Six months ago, in an unprecedented move, the Bloomberg administration revoked 2,600 federal housing vouchers they had previously issued to low-income families across the city. Already, 27 of these families have had to return to homeless shelters -- a number that will only increase as time goes on.
Please sign the online letter and call on New York City to prevent 2,600 more families from being forced back into shelter.
Take Marissa and her two daughters. In May, they became homeless again after the City cancelled their voucher. Since then, they've been living out of suitcases -- temporarily sharing one bedroom of her sister's apartment.
Last week, Marissa told WCBS's Marcia Kramer that she prayed every day to stay out of shelter: "I don't want to go back there. If that's one place I can avoid, I will avoid it for the rest of my life." After the story ran, the City offered Marissa rental assistance. But for most families, the nightmare continues.
The Bloomberg administration says they simply can't afford to rehouse these families, but it just isn't true. According to Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, reinstating rental assistance would cost just $25 million a year -- compared to the $47 to $77 million price tag of housing these families in homeless shelters.
The fact is the Bloomberg administration has options to get these families back into affordable housing: (1) they can use federal stimulus dollars to give short-term assistance until next year's batch of federal housing vouchers; and (2) they can move families who have already lost their homes -- like Marissa's -- to the top of the list for available public housing.
Take action today, and sign the letter asking the City to implement these common sense solutions. Go to: http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/Save2600Families.
Thanks for everything you do to support the neediest New Yorkers. Together we can win this fight and prevent more families from becoming homeless.
Sincerely,
Mary Brosnahan
Executive Director
PS - Watch Marissa's story on WCBS News with Marcia Kramer here: http://wcbstv.com/topstories/housing.subsidies.cut.2.1747080.html
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