April 27, 2023 • 58 mins
In this month's episode, we sit down with Maureen Abbott, Executive Director of Tioga Opportunities, Inc.; Danielle Harrington, CEO of Tompkins Community Action; and Michele McKeon & Charlie Quinn, the Chief Operating Officer & Executive Director of RECAP. Listen to Maureen, Danielle, Michele & Charlie speak about the housing needs in their communities, finding innovative solutions to address these needs, building sustainable housing programs, and more!
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Episode Transcript
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Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (00:15):
Hello and welcome to Lights, Camera,
Community Action, a podcastbrought to you by The New York
State Community ActionAssociation, or NYSCAA for
short. My name is Heidi Barcomb,Program and Communications
Director for NYSCAA. NYSCAA isthe State Association for New
York's Community ActionAgencies, commonly known as
CAAs. NYSCAA’s mission is tostrengthen the capacity of the
(00:37):
Community Action Network toaddress the causes and
conditions of poverty. NYSCAAwas created in 1987 to provide
CAAs in New York withprofessional development
opportunities, training, andtechnical assistance. NYSCAA is
the hub that brings togetherCommunity Action Agencies in New
York to network, share successesand challenges, and strategize
(00:58):
to meet the needs of vulnerableNew Yorkers. A community Action
Agency or CAA is a localorganization with the mission of
reducing poverty through locallydesigned and delivered programs
and services targeted to thespecific needs of their
community. The 47 CAAs in NewYork form a statewide service
delivery system that connectsindividuals and families to the
(01:21):
services they need to achieveeconomic status. When it comes
to moving folks from poverty toself-sufficiency, Community
Action Agencies know what works.Let's now introduce our guests.
Maureen, can we start with you?
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (01:34):
Sure! I'm Maureen Abbott. I'm the
Executive Director at TiogaOpportunities. And I've been the
Executive Director for almosteight years. And I've been in
Community Action forthirty-three years. Thanks for
having me.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (01:54):
Thanks for being here, Maureen.
Charlie, can you introduceyourself?
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (01:57):
I'm Charlie Quinn. I'm the CEO of
RECAP, the Regional EconomicCommunity Action Program in
Orange County. I've been CEO forseven years and with Community
Action for about 13 years.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (02:10):
Thanks for being here. Michelle, will
you introduce yourself?
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (02:15):
Hi, everybody. I'm Michelle McKeon.
I'm the Chief Operating Officerof the Regional Economic
Community Action Program,otherwise known as RECAP, and I
have been here for seven years.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (02:24):
And we appreciate your time with us
today. Danielle, will youintroduce yourself?
Danielle Harrington, Tompkins Community Action (02:28):
Sure. Hi, I'm Danielle Harrington,
Executive Director at TompkinsCommunity Action. I've been
Executive Director for a littleover a year, and I have 20 years
as the Housing Director atTompkins Community Action.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (02:41):
Excellent! So, we have a lot of great experience with us here today. And I want to start off by just kind of asking people, what does the affordable housing look like in your communities? Can you tell us a little bit about that? Who wants to go first?
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (02:56):
Well, I think we need to start with.
What do you mean by affordableand affordable to whom? There
are different types of housingin the communities. Some are
called Low-Income Tax Creditprojects that are funded with
IRS money. But you need to havea minimum income to get into
(03:17):
those projects. So, a lot ofpeople are not qualified. Their
income is too low to get intothose types of affordable
housing. In Orange County, inaddition to the Low-Income Tax
Credit projects, we have a lotof HUD-funded projects for
(03:37):
people who are literallyhomeless by HUD definition and
have a disability. In ouragency, it's often alcoholism or
substance use disorder, housingfor veterans, and also folks
with AIDS and HIV-relatedillnesses.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (03:59):
Well, living in Tioga County, I kind
of have to chuckle a little bitbecause our housing situation is
so so desperate in regard tothat affordability. And, you
know, we are rural. There aren'ta lot of vibrant community
centers in our county. Lots ofdeteriorating housing, older
(04:25):
housing stock, and just theavailability of any quality
affordable housing is few andfar between. Especially the more
rural you go, the harder it isto find quality, affordable
housing. So, it's a huge, it's ahuge issue. And it's one that
doesn't have easy answers. And,you know, I think we a little
(04:48):
bit later we'll talk aboutstrategies and stuff, but we
just don't have a lot of newdevelopment. We don't have a lot
of potential developers comingin for a whole host of reasons
which I'll do talk about later.But it's just a major, major
issue for many people, not justlow income, but more so that
(05:10):
worker, you know, ALICE familythat is working and trying to
put money aside for, you know,potentially buying a home. It's
just, it's just, it's not a goodsituation.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (05:24):
Maureen, I just want to ask real quick
because I think a lot of peoplelistening may not know. Can you
give us a brief explanation ofwhat ALICE is?
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (05:33):
Sure, I apologize. I should have
clarified. So, ALICE refers toAsset Limited, Income
Constrained, Employed. These areindividuals who are households
that are working but are stillunable to meet the basic needs
for their families. So, theydon't have a living wage
(05:55):
necessarily. They might even beworking two or three jobs and
still unable to meet those basicneeds. They're not at the
poverty level. But still notmeeting those basic needs of
shelter, food, health care, allof those things.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (06:10):
Thanks for that explanation. So let me
ask then, how did you becomeaware of the need for housing
supports in your or housingsolutions within your
communities?
Danielle Harrington, Tompkins Community Action (06:26):
I can speak a little bit about
Tompkins County. Just quicklytouching back on what it looks
like in Tompkins County, we needhousing units, 1000s, in each
income bracket in our community.We have the city hub of Ithaca,
and then the rest is rural,sprawling. We’re looking at old
(06:49):
housing stock, mobile, homeparks, no transportation out
into those rural areas, one busa day, Monday through Friday.
And that's really where ourlow-income folks are even more
marginalized. Our rent pricesrival those of Manhattan without
(07:09):
all of the services, we haveextremely high rents driven up
by Ithaca College and CornellUniversity, which also sucks up
a lot of cities’ housing units,further pushing our folks out.
We have a wicked low vacancyrate where the units are already
(07:33):
full before the person movesout. So generally, less than 4%
all the time. The pandemic madethat even worse. And a lot of
our landlords sold offproperties and got out of the
rental game during the evictionmoratorium. How did I become
aware that the housing neededwas so great? When I started as
(07:54):
a section eight caseworker inearly 2000, we were running into
families who were eligible afterthey waited three years for a
voucher and then couldn't find aplace to use the voucher and had
to go back on the waiting listbecause there was no housing
available. And I was able towork under a really great
(08:15):
executive director who did allkinds of creative and innovative
programs that I'll talk aboutlater.
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (08:22):
I think understanding the awareness is
how connected you are to yourcommunity. So, it's the phone
calls that you get, it's the,you're sitting around at a
housing meeting, and someonesays, hey, does anybody have any
housing? And part of it is amacro view of the housing that's
(08:45):
being built to Charlie's pointearlier, which is connected to
something else. So if you arestruggling with substance use
disorder, if you are living withHIV and AIDS, there are housing
use available, if there if youwere a veteran, if you are a
senior, but when you're talkingabout an Alice family, or even
(09:07):
an individual's low income,hitting that, you know, magic
$412 a month from Department ofSocial Services, there's nothing
for those families. And if thereis, it's not somewhere you would
ever want to live. Because whenwe talk about what the housing
stock looks like, not only is itnot readily available because
(09:32):
everything has people in italready, but it is not good
quality, healthy housing stock.So engaging municipalities
around the need for housing andthen the need for code enforcers
to make sure that those housingunits are safe to live in is an
(09:53):
ongoing battle. I think for manyof the places that we're talking
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (09:57):
Uh, you know, I'll certainly jump in
about.
and just talk a little bit aboutsome of the unique issues here
in Tioga County. So, in 2018, weco-collaborated on a pretty
comprehensive housing study. Youknow, we all would sit around
tables and talk about housingissues, but we really wanted to
(10:19):
do a deep dive into what wasreally going on and where was
the greatest need. So, togetherwith the County Economic
Development, and the County IDA,we funded this study, and it was
interesting because of wherewe're located along the
Susquehanna River. Environmentalfactors and national disasters
(10:41):
have really impacted ourhousing. The floods of 2006 and
2011, in particular, justdecimated the village of Owego,
Waverly, Nichols. And it createda huge issue in that it, you
know, it disseminated anyavailability of safe, affordable
(11:04):
housing for that population thatMichelle was just talking about.
So, the affected properties werebought up by out-of-town
landlords, and they came in andbought these for next to
nothing, put very little moneyinto the repairs, and then
rented them. And, unfortunately,these were the only properties
(11:25):
that a lot of these familiescould afford, particularly in
the village of Owego, because wealso have no transportation
throughout the county or limitedtransportation. You know,
families would gravitate moretowards those, the villages
where there were a few moreservices. So, the amount of
blighted housing was incredibly,I just couldn't believe it, when
(11:51):
I moved here and began to lookat this vibrant community center
in this downtown area, and twoblocks either way, you know, you
were looking at extremelyblighted housing. So that was a
key contributor and a key factorin our involvement in the other
was really the economicdevelopment aspect of this. And
(12:13):
really what got us involved inregard to, you know, quality,
affordable housing being veryclosely linked to the
recruitment and retention of aworkforce, we have the
86-corridor run right throughour County. Economic
Development, the County EconomicDevelopment has been very
successful in recruitingbusinesses; we have crown core
(12:35):
conceal, of course, Tioga Downs,Best Buy warehouse, and CVS
warehouse. And yet, we have verylittle acceptable worker housing
in our in our county, whichmeans a lot of people are having
to; they live outside the areaand are driving in. And so, from
that perspective, we realizedthat this had to be one of the
(12:57):
strategies that we were going tofocus on decent, affordable
worker housing so that we couldbegin to attract young families
into our community. And kind ofthe last piece of this, and then
I'll be quiet, it was ourincreased aging population. So,
as we all know, older adults areliving a lot longer; they’re
(13:17):
remaining in their homes a lotlonger. And, you know, the
65-plus population in our countyis projected to grow like 22%,
and the 85-plus population at31% growth. And at the same
time, we're losing workers, youknow, in that age group of,
like, 25 to 60. With that, youknow, the out-migration of that
(13:39):
working-age population. So, youknow, it's a multi-dimensional
challenge, but all of that kindof contributing to this
depletion. And then you add inthe, you know, the code
enforcement issues and themunicipalities, you know, and
then and then the overarchingissue is the local resistance to
any type of new development forlow-income housing, which is a
(14:01):
whole other podcast, but, youknow, it needs to be, you know,
a part of this conversation aswell. So that's how I became
aware of all the issues in ourcounty.¬¬
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (14:13):
Maureen, I don't think you should ever be
quiet. But it's not justresistance to new projects.
There is resistance to existinghousing for people with low
incomes. Two of ourmunicipalities in Orange County
took affirmative steps to makeit more difficult. In the City
(14:36):
of Newburgh, code enforcementofficials actually issue
violations to tenants now,rather than landlords. And in
the City of Middletown, they nowrequire background checks for
renters. The landlord has to geta background check both economic
and criminal before they canrent it to a person.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (14:59):
Yep, and then we're dealing with
zoning, zoning issues too. And alittle bit later, I can talk
about a, you know, a projectthat we were highly excited
about with a public-privatepartnership with the
neighborhood housing here inTioga County. And you know, it
was just a, the localmunicipalities zoning board and
(15:24):
village board just stood fastand just fought us every step of
the way. So, but we'll get intothat later, I'm sure.
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (15:31):
Well, and this is Michelle from RECAP,
but I think what also talks toour good poor and the bad poor,
and whom are we choosing tohelp, right? So, if we need
housing for seniors, great, aslong as they're not too poor,
right? If we need housing forveterans, everybody applauds
housing for veterans, right? Butwhen we talk about other
(15:54):
populations, the parole re-entrypopulation, the substance use
disorder population, right?That's when we have that
conversation about, well, wewill have these folks in our
community, but not those folks.RECAP runs a pro-reentry
program, and Charlie and I wentto talk to the municipality
about building on land wealready own and to put together
(16:18):
a project for, you know,women-headed households in the
City of Newburgh, which has apoverty rate of about 57%. And
the question that we were askedby the mayor was, what are you
doing about all the parolees whoare dumped here? serving them? I
don't know. We're not dumpingthem here. We're serving them
when they get here. So, youknow, unless we continue to
(16:43):
battle the myths andmisperceptions about housing and
who deserves housing. We have alot. We have a lot of work to do
around the need for housing forall, not just the people who we
think deserve housing, but foreverybody.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (17:03):
Yeah, this is Maureen again. And yeah,
absolutely. You hit the nailright on the head. And you know,
the only new development thathas gone, that has been
happening here has been seniorhousing, which is a need for
sure. But we don't get the samepushback as we do for other
types, whether it's low-income,reentry, or any of those things
(17:25):
that are just off the table. Imean, it's a done deal before we
even get, we get going. So yes,a lot of work to do in that
area.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (17:35):
Can you talk to me, or talk to us a
little bit about the work thatyou are doing to address those
needs? And maybe you Danielle,you can give us some ideas?
Danielle Harrington, Tompkins Community Action (17:47):
Oh, sure. So, at Tompkins Community
Action, we have rentalassistance programs, the section
eight Housing Choice VoucherProgram, and some other smaller
programs. We work with Ithacaneighborhood housing; Maureen
mentioned them. They do theLow-Income Tax Credit projects
(18:08):
in our area and are a nicelocation for our voucher
holders, to get housing in townclose to town. Alongside that
voucher program, we havesomething called tenant-based
rental assistance that we getfunding from New York State
Homes and Community Renewal,their home funding. We target
(18:30):
people experiencing homelessnessand the unhoused for that
funding. We work with our localcontinuum of care and prioritize
the most vulnerable to be servedwith that rental assistance plus
a staff person. We don't like touse the words case worker or
case manager. So, we have aspecialist that works with them
(18:54):
to find housing that works,that's safe and not
deteriorated, passes aninspection, and do some
life-building skill set. Youknow, the trash goes out, the
lease compliance, building thatstability piece and relationship
with the landlord. So, when theycome to the top of that section
(19:14):
eight Housing Choice VoucherProgram waiting list, they don't
have to move again. And they cancontinue that stability right
there. We've been reallysuccessful with that program. We
were just awarded anothertwo-and-a-half-year contract for
that. So that's a little piecein the continuum. And then our
bigger impact, I think, is withour HUD-funded and State funded
(19:40):
homeless housing programs. Wehave 55 units that we own
ourselves and then an additional40 units that we do supportive
services with youth, with ourEmpire State supportive housing
initiative funds. And then wehave another forty units of
(20:00):
supportive services fundsplanned for a chronically
homeless in the very central hubof the city of Ithaca on Green
Street, right next to city hallright across from Tompkins
County Mental Health building.That's coming online in early
2024. And then we just try tofind little pockets of funding
(20:22):
where we can meet needs and helpnavigate systems for people. And
we try to keep everythingperson-centered so that it
works. It's not a one size fitsall in any of our programs. We
do the trauma-informed carehousing first model. Housing
First is not popular in anycommunity, from what we can tell
(20:46):
from our own experience, but itreally works. But we've had to
kind of navigate new systems andcreate new partnerships in the
community to kind of meet theneeds that our homeless
population has exponentiallygrown in the last couple of
years. So that's kind of whereour niche is, and the permanent
(21:06):
supportive housing and we justkeep building on that with our
partners.
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (21:13):
Danielle, this is Michelle, from RECAP, I
have a question or a comment,I'm actually not sure where it
is in my head. But when we lookat, because we are also part of
our continuum of care down here,when we look at housing the most
vulnerable, I think that'sobviously right. But what
happens then to the folks whoare just holding on, right, and
(21:35):
they need some housing support?And I guess this is more of a
macro conversation that if we'renot, we're so good at
intervention on all things.We're not as great as
prevention, right? So, if wehave the family, the ALICE
family that Maureen was talkingabout, and they're holding on,
(21:58):
and they're barely making endsmeet, but they don't necessarily
qualify for any of our housing.It's almost as if we've set it
up where they have to then loseeverything in order to be
eligible for anything, oranything meaningful. So, you
know, I know this is not theanswer to Heidi's question. But
(22:21):
how do we design a system wherewe're catching people before
they're living in their car,right, or heading to a homeless
shelter? Because we do, thereare those moments where we get
the call that says, my landlordjust called they sold the
building, and I have 30 days toget out. I work two full-time
(22:43):
jobs, I make $40,000 a year, andI have two kids, where can I get
housing help? And the answer,almost 100% of the time is
nowhere. Where do we start thatconversation running
concurrently with creatinghousing for those who are most
(23:03):
vulnerable? Because if not,we're just growing our most
vulnerable populations.
Danielle Harrington, Tompkins Community Action (23:07):
Right, right. And I can speak a little
bit to that. We've acknowledgedthat as a big issue in our
community, just like everybodyelse. And our continuum of care
has started identifying pathwaysof prevention and diversion from
the shelter system. However,there's not, we don't have a
(23:30):
steady stream of funding forthat in Tompkins County, we have
little pieces that we're tryingto do the best. And we're really
trying to build in thosenavigation support people so
that when you get into yourhousing issue, you get that
notice, and you don't havesection eight, because
basically, no one can afford tolive in rental housing in
(23:53):
Tompkins County without somesort of assistance. And so,
we're trying to navigate that,we're doing a bunch of studies,
there's all this data, butthere's not really any dollars
yet to back up how to handlethat. But I completely agree
that we're just adding to thepipeline, as we're triaging for
the most vulnerable. And we havehad a lot of development in
(24:19):
Tompkins County of new housingunits. And we are still waiting
for that. Like we keep saying,oh, this will be the project
that opens for our low-incomefamilies, and it doesn't seem to
be happening yet. And what Ithink is happening is the folks
that have moved away from thearea that are still working in
Tompkins County are moving backin to fill those units before
(24:41):
the list moves for anybody else.So, I think that probably is
happening in Tioga County, too.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (24:47):
Yeah, it is for sure. You know, we
operate the section eightHousing Choice Voucher Program
as well. And, you know, I thinkMichelle brings up an
interesting point and, you know,when you look at programs like
section eight, it can be alifelong, you know, voucher, so
we've infused our financialsocial work with all of our
(25:09):
section eight families. And wetry to kind of interject in, you
know, in with the, you know,just the acceptance of the
voucher that, you know, what areyour long-term goals and what,
you know, what, what is it thatyou want to achieve, and, you
know, really trying to help themdevelop a plan that goes beyond
(25:30):
just a subsidized housing, youknow, thinking about that
continuum, and moving forward,and we've had some good success
with that, which has taken sometime to kind of get it going,
but it is, but it is working.You know, we also operate 137
units of senior housing throughrural development. And that
(25:54):
brings certain challenges alongwith it as well. But probably
senior housing, as I said, isthe only real new development
that we've seen, but what we'rekind of focusing on right now is
the idea of acquiring and thenrehabbing single-family and
maybe two to four-family homes,for either rentals or for sale
(26:20):
to first-time homebuyers. So,you know, the issue with seniors
living longer in our countymeans that, you know, their
houses, when they either moveinto long-term care or that
house is sold, it's oftentimesin great disrepair, it's, it's
(26:43):
older, it has a lot of olderparts and in need of much rehab.
So we decided that we are goingto kind of focus in that area,
you know, the development pieceis a little beyond our means at
this particular point in time,especially with what we're,
we've been dealing with in termsof the local resistance, but we
(27:03):
have a subsidiary that we formedcalled the Southern Tier
enterprise group, which is goingto house all of our social
enterprises. And it'll allow usto do some creative types of
things in housing. So, we'relooking, we're working with a
land bank currently, and we'relooking at acquiring some
properties through taxforeclosure and rehabbing them.
(27:27):
And then we have some of oursection eight people in the
pipeline for first-timehomebuyers. So hopefully, they
would be able to get into someof these properties and get, you
know, have them acquire thatasset and become a home or a
homeowner. So, you know, we kindof just decided that was a
better route for us to go, andthen use the money from a sale
(27:51):
to reinvest again into anotherproperty and just keep, you
know, kind of chugging alongone, one neighborhood at a time.
So.
Danielle Harrington, Tompkins Community Action (27:59):
Thank you so much. Those sound-like
(29:14):
fantastic programs. I just wantto back up for one second about
(30:44):
a philosophy that a few of youmentioned, and I think that it's
worth really talking aboutbecause I think if you don't
work with unhoused people, youmay not be aware of this. This
(31:06):
concept and that's the conceptof housing first. So, will one
of you talk about a little thata little bit about that, and how
you have seen that shift? If ithas shifted your work and the
(31:30):
people, the benefits it has onthe people that you are
providing services for?
of challenges.
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (31:50):
And housing first describes the way
we operate as agencies and theway we operate our programs. But
it's something that needs to goout to the larger community. We
have an incredible person inOrange County, she led the
federally qualified health careprogram for decades, and Linda
would walk around anywhere shewent like she had Tourette’s,
(32:14):
health care is a right, not aprivilege. And we need to get
people saying the same thingabout housing. Going back to
what Michelle said before, thereare certain people we'd like to
house and other people that wedon't, it's got to be universal.
It's got to be for everyone.That's got to be right.
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (32:31):
And as we continue to, you know, look
into the future regardingservices and our communities. If
we are not addressing housing,we're not addressing social
determinants of health. We arenot increasing health outcomes
for individuals and families.And that is part of the mandate
(32:52):
that the State is looking atnow, right? So, how are we
creating pathways to health, notjust medical health, but
emotional health, spiritualhealth, and housing is one of
those first steps. Stable,affordable, quality housing is
one of those things if you areunhoused, your ability to have
(33:18):
safe, nutritious food islowered, and access to health
care is lowered. We have a womanwho lives in the parking lot of
our rec center in the City ofNewburgh. She is a super adult,
right, somebody over 65. She'sprobably over 75. She's
(33:38):
terrified to be a woman in ahomeless shelter. So, she lives
in her car. And for the mostpart, her community takes care
of her, right? We make sure shehas food. And, Danielle, I think
you're the one who said youdon't just take somebody, and
you drop them off, right? It's aprocess. It's engagement, it's
creating relationships. We'veasked her if she wanted an
(34:01):
apartment, connecting her to theoffice of the aging, and we
bring her food that she canmanage in her car. But she has
no interest in entering a systemthat is unsafe for her. So, her
health outcomes over time aregoing to be less because we've
(34:22):
created systems that don't allowfor the addressing of stability
first without doing all of theother things. I think housing
first needs to be the model thatleads the way but housing in
general should be the thing thatwe're focused on because if you
are one of the 250 families inOrange County, living in hotels
(34:44):
this week, your school isprobably not going to be
consistent, food is not going tobe consistent, transportation is
probably not there. So, how arewe actually completing our
missions, if so many of thesystems that the people that we
serve are attached to, don't setthem up for success? If you have
(35:07):
a wheel and all of the spokesare working together, you have a
functioning wheel. But if onlythe center and the center being
Community Action is working, andall of the other spokes are
throwing barriers andchallenges, and we have
different requirements, we can'tdo our job to create the best
(35:28):
outcomes for the people that weserve. We can't do it all by
ourselves, even though we wouldlike to think we can.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (35:34):
I really appreciate those, those
explanations about the housingfirst philosophy and approach,
how did you decide to design andstructure the program set you
have?
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (35:50):
This is Maureen from Tioga again. I
think for us, it was once wereally kind of got a handle, or
I got a handle on, on what washappening around us, you know,
there are so many issues and somany things we, as Michelle
said, we can't, we can't do itall. So, I think we had to find
in partnership with others whatour niche would be and be and
(36:11):
build off our strengths and ourown agency capacity to be
effective, and to be able tomake an impact in our
communities. So, you know, wedabbled in the partnership, you
know, trying to get newdevelopment. And as I stated
earlier, that didn't happen. So,you know, we kind of landed on
this, you know, this overallneighborhood revitalization
(36:34):
strategy. And, you know,focusing on that the acquisition
and the rehab, and the resell,as opposed to really kind of
focusing on the new development,will certainly partner with any
private, you know, a developerthat comes in or anything a
neighborhood housing orwhatever, but we just, we just
can't, we can't do that rightnow on by ourselves. So, you
(36:57):
know, and what really, the otherthing that really kind of pushed
us in that direction was therealization that middle-income
buying power for families, inthis area is between 90,000 and
1200, and 130,000. And therejust aren't a lot of properties
for sale that don't need another30 to $50,000 worth of work, you
(37:19):
know, done. So, the ability forus to purchase low, rehab, and
then sell within that 90 to 125$130 range is going to meet a
need that just doesn't existwith and, you know, to be able
to buy a property with little orno repair and updating needed
will certainly, you know, meet ahuge need. So, I think that's
(37:40):
kind of how we landed on thisparticular strategy. Now, with
that said, we are, you know,looking at potentially some more
senior housing, not big, bigdevelopments, but more like, you
know, townhouse-type situationsin some of the more rural areas
of the county. But yeah, I thinkthat you know, we just decided
(38:03):
we were going to build off ourstrengths. And, you know,
because we have, you know, wehave a lot of, you know, rehab
type grants and a lot ofexpertise in that area, and good
relationships with localcontractors and stuff. We just
felt that was a better avenuefor us. And so that's why we're
going in that direction.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (38:23):
And Maureen and Danielle, you both
mentioned, having partnershipsand collaborations that have
helped to build these programs.And I know that community action
agencies do a great job of doingthat in their communities,
building networks andpartnerships to meet the needs.
But can you talk a little bitabout what some of those
(38:43):
partnerships and collaborationsare that you've built and that
have been successful?
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (38:49):
Danielle, you want to go?
Danielle Harrington, Tompkins Community Action (38:52):
We’ve become the permanent housing
supportive services go-to forour community. So, we've had to
say yes and no to some differentprojects based on our own
capacity. But what we have doneand what we're doing well, is we
are partnering with Vecino whichis a development company. And
(39:15):
Cornerstone property management,which is the property management
company for our newest projectat art house. We've had to
connect with some differentcommunity partners, we have
reached medical which is a harmreduction model of health
services, both physical andmental health. We've contracted
(39:37):
with them to come on-site for usweekly. Kind of like an
open-door mental health piece,where our residents who are
between 18 and 25 can just walkin and have a doughnut with Al
and talk about life and then golong their day without having to
(39:57):
jump through all of the hoopsand all kinds of things. And
that is something that we planto continue at our other housing
sites. We've also brought ourfood pantry into a delivery
system. So, our food pantry goesto that housing project. Here,
(40:18):
we've had to have some creativesolutions, you know, a lot of
people whom I have worked withover the years have left for
different positions, its newstaff coming in with new ideas.
Let's try this. And thankfully,Ithaca is a community where we
do a lot of let's try this andsee what happens and take the
(40:39):
pieces that are good and keepmoving them forward, we have a
really strong continuum of care.And we play a big enough role in
all of the committee's we kindof have our fingers and
everything and pull our partnersthat way. And then linking our
housing programs to ourHeadstart programs and
(41:00):
encompassing the families inthat way to kind of being our
own partner. We're the sameagency, different departments
sometimes that that can kind offeel like different
organizations from time to time.But I think that that piece was
the kids living at a Michihouse, walking across the
(41:21):
parking lot to go to theirHeadstart, childcare center,
while their parents go to GEDclass, or to work or go
volunteer at our food pantry,you know, creates a nice little
community, and nobody has to getin a car and do anything. So, I
think there are a lot ofbenefits to our campus. So, I
(41:43):
think that's, that's what Iwould say about that.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (41:47):
Yeah, I wish we had some of that, you
know, going on in our community,some of that more
open-mindedness in terms of someof these projects. But you know,
again, I mentioned earlier, thepartnering with our land bank
type, County Land Bank, TiogaCounty Economic Development, and
(42:08):
then private developers, Arborhousing, two plus four, Ithaca
neighborhood housing, doing alot of strategies around
neighborhood revitalization withthem, and then, you know, really
building relationships withmunicipalities, you know, and
when I say buildingrelationships, I mean, putting
the time in to really get toknow the elected officials and
(42:32):
having them get to know us andwhat we represent and trying to
bridge that cultural gap betweenthe old entitlement while
everybody wants a handout versuswe want them to buy a home and
become taxpayers and participatein, you know, the, you know, the
village, you know, villagepolitics or school or whatever.
(42:56):
And that is, you know, that'staken time. But we've been, you
know, we've been successful withthat. We're looking at a few
properties now in Waverly thathave huge issues, some trending
stuff with their use that aretroublesome, troublesome. And I
think that getting in there anddoing some more work will be a
great help. But yeah, that'skind of like I said, building
(43:17):
off our strengths, who we'vebeen partnering. We do work with
a continuum as well. It's basedout of Broome and I, sometimes I
feel like Tioga County is, youknow, forgotten about and a lot
of resources, go to BroomeCounty and some of the
surrounding counties. But we arethere, and we try to be as vocal
(43:40):
as we can be about what ourneeds are. So those are the
majority of our partners.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (43:47):
Thank you, Charlie and Michelle, do
you have anything that you wantto add to that piece about
collaborations and partnerships?
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (43:56):
Orange County and it's not just the
Community Action Agency. OrangeCounty is incredible with the
partnerships that are down here.There's an organization called
JMHCA. It's like-mindedagencies. We meet monthly to
discuss what the needs of thecounty are and what individual
(44:20):
agencies are doing to addressthem. So, it's a pretty tight,
not-for-profit community and thecounty participates, and the
municipalities participate. It'snot perfect, it,'s not Eden. But
we've taken the approach at acounty level that is all about
(44:41):
partnerships. Our COC continuumof care. There are six housing
providers in it, but lots ofnot-for-profit agencies,
municipalities, and privategroups are part of it,
contributing to making sure thatthe people we house get the
services they need, and that theneeds, that the other agencies
(45:06):
are seeing, making sure thatthey are being addressed.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (45:12):
So that leads me to wonder, what impact
have you seen on yourcommunities as you've been
addressing the housingchallenges that you have there?
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (45:25):
This is Michelle from RECAP. I think, in
some ways, the impact isincremental, and in other ways
it, you know, it leaps andbounds. I think until we move,
there's a lot of othering, rightin this work, and it's them and
(45:46):
those of us right, that that'show we hear about the work that
we do, well, we want to helpthose people, or we want to do
things for those people. So,when something happens, it feels
wonderful. But when you look atit, it's really not as impactful
(46:07):
as, as you would like, you know,we are built for public-private
partnerships. And, you know, we,we oftentimes find ourselves
running into the walls, tryingto get them with public partners
who maybe have a differentphilosophy than we do about the
helping of others. And I thinkthat impact on one person is
(46:36):
impact on a community. Andthat's a good thing, right? One
less person unhoused, onehealthier family, one more
person in recovery. All of thosethings are impactful for those
people, right, those individualsor families. I think the impact,
(46:57):
we will see a true impact whenour municipalities come to us
and say, we need this, and weneed you to do it., right? I
don't think that happens asoften as we would like or we
would need it to, you know, weCharlie's talking about JMHCA.
(47:18):
You know, we have a letter fromJMHCA to our county executive to
say, hey, we have a lot of ARMAmoney. And there are communities
around us using that ARMA moneyfor housing. Could you do
something like that here, too,right? So, the impact would be
oh, yeah, sure. Let's take,instead of a $20 million
(47:41):
infrastructure project, let's doa $15 million infrastructure,
but 5.5 million to housing.Those are the partnerships that
have an impact. Those are thethings that change systems,
change thoughts, and changeminds about them, and us. And
when we start when we stop,othering, folks and realize,
(48:04):
many of us are many of ourstaff, or many of our families
are one or two paychecks awayfrom being them, how do we
change the mindset of people whohave the power to create the
larger impact? We have the powerto make an impact on the work
(48:25):
that we do. We need bold peopleto take bold ideas and implement
them. So, our impact is feltacross systems and across
generations, so that people withlow income can improve their
self-sufficiency and increasethat so we can meet our missions
and create healthiercommunities.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (48:47):
Well, this is Maureen again, I'll just
share a quick story. So, aboutfour years ago, three years ago,
I can't remember the village ofOwego was awarded a $10 million
DRI grant. And so, through ourpartnership with economic
development, we meaning TiogaOpportunities was encouraged to
(49:11):
put in an application for thismixed-income housing project,
literally two blocks off themain drag, which would lend
itself to a lot of things lenditself to not only just meeting
the needs of, of housing needs,but also addressing some other
(49:32):
needs. So anyway, we said sure,we would love to, so we spent a
lot of time putting thistogether. I sat in on the
revitalization processcommittee, whatever. Only then
to be one of the only programsthat was not funded in the DRI.
It was the most popular proposalwhen we had to hold the
(49:59):
community forums, people spokehighly in the community. But the
process was interesting in thatproposals for an art Park and
lighting on one side of thevillage. And, you know, there
(50:20):
were a lot of things that werefunded that how do I say this?
Were like pet projects, I thinkof some of the elected
officials, you know, so I knewearly on in the process that it
probably wasn’t going to happen.But it was so indicative, I
think of what, you know, smallrural counties are up against.
(50:40):
And it really kind of took thewind out of our sails. And I
think that was also part andparcel to us shifting gears and
moving more towards theacquisition and the rehab, and,
you know, the resale of housesand renting of houses. So, it
was very frustrating. So thatwas not a good impact. But it
(51:01):
had an impact in regard to usreally understanding what we
were up against.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (51:05):
And Maureen and Michelle, you both
make comments that sort of makeme want to ask this question or
make me wonder, you know,Michelle, you talked about
needing bold ideas. And Maureen,you had a great project that
just wasn't funded,unfortunately. So, I'm curious
(51:26):
if I could maybe wave my magicwand, and funding was no longer
an issue. And I know you guyshave answers to this on the tip
of your tongue, right? Youprobably think about this all
the time. If funding wasn't theissue, what program would you
want to create to help those whoare unhoused in your community?
(51:47):
And what services?
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (51:49):
Supportive housing is huge, you know, we've
talked about that all, you know,throughout this, the need for
you know, individuals coming outof substance abuse rehab
programs needing assistance withthat transition, you know, the
reentry. I mean, homelessshelters, there's one homeless
shelter that's run by the YWCAin Binghamton, between Broome
(52:14):
County and Tiger County, onewoman shelter. Which is always
full and it's hard when we havepeople that we, you know, that
we become aware of because weknow probably, they're not going
to get a space there. So yeah,you know, there's all those
things on top of a, you know, awhole bunch of others. But those
(52:34):
are huge needs here.
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (52:36):
And I know the topic of the day is housing.
And I don't mean to underminethe importance of housing for
where we are right now. But ifmoney is no object, and we're
granting wishes, let's paypeople what they need to, to
live, to live in comfortablehousing, decent housing, and put
(53:01):
my agency out of business, I'dbe glad that happened. We as a
society are to content with asystem that keeps generating
people who live in poverty.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (53:14):
And I think transportation for rural
counties is a huge issue thatrelates to everything, you know,
how to access housing, work,jobs, you know, all of those
things. And, you know, we Idon't know, I mean, if, again,
if money was no object, I think,to be able to address that would
be a key item as well.
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (53:35):
Childcare, Childcare. You know, how many
articles have I read in thelast, you know, three months
about, you know, women being hitparticularly hard returning to
the workforce, because theycan't find safe, affordable,
quality daycare, and not justthat follows the school
schedule, right? You know, whatabout weekends? What about
evenings? What about overnights?So, you know, and I think what
(54:00):
we've kind of all laid out, wasaddressing social determinants
of health and, and finding theappropriate housing and then
letting all of the rest of itkind of filter in the use of our
services. But New York State hasthe ability now and hopefully,
(54:25):
the sweat equity to change howthe addressing of social
determinants are funded. And wedon't get paid for our work. We
get contracts, right? But we,when we provide a service, it
(54:47):
needs to be paid forappropriately to Charlie's point
in order to pay our staffappropriately, but to address
all of the needs of the folks soas New York state looks towards
different ways to fund the workthat not for profits do, they
need to take into considerationthe human infrastructure that we
(55:08):
build and create foundations andstability for in order for us to
have people who are housed andfed, and healthy and have access
to the appropriatetransportation, childcare,
mental health, substance usedisorder, and emotional support
that they need to be successful.If we can do that, then I am
(55:32):
happy to be unemployed.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (55:34):
Thank you all for those answers. I think
before we wrap up, I just Ithink a good way to end would be
(56:50):
to ask you, if any of you have asuccess story, for a person, a
place, a program that you wouldlike to share with us.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (57:24):
well said.
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (57:25):
And I can think of another person that we
served, who had been unhousedfor a very long time. And it was
as our agency was transitioningto a housing-first model, there
was a person who had been livingin the woods for a long period
of time and could not keep thesobriety necessary to continue
(57:49):
living in the housing. So, hewould fall off the wagon, be
evicted, go into rehab, comeback, and be housed again. And
it was a cycle that went on andon. And as our agency switched
to the housing first model, acaseworker came to his
apartment, and he was there withhis bags packed. He was ready to
(58:12):
go, he thought this was going tobe it again. But he got to stay.
Because we had changed the waywe work. And it was one of the
best success stories. I think.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (58:27):
It's a great example of the benefits of
housing first. Absolutely. So,Maureen, Charlie, Michelle, and
Danielle, we want to thank youso much for joining us today on
our second episode of Lights,Camera, Community Action
podcast. Thank you for your timeand sharing your expertise with
us.
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (58:48):
Thank you. Thanks, everybody.
Hello and welcome to Lights, Camera,
Community Action, a podcastbrought to you by The New York
State Community ActionAssociation, or NYSCAA for
short. My name is Heidi Barcomb,Program and Communications
Director for NYSCAA. NYSCAA isthe State Association for New
York's Community ActionAgencies, commonly known as
CAAs. NYSCAA’s mission is tostrengthen the capacity of the
(00:37):
Community Action Network toaddress the causes and
conditions of poverty. NYSCAAwas created in 1987 to provide
CAAs in New York withprofessional development
opportunities, training, andtechnical assistance. NYSCAA is
the hub that brings togetherCommunity Action Agencies in New
York to network, share successesand challenges, and strategize
(00:58):
to meet the needs of vulnerableNew Yorkers. A community Action
Agency or CAA is a localorganization with the mission of
reducing poverty through locallydesigned and delivered programs
and services targeted to thespecific needs of their
community. The 47 CAAs in NewYork form a statewide service
delivery system that connectsindividuals and families to the
(01:21):
services they need to achieveeconomic status. When it comes
to moving folks from poverty toself-sufficiency, Community
Action Agencies know what works.Let's now introduce our guests.
Maureen, can we start with you?
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (01:34):
Sure! I'm Maureen Abbott. I'm the
Executive Director at TiogaOpportunities. And I've been the
Executive Director for almosteight years. And I've been in
Community Action forthirty-three years. Thanks for
having me.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (01:54):
Thanks for being here, Maureen.
Charlie, can you introduceyourself?
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (01:57):
I'm Charlie Quinn. I'm the CEO of
RECAP, the Regional EconomicCommunity Action Program in
Orange County. I've been CEO forseven years and with Community
Action for about 13 years.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (02:10):
Thanks for being here. Michelle, will
you introduce yourself?
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (02:15):
Hi, everybody. I'm Michelle McKeon.
I'm the Chief Operating Officerof the Regional Economic
Community Action Program,otherwise known as RECAP, and I
have been here for seven years.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (02:24):
And we appreciate your time with us
today. Danielle, will youintroduce yourself?
Danielle Harrington, Tompkins Community Action (02:28):
Sure. Hi, I'm Danielle Harrington,
Executive Director at TompkinsCommunity Action. I've been
Executive Director for a littleover a year, and I have 20 years
as the Housing Director atTompkins Community Action.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (02:41):
Excellent! So, we have a lot of great experience with us here today. And I want to start off by just kind of asking people, what does the affordable housing look like in your communities? Can you tell us a little bit about that? Who wants to go first?
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (02:56):
Well, I think we need to start with.
What do you mean by affordableand affordable to whom? There
are different types of housingin the communities. Some are
called Low-Income Tax Creditprojects that are funded with
IRS money. But you need to havea minimum income to get into
(03:17):
those projects. So, a lot ofpeople are not qualified. Their
income is too low to get intothose types of affordable
housing. In Orange County, inaddition to the Low-Income Tax
Credit projects, we have a lotof HUD-funded projects for
(03:37):
people who are literallyhomeless by HUD definition and
have a disability. In ouragency, it's often alcoholism or
substance use disorder, housingfor veterans, and also folks
with AIDS and HIV-relatedillnesses.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (03:59):
Well, living in Tioga County, I kind
of have to chuckle a little bitbecause our housing situation is
so so desperate in regard tothat affordability. And, you
know, we are rural. There aren'ta lot of vibrant community
centers in our county. Lots ofdeteriorating housing, older
(04:25):
housing stock, and just theavailability of any quality
affordable housing is few andfar between. Especially the more
rural you go, the harder it isto find quality, affordable
housing. So, it's a huge, it's ahuge issue. And it's one that
doesn't have easy answers. And,you know, I think we a little
(04:48):
bit later we'll talk aboutstrategies and stuff, but we
just don't have a lot of newdevelopment. We don't have a lot
of potential developers comingin for a whole host of reasons
which I'll do talk about later.But it's just a major, major
issue for many people, not justlow income, but more so that
(05:10):
worker, you know, ALICE familythat is working and trying to
put money aside for, you know,potentially buying a home. It's
just, it's just, it's not a goodsituation.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (05:24):
Maureen, I just want to ask real quick
because I think a lot of peoplelistening may not know. Can you
give us a brief explanation ofwhat ALICE is?
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (05:33):
Sure, I apologize. I should have
clarified. So, ALICE refers toAsset Limited, Income
Constrained, Employed. These areindividuals who are households
that are working but are stillunable to meet the basic needs
for their families. So, theydon't have a living wage
(05:55):
necessarily. They might even beworking two or three jobs and
still unable to meet those basicneeds. They're not at the
poverty level. But still notmeeting those basic needs of
shelter, food, health care, allof those things.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (06:10):
Thanks for that explanation. So let me
ask then, how did you becomeaware of the need for housing
supports in your or housingsolutions within your
communities?
Danielle Harrington, Tompkins Community Action (06:26):
I can speak a little bit about
Tompkins County. Just quicklytouching back on what it looks
like in Tompkins County, we needhousing units, 1000s, in each
income bracket in our community.We have the city hub of Ithaca,
and then the rest is rural,sprawling. We’re looking at old
(06:49):
housing stock, mobile, homeparks, no transportation out
into those rural areas, one busa day, Monday through Friday.
And that's really where ourlow-income folks are even more
marginalized. Our rent pricesrival those of Manhattan without
(07:09):
all of the services, we haveextremely high rents driven up
by Ithaca College and CornellUniversity, which also sucks up
a lot of cities’ housing units,further pushing our folks out.
We have a wicked low vacancyrate where the units are already
(07:33):
full before the person movesout. So generally, less than 4%
all the time. The pandemic madethat even worse. And a lot of
our landlords sold offproperties and got out of the
rental game during the evictionmoratorium. How did I become
aware that the housing neededwas so great? When I started as
(07:54):
a section eight caseworker inearly 2000, we were running into
families who were eligible afterthey waited three years for a
voucher and then couldn't find aplace to use the voucher and had
to go back on the waiting listbecause there was no housing
available. And I was able towork under a really great
(08:15):
executive director who did allkinds of creative and innovative
programs that I'll talk aboutlater.
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (08:22):
I think understanding the awareness is
how connected you are to yourcommunity. So, it's the phone
calls that you get, it's the,you're sitting around at a
housing meeting, and someonesays, hey, does anybody have any
housing? And part of it is amacro view of the housing that's
(08:45):
being built to Charlie's pointearlier, which is connected to
something else. So if you arestruggling with substance use
disorder, if you are living withHIV and AIDS, there are housing
use available, if there if youwere a veteran, if you are a
senior, but when you're talkingabout an Alice family, or even
(09:07):
an individual's low income,hitting that, you know, magic
$412 a month from Department ofSocial Services, there's nothing
for those families. And if thereis, it's not somewhere you would
ever want to live. Because whenwe talk about what the housing
stock looks like, not only is itnot readily available because
(09:32):
everything has people in italready, but it is not good
quality, healthy housing stock.So engaging municipalities
around the need for housing andthen the need for code enforcers
to make sure that those housingunits are safe to live in is an
(09:53):
ongoing battle. I think for manyof the places that we're talking
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (09:57):
Uh, you know, I'll certainly jump in
about.
and just talk a little bit aboutsome of the unique issues here
in Tioga County. So, in 2018, weco-collaborated on a pretty
comprehensive housing study. Youknow, we all would sit around
tables and talk about housingissues, but we really wanted to
(10:19):
do a deep dive into what wasreally going on and where was
the greatest need. So, togetherwith the County Economic
Development, and the County IDA,we funded this study, and it was
interesting because of wherewe're located along the
Susquehanna River. Environmentalfactors and national disasters
(10:41):
have really impacted ourhousing. The floods of 2006 and
2011, in particular, justdecimated the village of Owego,
Waverly, Nichols. And it createda huge issue in that it, you
know, it disseminated anyavailability of safe, affordable
(11:04):
housing for that population thatMichelle was just talking about.
So, the affected properties werebought up by out-of-town
landlords, and they came in andbought these for next to
nothing, put very little moneyinto the repairs, and then
rented them. And, unfortunately,these were the only properties
(11:25):
that a lot of these familiescould afford, particularly in
the village of Owego, because wealso have no transportation
throughout the county or limitedtransportation. You know,
families would gravitate moretowards those, the villages
where there were a few moreservices. So, the amount of
blighted housing was incredibly,I just couldn't believe it, when
(11:51):
I moved here and began to lookat this vibrant community center
in this downtown area, and twoblocks either way, you know, you
were looking at extremelyblighted housing. So that was a
key contributor and a key factorin our involvement in the other
was really the economicdevelopment aspect of this. And
(12:13):
really what got us involved inregard to, you know, quality,
affordable housing being veryclosely linked to the
recruitment and retention of aworkforce, we have the
86-corridor run right throughour County. Economic
Development, the County EconomicDevelopment has been very
successful in recruitingbusinesses; we have crown core
(12:35):
conceal, of course, Tioga Downs,Best Buy warehouse, and CVS
warehouse. And yet, we have verylittle acceptable worker housing
in our in our county, whichmeans a lot of people are having
to; they live outside the areaand are driving in. And so, from
that perspective, we realizedthat this had to be one of the
(12:57):
strategies that we were going tofocus on decent, affordable
worker housing so that we couldbegin to attract young families
into our community. And kind ofthe last piece of this, and then
I'll be quiet, it was ourincreased aging population. So,
as we all know, older adults areliving a lot longer; they’re
(13:17):
remaining in their homes a lotlonger. And, you know, the
65-plus population in our countyis projected to grow like 22%,
and the 85-plus population at31% growth. And at the same
time, we're losing workers, youknow, in that age group of,
like, 25 to 60. With that, youknow, the out-migration of that
(13:39):
working-age population. So, youknow, it's a multi-dimensional
challenge, but all of that kindof contributing to this
depletion. And then you add inthe, you know, the code
enforcement issues and themunicipalities, you know, and
then and then the overarchingissue is the local resistance to
any type of new development forlow-income housing, which is a
(14:01):
whole other podcast, but, youknow, it needs to be, you know,
a part of this conversation aswell. So that's how I became
aware of all the issues in ourcounty.¬¬
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (14:13):
Maureen, I don't think you should ever be
quiet. But it's not justresistance to new projects.
There is resistance to existinghousing for people with low
incomes. Two of ourmunicipalities in Orange County
took affirmative steps to makeit more difficult. In the City
(14:36):
of Newburgh, code enforcementofficials actually issue
violations to tenants now,rather than landlords. And in
the City of Middletown, they nowrequire background checks for
renters. The landlord has to geta background check both economic
and criminal before they canrent it to a person.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (14:59):
Yep, and then we're dealing with
zoning, zoning issues too. And alittle bit later, I can talk
about a, you know, a projectthat we were highly excited
about with a public-privatepartnership with the
neighborhood housing here inTioga County. And you know, it
was just a, the localmunicipalities zoning board and
(15:24):
village board just stood fastand just fought us every step of
the way. So, but we'll get intothat later, I'm sure.
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (15:31):
Well, and this is Michelle from RECAP,
but I think what also talks toour good poor and the bad poor,
and whom are we choosing tohelp, right? So, if we need
housing for seniors, great, aslong as they're not too poor,
right? If we need housing forveterans, everybody applauds
housing for veterans, right? Butwhen we talk about other
(15:54):
populations, the parole re-entrypopulation, the substance use
disorder population, right?That's when we have that
conversation about, well, wewill have these folks in our
community, but not those folks.RECAP runs a pro-reentry
program, and Charlie and I wentto talk to the municipality
about building on land wealready own and to put together
(16:18):
a project for, you know,women-headed households in the
City of Newburgh, which has apoverty rate of about 57%. And
the question that we were askedby the mayor was, what are you
doing about all the parolees whoare dumped here? serving them? I
don't know. We're not dumpingthem here. We're serving them
when they get here. So, youknow, unless we continue to
(16:43):
battle the myths andmisperceptions about housing and
who deserves housing. We have alot. We have a lot of work to do
around the need for housing forall, not just the people who we
think deserve housing, but foreverybody.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (17:03):
Yeah, this is Maureen again. And yeah,
absolutely. You hit the nailright on the head. And you know,
the only new development thathas gone, that has been
happening here has been seniorhousing, which is a need for
sure. But we don't get the samepushback as we do for other
types, whether it's low-income,reentry, or any of those things
(17:25):
that are just off the table. Imean, it's a done deal before we
even get, we get going. So yes,a lot of work to do in that
area.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (17:35):
Can you talk to me, or talk to us a
little bit about the work thatyou are doing to address those
needs? And maybe you Danielle,you can give us some ideas?
Danielle Harrington, Tompkins Community Action (17:47):
Oh, sure. So, at Tompkins Community
Action, we have rentalassistance programs, the section
eight Housing Choice VoucherProgram, and some other smaller
programs. We work with Ithacaneighborhood housing; Maureen
mentioned them. They do theLow-Income Tax Credit projects
(18:08):
in our area and are a nicelocation for our voucher
holders, to get housing in townclose to town. Alongside that
voucher program, we havesomething called tenant-based
rental assistance that we getfunding from New York State
Homes and Community Renewal,their home funding. We target
(18:30):
people experiencing homelessnessand the unhoused for that
funding. We work with our localcontinuum of care and prioritize
the most vulnerable to be servedwith that rental assistance plus
a staff person. We don't like touse the words case worker or
case manager. So, we have aspecialist that works with them
(18:54):
to find housing that works,that's safe and not
deteriorated, passes aninspection, and do some
life-building skill set. Youknow, the trash goes out, the
lease compliance, building thatstability piece and relationship
with the landlord. So, when theycome to the top of that section
(19:14):
eight Housing Choice VoucherProgram waiting list, they don't
have to move again. And they cancontinue that stability right
there. We've been reallysuccessful with that program. We
were just awarded anothertwo-and-a-half-year contract for
that. So that's a little piecein the continuum. And then our
bigger impact, I think, is withour HUD-funded and State funded
(19:40):
homeless housing programs. Wehave 55 units that we own
ourselves and then an additional40 units that we do supportive
services with youth, with ourEmpire State supportive housing
initiative funds. And then wehave another forty units of
(20:00):
supportive services fundsplanned for a chronically
homeless in the very central hubof the city of Ithaca on Green
Street, right next to city hallright across from Tompkins
County Mental Health building.That's coming online in early
2024. And then we just try tofind little pockets of funding
(20:22):
where we can meet needs and helpnavigate systems for people. And
we try to keep everythingperson-centered so that it
works. It's not a one size fitsall in any of our programs. We
do the trauma-informed carehousing first model. Housing
First is not popular in anycommunity, from what we can tell
(20:46):
from our own experience, but itreally works. But we've had to
kind of navigate new systems andcreate new partnerships in the
community to kind of meet theneeds that our homeless
population has exponentiallygrown in the last couple of
years. So that's kind of whereour niche is, and the permanent
(21:06):
supportive housing and we justkeep building on that with our
partners.
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (21:13):
Danielle, this is Michelle, from RECAP, I
have a question or a comment,I'm actually not sure where it
is in my head. But when we lookat, because we are also part of
our continuum of care down here,when we look at housing the most
vulnerable, I think that'sobviously right. But what
happens then to the folks whoare just holding on, right, and
(21:35):
they need some housing support?And I guess this is more of a
macro conversation that if we'renot, we're so good at
intervention on all things.We're not as great as
prevention, right? So, if wehave the family, the ALICE
family that Maureen was talkingabout, and they're holding on,
(21:58):
and they're barely making endsmeet, but they don't necessarily
qualify for any of our housing.It's almost as if we've set it
up where they have to then loseeverything in order to be
eligible for anything, oranything meaningful. So, you
know, I know this is not theanswer to Heidi's question. But
(22:21):
how do we design a system wherewe're catching people before
they're living in their car,right, or heading to a homeless
shelter? Because we do, thereare those moments where we get
the call that says, my landlordjust called they sold the
building, and I have 30 days toget out. I work two full-time
(22:43):
jobs, I make $40,000 a year, andI have two kids, where can I get
housing help? And the answer,almost 100% of the time is
nowhere. Where do we start thatconversation running
concurrently with creatinghousing for those who are most
(23:03):
vulnerable? Because if not,we're just growing our most
vulnerable populations.
Danielle Harrington, Tompkins Community Action (23:07):
Right, right. And I can speak a little
bit to that. We've acknowledgedthat as a big issue in our
community, just like everybodyelse. And our continuum of care
has started identifying pathwaysof prevention and diversion from
the shelter system. However,there's not, we don't have a
(23:30):
steady stream of funding forthat in Tompkins County, we have
little pieces that we're tryingto do the best. And we're really
trying to build in thosenavigation support people so
that when you get into yourhousing issue, you get that
notice, and you don't havesection eight, because
basically, no one can afford tolive in rental housing in
(23:53):
Tompkins County without somesort of assistance. And so,
we're trying to navigate that,we're doing a bunch of studies,
there's all this data, butthere's not really any dollars
yet to back up how to handlethat. But I completely agree
that we're just adding to thepipeline, as we're triaging for
the most vulnerable. And we havehad a lot of development in
(24:19):
Tompkins County of new housingunits. And we are still waiting
for that. Like we keep saying,oh, this will be the project
that opens for our low-incomefamilies, and it doesn't seem to
be happening yet. And what Ithink is happening is the folks
that have moved away from thearea that are still working in
Tompkins County are moving backin to fill those units before
(24:41):
the list moves for anybody else.So, I think that probably is
happening in Tioga County, too.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (24:47):
Yeah, it is for sure. You know, we
operate the section eightHousing Choice Voucher Program
as well. And, you know, I thinkMichelle brings up an
interesting point and, you know,when you look at programs like
section eight, it can be alifelong, you know, voucher, so
we've infused our financialsocial work with all of our
(25:09):
section eight families. And wetry to kind of interject in, you
know, in with the, you know,just the acceptance of the
voucher that, you know, what areyour long-term goals and what,
you know, what, what is it thatyou want to achieve, and, you
know, really trying to help themdevelop a plan that goes beyond
(25:30):
just a subsidized housing, youknow, thinking about that
continuum, and moving forward,and we've had some good success
with that, which has taken sometime to kind of get it going,
but it is, but it is working.You know, we also operate 137
units of senior housing throughrural development. And that
(25:54):
brings certain challenges alongwith it as well. But probably
senior housing, as I said, isthe only real new development
that we've seen, but what we'rekind of focusing on right now is
the idea of acquiring and thenrehabbing single-family and
maybe two to four-family homes,for either rentals or for sale
(26:20):
to first-time homebuyers. So,you know, the issue with seniors
living longer in our countymeans that, you know, their
houses, when they either moveinto long-term care or that
house is sold, it's oftentimesin great disrepair, it's, it's
(26:43):
older, it has a lot of olderparts and in need of much rehab.
So we decided that we are goingto kind of focus in that area,
you know, the development pieceis a little beyond our means at
this particular point in time,especially with what we're,
we've been dealing with in termsof the local resistance, but we
(27:03):
have a subsidiary that we formedcalled the Southern Tier
enterprise group, which is goingto house all of our social
enterprises. And it'll allow usto do some creative types of
things in housing. So, we'relooking, we're working with a
land bank currently, and we'relooking at acquiring some
properties through taxforeclosure and rehabbing them.
(27:27):
And then we have some of oursection eight people in the
pipeline for first-timehomebuyers. So hopefully, they
would be able to get into someof these properties and get, you
know, have them acquire thatasset and become a home or a
homeowner. So, you know, we kindof just decided that was a
better route for us to go, andthen use the money from a sale
(27:51):
to reinvest again into anotherproperty and just keep, you
know, kind of chugging alongone, one neighborhood at a time.
So.
Danielle Harrington, Tompkins Community Action (27:59):
Thank you so much. Those sound-like
(29:14):
fantastic programs. I just wantto back up for one second about
(30:44):
a philosophy that a few of youmentioned, and I think that it's
worth really talking aboutbecause I think if you don't
work with unhoused people, youmay not be aware of this. This
(31:06):
concept and that's the conceptof housing first. So, will one
of you talk about a little thata little bit about that, and how
you have seen that shift? If ithas shifted your work and the
(31:30):
people, the benefits it has onthe people that you are
providing services for?
of challenges.
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (31:50):
And housing first describes the way
we operate as agencies and theway we operate our programs. But
it's something that needs to goout to the larger community. We
have an incredible person inOrange County, she led the
federally qualified health careprogram for decades, and Linda
would walk around anywhere shewent like she had Tourette’s,
(32:14):
health care is a right, not aprivilege. And we need to get
people saying the same thingabout housing. Going back to
what Michelle said before, thereare certain people we'd like to
house and other people that wedon't, it's got to be universal.
It's got to be for everyone.That's got to be right.
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (32:31):
And as we continue to, you know, look
into the future regardingservices and our communities. If
we are not addressing housing,we're not addressing social
determinants of health. We arenot increasing health outcomes
for individuals and families.And that is part of the mandate
(32:52):
that the State is looking atnow, right? So, how are we
creating pathways to health, notjust medical health, but
emotional health, spiritualhealth, and housing is one of
those first steps. Stable,affordable, quality housing is
one of those things if you areunhoused, your ability to have
(33:18):
safe, nutritious food islowered, and access to health
care is lowered. We have a womanwho lives in the parking lot of
our rec center in the City ofNewburgh. She is a super adult,
right, somebody over 65. She'sprobably over 75. She's
(33:38):
terrified to be a woman in ahomeless shelter. So, she lives
in her car. And for the mostpart, her community takes care
of her, right? We make sure shehas food. And, Danielle, I think
you're the one who said youdon't just take somebody, and
you drop them off, right? It's aprocess. It's engagement, it's
creating relationships. We'veasked her if she wanted an
(34:01):
apartment, connecting her to theoffice of the aging, and we
bring her food that she canmanage in her car. But she has
no interest in entering a systemthat is unsafe for her. So, her
health outcomes over time aregoing to be less because we've
(34:22):
created systems that don't allowfor the addressing of stability
first without doing all of theother things. I think housing
first needs to be the model thatleads the way but housing in
general should be the thing thatwe're focused on because if you
are one of the 250 families inOrange County, living in hotels
(34:44):
this week, your school isprobably not going to be
consistent, food is not going tobe consistent, transportation is
probably not there. So, how arewe actually completing our
missions, if so many of thesystems that the people that we
serve are attached to, don't setthem up for success? If you have
(35:07):
a wheel and all of the spokesare working together, you have a
functioning wheel. But if onlythe center and the center being
Community Action is working, andall of the other spokes are
throwing barriers andchallenges, and we have
different requirements, we can'tdo our job to create the best
(35:28):
outcomes for the people that weserve. We can't do it all by
ourselves, even though we wouldlike to think we can.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (35:34):
I really appreciate those, those
explanations about the housingfirst philosophy and approach,
how did you decide to design andstructure the program set you
have?
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (35:50):
This is Maureen from Tioga again. I
think for us, it was once wereally kind of got a handle, or
I got a handle on, on what washappening around us, you know,
there are so many issues and somany things we, as Michelle
said, we can't, we can't do itall. So, I think we had to find
in partnership with others whatour niche would be and be and
(36:11):
build off our strengths and ourown agency capacity to be
effective, and to be able tomake an impact in our
communities. So, you know, wedabbled in the partnership, you
know, trying to get newdevelopment. And as I stated
earlier, that didn't happen. So,you know, we kind of landed on
this, you know, this overallneighborhood revitalization
(36:34):
strategy. And, you know,focusing on that the acquisition
and the rehab, and the resell,as opposed to really kind of
focusing on the new development,will certainly partner with any
private, you know, a developerthat comes in or anything a
neighborhood housing orwhatever, but we just, we just
can't, we can't do that rightnow on by ourselves. So, you
(36:57):
know, and what really, the otherthing that really kind of pushed
us in that direction was therealization that middle-income
buying power for families, inthis area is between 90,000 and
1200, and 130,000. And therejust aren't a lot of properties
for sale that don't need another30 to $50,000 worth of work, you
(37:19):
know, done. So, the ability forus to purchase low, rehab, and
then sell within that 90 to 125$130 range is going to meet a
need that just doesn't existwith and, you know, to be able
to buy a property with little orno repair and updating needed
will certainly, you know, meet ahuge need. So, I think that's
(37:40):
kind of how we landed on thisparticular strategy. Now, with
that said, we are, you know,looking at potentially some more
senior housing, not big, bigdevelopments, but more like, you
know, townhouse-type situationsin some of the more rural areas
of the county. But yeah, I thinkthat you know, we just decided
(38:03):
we were going to build off ourstrengths. And, you know,
because we have, you know, wehave a lot of, you know, rehab
type grants and a lot ofexpertise in that area, and good
relationships with localcontractors and stuff. We just
felt that was a better avenuefor us. And so that's why we're
going in that direction.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (38:23):
And Maureen and Danielle, you both
mentioned, having partnershipsand collaborations that have
helped to build these programs.And I know that community action
agencies do a great job of doingthat in their communities,
building networks andpartnerships to meet the needs.
But can you talk a little bitabout what some of those
(38:43):
partnerships and collaborationsare that you've built and that
have been successful?
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (38:49):
Danielle, you want to go?
Danielle Harrington, Tompkins Community Action (38:52):
We’ve become the permanent housing
supportive services go-to forour community. So, we've had to
say yes and no to some differentprojects based on our own
capacity. But what we have doneand what we're doing well, is we
are partnering with Vecino whichis a development company. And
(39:15):
Cornerstone property management,which is the property management
company for our newest projectat art house. We've had to
connect with some differentcommunity partners, we have
reached medical which is a harmreduction model of health
services, both physical andmental health. We've contracted
(39:37):
with them to come on-site for usweekly. Kind of like an
open-door mental health piece,where our residents who are
between 18 and 25 can just walkin and have a doughnut with Al
and talk about life and then golong their day without having to
(39:57):
jump through all of the hoopsand all kinds of things. And
that is something that we planto continue at our other housing
sites. We've also brought ourfood pantry into a delivery
system. So, our food pantry goesto that housing project. Here,
(40:18):
we've had to have some creativesolutions, you know, a lot of
people whom I have worked withover the years have left for
different positions, its newstaff coming in with new ideas.
Let's try this. And thankfully,Ithaca is a community where we
do a lot of let's try this andsee what happens and take the
(40:39):
pieces that are good and keepmoving them forward, we have a
really strong continuum of care.And we play a big enough role in
all of the committee's we kindof have our fingers and
everything and pull our partnersthat way. And then linking our
housing programs to ourHeadstart programs and
(41:00):
encompassing the families inthat way to kind of being our
own partner. We're the sameagency, different departments
sometimes that that can kind offeel like different
organizations from time to time.But I think that that piece was
the kids living at a Michihouse, walking across the
(41:21):
parking lot to go to theirHeadstart, childcare center,
while their parents go to GEDclass, or to work or go
volunteer at our food pantry,you know, creates a nice little
community, and nobody has to getin a car and do anything. So, I
think there are a lot ofbenefits to our campus. So, I
(41:43):
think that's, that's what Iwould say about that.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (41:47):
Yeah, I wish we had some of that, you
know, going on in our community,some of that more
open-mindedness in terms of someof these projects. But you know,
again, I mentioned earlier, thepartnering with our land bank
type, County Land Bank, TiogaCounty Economic Development, and
(42:08):
then private developers, Arborhousing, two plus four, Ithaca
neighborhood housing, doing alot of strategies around
neighborhood revitalization withthem, and then, you know, really
building relationships withmunicipalities, you know, and
when I say buildingrelationships, I mean, putting
the time in to really get toknow the elected officials and
(42:32):
having them get to know us andwhat we represent and trying to
bridge that cultural gap betweenthe old entitlement while
everybody wants a handout versuswe want them to buy a home and
become taxpayers and participatein, you know, the, you know, the
village, you know, villagepolitics or school or whatever.
(42:56):
And that is, you know, that'staken time. But we've been, you
know, we've been successful withthat. We're looking at a few
properties now in Waverly thathave huge issues, some trending
stuff with their use that aretroublesome, troublesome. And I
think that getting in there anddoing some more work will be a
great help. But yeah, that'skind of like I said, building
(43:17):
off our strengths, who we'vebeen partnering. We do work with
a continuum as well. It's basedout of Broome and I, sometimes I
feel like Tioga County is, youknow, forgotten about and a lot
of resources, go to BroomeCounty and some of the
surrounding counties. But we arethere, and we try to be as vocal
(43:40):
as we can be about what ourneeds are. So those are the
majority of our partners.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (43:47):
Thank you, Charlie and Michelle, do
you have anything that you wantto add to that piece about
collaborations and partnerships?
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (43:56):
Orange County and it's not just the
Community Action Agency. OrangeCounty is incredible with the
partnerships that are down here.There's an organization called
JMHCA. It's like-mindedagencies. We meet monthly to
discuss what the needs of thecounty are and what individual
(44:20):
agencies are doing to addressthem. So, it's a pretty tight,
not-for-profit community and thecounty participates, and the
municipalities participate. It'snot perfect, it,'s not Eden. But
we've taken the approach at acounty level that is all about
(44:41):
partnerships. Our COC continuumof care. There are six housing
providers in it, but lots ofnot-for-profit agencies,
municipalities, and privategroups are part of it,
contributing to making sure thatthe people we house get the
services they need, and that theneeds, that the other agencies
(45:06):
are seeing, making sure thatthey are being addressed.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (45:12):
So that leads me to wonder, what impact
have you seen on yourcommunities as you've been
addressing the housingchallenges that you have there?
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (45:25):
This is Michelle from RECAP. I think, in
some ways, the impact isincremental, and in other ways
it, you know, it leaps andbounds. I think until we move,
there's a lot of othering, rightin this work, and it's them and
(45:46):
those of us right, that that'show we hear about the work that
we do, well, we want to helpthose people, or we want to do
things for those people. So,when something happens, it feels
wonderful. But when you look atit, it's really not as impactful
(46:07):
as, as you would like, you know,we are built for public-private
partnerships. And, you know, we,we oftentimes find ourselves
running into the walls, tryingto get them with public partners
who maybe have a differentphilosophy than we do about the
helping of others. And I thinkthat impact on one person is
(46:36):
impact on a community. Andthat's a good thing, right? One
less person unhoused, onehealthier family, one more
person in recovery. All of thosethings are impactful for those
people, right, those individualsor families. I think the impact,
(46:57):
we will see a true impact whenour municipalities come to us
and say, we need this, and weneed you to do it., right? I
don't think that happens asoften as we would like or we
would need it to, you know, weCharlie's talking about JMHCA.
(47:18):
You know, we have a letter fromJMHCA to our county executive to
say, hey, we have a lot of ARMAmoney. And there are communities
around us using that ARMA moneyfor housing. Could you do
something like that here, too,right? So, the impact would be
oh, yeah, sure. Let's take,instead of a $20 million
(47:41):
infrastructure project, let's doa $15 million infrastructure,
but 5.5 million to housing.Those are the partnerships that
have an impact. Those are thethings that change systems,
change thoughts, and changeminds about them, and us. And
when we start when we stop,othering, folks and realize,
(48:04):
many of us are many of ourstaff, or many of our families
are one or two paychecks awayfrom being them, how do we
change the mindset of people whohave the power to create the
larger impact? We have the powerto make an impact on the work
(48:25):
that we do. We need bold peopleto take bold ideas and implement
them. So, our impact is feltacross systems and across
generations, so that people withlow income can improve their
self-sufficiency and increasethat so we can meet our missions
and create healthiercommunities.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (48:47):
Well, this is Maureen again, I'll just
share a quick story. So, aboutfour years ago, three years ago,
I can't remember the village ofOwego was awarded a $10 million
DRI grant. And so, through ourpartnership with economic
development, we meaning TiogaOpportunities was encouraged to
(49:11):
put in an application for thismixed-income housing project,
literally two blocks off themain drag, which would lend
itself to a lot of things lenditself to not only just meeting
the needs of, of housing needs,but also addressing some other
(49:32):
needs. So anyway, we said sure,we would love to, so we spent a
lot of time putting thistogether. I sat in on the
revitalization processcommittee, whatever. Only then
to be one of the only programsthat was not funded in the DRI.
It was the most popular proposalwhen we had to hold the
(49:59):
community forums, people spokehighly in the community. But the
process was interesting in thatproposals for an art Park and
lighting on one side of thevillage. And, you know, there
(50:20):
were a lot of things that werefunded that how do I say this?
Were like pet projects, I thinkof some of the elected
officials, you know, so I knewearly on in the process that it
probably wasn’t going to happen.But it was so indicative, I
think of what, you know, smallrural counties are up against.
(50:40):
And it really kind of took thewind out of our sails. And I
think that was also part andparcel to us shifting gears and
moving more towards theacquisition and the rehab, and,
you know, the resale of housesand renting of houses. So, it
was very frustrating. So thatwas not a good impact. But it
(51:01):
had an impact in regard to usreally understanding what we
were up against.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (51:05):
And Maureen and Michelle, you both
make comments that sort of makeme want to ask this question or
make me wonder, you know,Michelle, you talked about
needing bold ideas. And Maureen,you had a great project that
just wasn't funded,unfortunately. So, I'm curious
(51:26):
if I could maybe wave my magicwand, and funding was no longer
an issue. And I know you guyshave answers to this on the tip
of your tongue, right? Youprobably think about this all
the time. If funding wasn't theissue, what program would you
want to create to help those whoare unhoused in your community?
(51:47):
And what services?
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (51:49):
Supportive housing is huge, you know, we've
talked about that all, you know,throughout this, the need for
you know, individuals coming outof substance abuse rehab
programs needing assistance withthat transition, you know, the
reentry. I mean, homelessshelters, there's one homeless
shelter that's run by the YWCAin Binghamton, between Broome
(52:14):
County and Tiger County, onewoman shelter. Which is always
full and it's hard when we havepeople that we, you know, that
we become aware of because weknow probably, they're not going
to get a space there. So yeah,you know, there's all those
things on top of a, you know, awhole bunch of others. But those
(52:34):
are huge needs here.
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (52:36):
And I know the topic of the day is housing.
And I don't mean to underminethe importance of housing for
where we are right now. But ifmoney is no object, and we're
granting wishes, let's paypeople what they need to, to
live, to live in comfortablehousing, decent housing, and put
(53:01):
my agency out of business, I'dbe glad that happened. We as a
society are to content with asystem that keeps generating
people who live in poverty.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (53:14):
And I think transportation for rural
counties is a huge issue thatrelates to everything, you know,
how to access housing, work,jobs, you know, all of those
things. And, you know, we Idon't know, I mean, if, again,
if money was no object, I think,to be able to address that would
be a key item as well.
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (53:35):
Childcare, Childcare. You know, how many
articles have I read in thelast, you know, three months
about, you know, women being hitparticularly hard returning to
the workforce, because theycan't find safe, affordable,
quality daycare, and not justthat follows the school
schedule, right? You know, whatabout weekends? What about
evenings? What about overnights?So, you know, and I think what
(54:00):
we've kind of all laid out, wasaddressing social determinants
of health and, and finding theappropriate housing and then
letting all of the rest of itkind of filter in the use of our
services. But New York State hasthe ability now and hopefully,
(54:25):
the sweat equity to change howthe addressing of social
determinants are funded. And wedon't get paid for our work. We
get contracts, right? But we,when we provide a service, it
(54:47):
needs to be paid forappropriately to Charlie's point
in order to pay our staffappropriately, but to address
all of the needs of the folks soas New York state looks towards
different ways to fund the workthat not for profits do, they
need to take into considerationthe human infrastructure that we
(55:08):
build and create foundations andstability for in order for us to
have people who are housed andfed, and healthy and have access
to the appropriatetransportation, childcare,
mental health, substance usedisorder, and emotional support
that they need to be successful.If we can do that, then I am
(55:32):
happy to be unemployed.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (55:34):
Thank you all for those answers. I think
before we wrap up, I just Ithink a good way to end would be
(56:50):
to ask you, if any of you have asuccess story, for a person, a
place, a program that you wouldlike to share with us.
Maureen Abbott, Tioga Opportunities (57:24):
well said.
Charlie Quinn, RECAP (57:25):
And I can think of another person that we
served, who had been unhousedfor a very long time. And it was
as our agency was transitioningto a housing-first model, there
was a person who had been livingin the woods for a long period
of time and could not keep thesobriety necessary to continue
(57:49):
living in the housing. So, hewould fall off the wagon, be
evicted, go into rehab, comeback, and be housed again. And
it was a cycle that went on andon. And as our agency switched
to the housing first model, acaseworker came to his
apartment, and he was there withhis bags packed. He was ready to
(58:12):
go, he thought this was going tobe it again. But he got to stay.
Because we had changed the waywe work. And it was one of the
best success stories. I think.
Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (58:27):
It's a great example of the benefits of
housing first. Absolutely. So,Maureen, Charlie, Michelle, and
Danielle, we want to thank youso much for joining us today on
our second episode of Lights,Camera, Community Action
podcast. Thank you for your timeand sharing your expertise with
us.
Michelle McKeon, RECAP (58:48):
Thank you. Thanks, everybody.
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