Mayor’s Program, “Turning the Tide” was announced February 27, 2017
The mayor’s reimagined shelter strategy says it will:
- Completely eliminate the use of cluster apartment units by the end of 2021 and commercial hotel facilities by the end of 2023;
- Reduce the current number of shelter sites by 45 percent; and
- Keep homeless New Yorkers closer to their communities and supports that they need.
- Completely eliminate the use of cluster apartment units by the end of 2021 and commercial hotel facilities by the end of 2023;
- Reduce the current number of shelter sites by 45 percent; and
- Keep homeless New Yorkers closer to their communities and supports that they need.
Estimated Cost: $1.1 Billion over next 3 years
The city does not need the approval of community boards or local elected officials to site shelters.
The administration said that the city is spending $32 million per month for commercial hotels, $2 million for private apartments, also called clusters, and $96 million for traditional shelters.
The city has pledged to stop using cluster sites — small apartments throughout the city — and commercial hotels to house the homeless.
DHS officials testified at a City Council hearing that the spending is a temporary necessity caused by a boost in the hotel population while the agency vacates 3,600 scattered apartments for the homeless.
The average spent on a hotel room will be $174 per night.
The Department of Homeless Services will spend $364 million each year over the next few years housing homeless people in hotels — almost double the cost of previous years, according to some estimates.
According to numbers analyzed by City Comptroller Scott Stringer last year, the city spent roughly $530,000 per day on hotel rooms for the homeless. Spending by the city will now be just shy of $1 million a day.
Performance to Date:
- 17 New Shelters opened or announced as part of plan for 90 new shelters
- The number of homeless housed in commercial hotels had surged past 11,000 — up from 7,000 a year earlier.
- The city is currently spending $32 million a month, or more than $1 million a day, on hotel rooms. That’s nearly double the daily number City Controller Scott Stringer found in a report last year.