News: NY State to Fund $2.6 Million to help 300 formerly homeless persons with disabilities who are facing imminent eviction in NYC

Following up on our post about our advocacy in Albany with client Willie McCartha, we have this update on the State budget’s Medicaid Redesign Team Housing Program (note the great news for New York’s homeless men and women in bold!):

As part of the Program, the State plans to fund some 300 rent subsidies for former Advantage tenants living with disabilities (who, like Mr. McCartha, are former “Fixed Income Advantage” recipients).We’ve heard the State wants to implement this very soon due to the obviously precarious housing situation of the affected tenants.

The subsidies are part of the Governor’s newly-created Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) Supportive Housing Development Program which was passed in the State’s 2012-13 budget in April.  The program will allocate $75 million a year to create thousands of units of supportive housing for high-cost Medicaid recipients across New York State.

The State will distribute the $75 million in funding to create as many as 4,500 capital and scattered-site units in the first year. It will allocate the funding as follows (see the full breakdown attached):

• $25 million in capital from HCR for NY/NY III acceleration
• $14.3 million in capital to fund the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance’s (OTDA) Homeless Housing Assistance Program (HHAP) for upstate supportive housing projects
• $10 million to fund NYS Office of Mental Health (OMH) Supported Housing scattered-site rental and service subsidies; 350 units in Brooklyn and 350 units in the rest of the state
• $7.3 million to fund a 171-unit permanent supportive housing residence on land owned by Metropolitan Hospital to help move patients at Coler-Goldwater Hospital
• $6 million to restore and fund 2,500 existing and new programs through the NYS Supportive Housing Program (NYSSHP — formerly SRO Support Services and Supportive Housing for Families & Young Adults)
• $5 million to fund operating and services in 410 NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) scattered-site apartments throughout the state
• $2.6 million to fund OTDA’s Disability Housing Subsidy Program, to be used to pay for ongoing rent subsidies for 300 formerly homeless persons with disabilities who are facing imminent eviction in New York City. 
• $2.4 million to fund operating and services in 125 NYS Department of Health (DOH) AIDS Institute scattered-site apartments;
• $1.8 million to fund NYS Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) for 180 community-based housing units
• $276,000 to fund a 115-unit supportive housing program — the Claremont Project — in the Bronx
• $135,000 to fund a supportive housing initiative for eight people with developmental disabilities who are currently residing in a nursing on Long Island.  

News: Project Renewal Supports Human Services Council Campaign to Protect Funding

Willie McCartha, center, with State Senator Patrick M. Gallivan, left, and Patrick Paglen, Case Manager at 3rd Street on right.

Project Renewal joined HSC’s statewide advocacy campaign “Who Cares? I Do.” to spread awareness of the impact that funding cuts have on New Yorkers. Clients and staff travelled to Albany in March to meet legislators and share with them the importance of protecting funding for programs that provide healthcare and housing for Project Renewal clients. Specific concerns include: the implementation of Medicaid Reforms that threaten to reduce funds for human services and make access to services challenging for many vulnerable populations including homeless New Yorkers, and the suspension of the $15 million NYC shelter supplement that ended the Advantage rental subsidy for many shelter residents.

Client Willie McCartha has been directly affected by the loss of the Advantage rental subsidy. The program helped him move from our Third Street Shelter to a one-bedroom apartment in Washington Heights last year. Willie expressed his fears to NY1 News, “I don’t know which way to turn or which way to go… How can you cancel a program that help so many people? It’s sad.”

Willie travelled to Albany to share his concerns with legislators. “It was amazing to talk to people regarding the problem at hand. Each meeting was a little different and we covered all the bases. We spoke to the Social Services council, the Ways and Means Committee, and a representative of Senator Patrick Gallivan.  I spoke of my concern not just for myself but for the disabled, elderly, and children who would be forced into the shelter system.”

Watch the NY1 story with Willie McCartha.

Make your voice heard.  Sign the petition, share your story and spread the word.

March 2012

News: Project Renewal's Medical Vans Front Page in Pharmacy Today

The front page of the June issue of Pharmacy Today features Project Renewal’s medical vans in glowing terms. Check out this excerpt of the interview with van Pharmacist John Conry, PharmD, BCPS, AAHIVP:

“The urban homeless population faces numerous obstacles that hinder its ability to effectively receive the appropriate health care, even in the safety net,” Conry says. These obstacles can include the lack of financial resources, lack of stable housing, social isolation stemming from prior physical or sexual abuse, social stigma, literacy and health literacy issues, and language barriers. Even the forms to get Medicaid are tough.

Imagine being on the streets and really being challenged by these issues in the application process. It really becomes unbearable for many of the patients, so they just give up.

Second, the lack of housing leads to a variety of medication issues such as proper medication storage, rules on medication carrying and storage at homeless shelters or other structured living environments, proper medication administration, proper medication monitoring, and adherence issues.

Lack of stable housing is recognized as a risk factor for medication nonadherence. So we have to be really careful in terms of educating our patients on the importance of taking their medications exactly as prescribed, using language that they can understand.

Conry added that his patients who are homeless are very interested in their medications, contrary to what many people believe about this population. His patients “sincerely appreciate the counseling sessions and disease state education.”

I hear from my students every single month. … They’ll say, wow, these patients really listen to me. They’re talking to me. They’re engaged. They’re not just there to grab their medicine and go home.

…

When I say the health care system has forgotten the uninsured and homeless, I’m particularly concerned with the general lack of ready access to primary and preventive care medicine and services. By no means do I intend to blame these problems on the already overwhelmed hospitals and the dedicated professionals who work there. But I do question the logic of a health care system that lets some of its most vulnerable patients proceed without proper care and follow-up.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL-TEXT PDF

John Conry, PharmD, BCPS, AAHIVP is an Associate Clinical Professor and the Assistant Dean for Service Programs at St. John’s University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Queens, NY, Conry splits his time between teaching, administrative responsibilities, and university committees; and practicing on the Project Renewal medical vans and at an HIV clinic within the shelters, often with student pharmacists on rotation. His work with Project Renewal is fully funded by St. John’s University. 

Trailblazing Housing Model Wins Support

Thanks in part to advocacy by our staff and clients who journeyed to Albany, an important new NY State initiative will get off the ground and help thousands get on their feet again. The Supportive Housing Development Program apportions $60 million for services, housing subsidies, and capital dollars for new housing as part of the Medicaid Redesign. Project Renewal pioneered supportive housing to combat the disconnected stream of expensive services that left the hardest-to-reach homeless isolated and stuck. This comprehensive model supports the struggling and vulnerable with housing, services, and job support in a community environment.

Learn more details of the program from the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH)