

MYTH: Supportive housing development will discourage economic investment in the neighborhood.

FACT: NO: In the twenty five years that supportive housing has been built in New York, it has almost always been a CATALYST for economic development. Because supportive housing either rehabilitates a decrepit building or builds on an empty lot, it improves a block’s look and feel. Because of on-site security and caseworkers who are concerned about vulnerable tenants’ safety, neighborhood crime often sharply decreases.

MYTH: Supportive housing is developed overwhelmingly in poor minority neighborhoods in the outer boroughs.

FACT: Nearly half (47%) of city-funded supportive housing is below 96th Street in Manhattan. Almost 7,000 units of city-funded supportive housing are in Manhattan while only 2,000 are in Brooklyn and just over 1,500 in the Bronx.

MYTH: Crime rates will escalate.

FACT: Because supportive housing features on-site security and support staff who are focused on protecting vulnerable tenants, crime rates usually decrease as a result of supportive housing development. Management often work closely with local police to root out illegal activity in the neighborhood.

MYTH: The project will act as a magnet for homeless people.

FACT: Supportive housing is not a shelter with an open-door policy. It has a set number of apartments allotted for homeless people with special needs. These apartments are offered on a PERMANENT BASIS and BY REFERRAL ONLY. Further, all residents are referred by local agencies with a preference given to local residents.

MYTH: You’ll just build this and leave: this is our home.

FACT: Supportive housing sponsors are members of this community too and have a track record of being responsible and responsive citizens. They understand your concerns and welcome your ongoing participation on any number of advisory committees. Virtually all providers work closely with their neighbors to both accommodate local needs and maximize tenant integration: some share resources like meeting spaces and computer labs, while others host block parties and local celebrations.

MYTH: This is just another government program being shoved down our throats.

FACT: No. Supportive housing, although funded by the City, State and Federal government, is run by non-profit agencies that traditionally care for the poor and sick. These groups are community-based, are audited, and are governed by myriad rules and regulations to ensure excellence.

MYTH: Supportive housing is too expensive.

FACT: No. Supportive housing actually saves taxpayer dollars wasted on repetitive emergency services and housing. A recent study found that New York taxpayers spend an average of $40,500 per person per year to leave a mentally ill New Yorker on the street. That same study found that once these individuals moved into supportive housing their use of costly emergency services plummeted.

MYTH: These people just want a free ride at the taxpayer’s expense.

FACT: Supportive housing helps people who want to help themselves. It provides a caring, nurturing community for those with problems, not unlike your own home. Residents are looking to put their lives back on track: permanent housing combined with access to services allows them to do that.