(IAHH) Marc Greenberg, December 12, 2016 — After over two years of advocacy, and 19 Wednesdays in front of the Governor’s NYC office, we are seeing some indications of small but significant movement on getting the Governor and State Legislative leaders to iron out an agreement on how to allocate the nearly 2 billion dollars for supportive and affordable housing that is included in the current New York State budget. Its for this reason that we MUST CONTINUE TO DO WHAT HAS BEEN WORKING!

As an anticipated special session is likely to be held in Albany next week,  this coming Wednesday, we will gather for the 20th Wednesday in front of the Governor’s NYC office, nearly one year since he pledged to build 15,000 units of supportive housing over the next 15 years to send the message that   we are not going away!!

and for those of you who cannot join us, we invite you to

help us generate 20,000 emails

to the Governor and our legislative leaders — one for each of  the units pledged by the Governor in his 2016 state of the State address. (by clicking the link above and sending the link to your networks, encouraging them to send emails this next wednesday or earlier.)

We invite you to Join us on

 Wednesday, December 14 

9am to 10am

at 633 3rd Avenue 

(just north of 40th street)

with 

Supportive Housing Providers, Homeless Self-Help leaders, & supportive housing residents, Faith Leaders and People of Faith, and other concerned New Yorkers call on Governor Andrew Cuomo to Exercise the Leadership of the Office of Governor and finalize the Memo of Understanding with State Legislative leaders to release 1.97 Billion Dollars for Supportive and Affordable Housing. Without Delay!!

Our effort to send the Governor and Legislative leaders 20,000 emails has reached nearly 5,000 emails so far please  Click here to add your voice, and copy and send a note to your networks to help us achieve our target as soon as possible.

AND we are pleased to report that our faith partners have placed a series of op-eds around our state:

·        Op-Ed by Father Frank Pizzarelli in Newsday: Make good on funds for homeless 

·      Op-Ed by Peter Cook of the NY State Council of Churches in  Albany Times Union 

: Address homeless crisis in N.Y.

·        Op-Ed by Pastor John Carter in the Syracuse Post Standard: NY Must Keep Its Promise to House the Homeless 

Let’s not forget how far we have come:

– In November, 2015, Mayor de Blasio committed to the production of 15,000 supportive housing units over 15 years,

– In January, 2016, Governor Cuomo committed to the production of 20,000 supportive housing units over the next 15 years,

– In June, 2016, the  State Legislature budgeted 1.97 Billion dollars for the production of 6,000 units of supportive housing over 5 years – plus thousands of units of affordable housing. But required an MOU to determine the specific utilization of these funds!

– In October, 2016, the Governor instructed his budget director to execute an MOU and submit it to the State Legislative leaders for their signatures.

AND NOW we are urging the Governor to use the power of his office to come to an agreement that will produce the 6,000 units of supportive housing over the next 5 years!

_________________________

Together we are truly making a difference in the lives of those in our city who are homeless and at risk of homelessness and all those seeking justice and fairness.

Thank you for your help.

Marc L. Greenberg

Executive Director