The NYC Department of Homeless Services will be expanding its homelessness prevention program “HomeBase” citywide. HomeBase currently serves families and individuals in six high need communities (the South Bronx, East Tremont, Bedford Stuyvesant, Bushwick, East Harlem and Jamaica) who are at risk of becoming homeless, by helping them overcome their housing crisis – before they need to seek shelter. The program’s services include family and landlord mediation, job training, entitlements advocacy, housing relocation and legal and financial assistance. Since its inception in September 2004, the program has served over 6,300 families and individuals with 94% having remained in homes and out of shelter. The program has also served over 8,200 children, helping to stabilize their families within their own communities and prevent children from experiencing the trauma of shelter.

“On any given night, approximately 35,000 individuals are sleeping in the City’s shelters and that’s a tragedy,” said DHS Commissioner Robert V. Hess. “We believe by focusing on the causes of homelessness within each community, we can prevent it. With the expansion of the HomeBase program, more families and individuals will stay in their own homes.”

The prevention services will include:

• identification and resolution of housing problems in the community to avert shelter entry
• diversion of shelter applicants, during the shelter application process, by helping them return to stable living environments within their respective communities
• aftercare services for families and individuals who move out of shelter to prevent re-entry into shelter.

While demand for family shelter in non-HomeBase neighborhoods has increased 20% since 2004, demand in HomeBase communities has risen at less than half that rate as compared to 2004. HomeBase is a part of Mayor Bloomberg’s five-year action plan, Uniting for Solutions Beyond Shelter, to reduce the number of individuals living on the streets and in shelters by two-thirds by 2009. The program has been recognized as a national model and was named a finalist in Harvard University’s Innovations in Government Award in 2006.

HomeBase’s citywide expansion is scheduled to begin on July 1, 2007. Three year contracts will be awarded to providers who responded and were chosen from a NYC Competitive Sealed Proposals process.