The federal government (HUD) touts "housing first" as a best practice to assisting people experiencing homelessness to transition to permanent housing. Philosophically, we agree. People without homes need housing and there should not be arbitrary barriers to accessing it. Still, most financing sources for affordable and supportive housing require several pre-conditions prior to occupancy making the adoption of "true" housing first impractical. Of particular concern are regulations governing the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC) which is the financing source for the bulk of affordable and supportive housing in New York City. VOA-GNY would also welcome ideas on how such a program could be implemented in Connecticut or New Jersey since these states are within our territory and, if the NYC regulatory environment is not conducive to adopting housing first, there may be opportunities to establish model programs in nearby jurisdictions. 

VOA-GNY would like the Capstone team to assess how jurisdictions outside of NYC adopt the housing first model, how their affordable and supportive housing is finance and identify potential funding sources and regulatory barriers to adopting similar programs in New York City, New Jersey or Connecticut.  

An environmental scan of housing first programs across the US - VOA-GNY can help the team by leveraging the VOA national network to inform this phase of research. We would recommend interviews with housing providers and regulatory bodies to inform this work. The team would also need to review LIHTC and HUD regulations on housing eligibility and local rules such as rent stabilization or other restrictions on housing occupancy and leasing to craft recommendations. 

The final product would be a report reviewing different housing first models, how they are financed and implemented and, producing recommendations on how this could be implemented locally in NY, NJ or CT.  Understanding our options and/or naming regulatory barriers we should seek to change would be very useful as we explore ways to advance our housing production and advocacy agendas.