April 7, 2024 • 14 mins
New York City's 30 and 60-day shelter limits may be at risk thanks to a proposed bill in Albany. Though no matter what happens, the city's homeless need a clear pathway to permanent housing. Our guest is Scott Short, CEO of RiseBoro Community Partnership, one of the largest nonprofit developers and providers of affordable housing in New York City, discussing the the city's shelter system, and what would be a coherent "exit strategy" to move people in need to permanent housing. For more, visit riseboro.org.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to Get connected with Nina delRio, a weekly conversation about fitness,
health and happenings in our community onone Oho six point seven Light FM.
Good morning and thanks for listening toget connected. New York City's thirty and
sixty day shelter limits could be liftedthanks to a proposed bill in Albany.
But no matter what happens, onething is clear. The cities homeless need
(00:26):
a clear pathway to permanent housing.Our guest is Scott Short, CEO of
Riseborough Community Partnership, as the headof one of the largest nonprofit developers and
providers of affordable housing in New YorkCity. We'll speak about the city's shelter
system and what would be a coherentexit strategy to move folks to permanent housing.
Scott Short, thank you for beingto get connected. Thanks for having
(00:47):
me. Since nineteen seventy three,Riseboro Community Partnership has offered services designed to
support every generation and meet the needsof communities. Their unique model of holistic
community revitalism works by developing neighborhood assetslike affordable housing to create the foundation for
a more vibrant and diverse community.You can find out more at Risborough dot
(01:08):
org. That is our sebo rdot org and Scott. Maybe we can
start by just getting a little bitmore detail on what Riseboro Community Partnership does.
Sure yeah, Riseboro is a fiftyyear old community based organization that focuses
on holistic community development. So weprovide services designed to help empower marginalized communities
(01:37):
and the people who live within themto get on the path to social and
economic mobility and ultimately overcome poverty.So it is a holistic set of services
that is based on a foundation ofsafe, stable, affordable housing for all,
and then we wrap around that housingstability with services in the area of
(02:00):
health, senior services, youth andeducation, economic justice, and healthy food
and really try to provide a onestop shop for any need that someone in
the communities where we work might presentand we want to help provide the solution.
(02:20):
So let's go a little bit backin time for people who haven't really
been following what's been going on.The city's right to shelter laws, which
guaranteed anyone a bed to someone whosought one on the same day, were
functionally ended by Mayor Eric Adams atthe end of last year. Meanwhile,
as because of the number of migrantsarriving in the city grew exponentially, so
those were in place for about fortytwo years always meant to provide temporary housing.
(02:43):
Now that the law is gone,what is the city's strategy to help
people who need transitioning? What istheir strategy to get folks into permanent housing.
Well, I think the solution tosuccessful exit from shelter is multip solution,
and I think both the city andthe state have several irons in the
(03:06):
fire that could potentially alleviate the incredibledemand that we're seeing for shelter beds currently.
And I think it really all startswith shifting our mindset from a right
to shelter to a right to housing. We see that the shelter system isn't
really working for any of the stakeholders. It is a necessary intervention at a
(03:30):
time of a homelessness crisis, butit is too expensive for the city and
it is not providing the stability tothe homeless and or migrant population that are
the primary users of the shelter system. So we really need to shift our
mindset towards developing and creating more permanent, affordable housing for everyone who needs it,
(03:57):
and part of the immediate solutions thatcould get us there is a more
robust housing voucher system. The cityhas done a lot to invest in its
city the HEP system. The statehas a proposal in front of the legislature
currently called the Housing Assistance Voucher ProgramHAVP. That would be a very important
(04:19):
step to try to provide another resourcethat families could use to exit shelter and
find permanent, affordable housing. Andultimately, I think the federal government needs
to do more in terms of theSection eight program, which is one of
the most effective tools that the federalgovernment has in terms of getting people immediate
(04:42):
access to housing when they are exitingshelter. So those are some of the
short term solutions. I think onthe long term side, what we really
have as a supply crisis. We'relooking at the lowest vacancy rate in New
York City in over two decades,one point four percent, and that is
a he speaks to a market thatis really not meeting the demand for housing
(05:04):
of all types that exist in thecity, and so we really need to
focus on how can we reduce someof the barriers that currently exist to building
more housing in New York City andNew York State and supercharge the apparatus that
is going to create the supply thatwe need to solve this crisis. I
(05:25):
think the first thought might be,all this stuff is expensive. Money,
at the end of the day,is going to be the reason why some
of these things happen. The cityis spending about three billion dollars annually on
homelessness. What would a transition likethese and other points we'll talk about what
would that cost? So it isexpensive, but the cost of doing nothing
is more expensive. The housing marketis one of the biggest drags on the
(05:49):
economy in New York City and NewYork State. It is becoming increasingly hard
for employers to find the workforce thatthey need at all levels to continue to
grow businesses and grow the economy.I consider it an existential crisis for the
New York economy. If we don'tsolve this housing problem. There are plenty
(06:11):
of employers who want to be here, who want to do business here.
There are plenty of workers who wantto be here, who want to work
here, but they just can't affordit. And if we're not able to
solve this crisis eventually, it willbecome a drag on our economy, and
the financial consequences of that are fargreater than whatever investment we need to make
(06:31):
to solve the housing crisis. Ourguest is Scott Short, CEO of Riseborough
Community Partnership. Prior to becoming CEO, during his tenure in Riseborough's Housing division,
the organization developed over fourteen hundred unitsof affordable housing with total development costs
of over three hundred million, includingthe first two multi family passive houses in
New York State. You can findout more about Riseboro at Risboro dot org.
(06:56):
You're listening to get connected on oneO six point seven light FM.
I'm Nina del One of the currentprojects at Riseboro is the conversion of the
former JFK Hilton into affordable housing.Can you talk a little bit more about
that project? Sure. This isthe first hotel to housing conversion that was
done under the state's Honda program,which was formed during the pandemic in an
(07:20):
attempt to repurpose under utilized hotel assetsfor permanent supportive housing. So we're really
excited about this project. We thinkit provides a really unique model and hopefully
a model that can be replicated throughoutthe affordable housing industry that both provides a
(07:40):
pathway for folks who are long termstayers in shelter to achieve permanent affordable housing
and does it in a way thatutilizes resources that are not typically used for
the construction of affordable housing. Sothe financing model for this project did not
use the low income house using taxcredit, which is a very fixed resource
(08:03):
that is highly coveted by affordable housingdevelopers, and instead used innovative set of
financing tools that are going to createover three hundred and twenty units of permanently
affordable housing without taking a big chunkout of more limited resources that you typically
see affordable housing being used to develop. I'm not sure if you're speaking of
(08:26):
the same program. I do knowin twenty twenty two there was a program
established by Governor Cuomo to help fundhotel conversions. Yours is the first actual
conversion underway. Why has it takenso long to get these off the ground?
You look at the city, youthink there are plenty of these transitions
that could take place. Yeah,I think there are a couple of reasons
why it has taken so long.One is just a zoning quirk that required
(08:52):
these hotel to housing conversions to existin a residential zone, and many of
the hotels, especially the hotels andthe outer boroughs that could be acquired for
a cost basis that would be workablewithin an affordable housing financing framework exist in
(09:13):
manufacturing or commercial zones. So findingthat right combination of an existing asset with
a willing seller that existed in aresidential zone and had the scale to really
make the numbers work as a pilotprogram was the big challenge and that's ultimately
what we were able to discover withthe JFK Hilton and why the project was
(09:39):
successful. You've also talked about writtenabout advocating for changes in zoning laws that
would allow more infrastructure and disinvested neighborhoodslike the West Farm section of the Bronx.
Is this related to that. Ithink it's related. It's not the
exact same zoning issue, but Ithink to overcome the the affordable housing crisis,
(10:01):
it's really requires a market based solutionthat looks to build more housing at
all levels, and that means zoninghas to be less restrictive. So whether
it's this requirement that hotel conversions mustbe in residential zones, whether it's the
overall floor area cap that is currentlyimposed on all New York City development,
(10:26):
whether it is accessory dwelling units thatpeople want to build in their backyards in
some of the lower density residential neighborhoods. These are all zoning tweaks that we
need to make as a city inorder to jumpstart more housing production at all
levels and relieve the pressure on themarket and especially on those who need affordable
(10:50):
subsidized housing. So if the currentsystem is essentially the current shelter system just
a band aid on this crisis,and if the housing crisis, the housing
issue isn't addressed, the city continuesto operate with these deadlines for migrants in
shelter, what is the near termresult of all these things. Well,
(11:13):
I think it is incredibly expensive forthe city. We know that. I
think we're spending a lot of money. We're not getting the outcomes that we
want in terms of putting the newarrivals on a path to success or putting
the existing homeless population in the cityon a path to success, and so
(11:35):
we're really wasting a lot of thismoney. I think we need to take
a step back and look at howwe can both meet the emergent need of
giving people shelter under the right toshelter laws, but do more to ensure
that they are not trapped in sheltersfor long periods of time and have feasible
(11:58):
pathways to exit in to permanent housingthat they can afford, that is safe,
that is stable, that is decent, and that is the foundation of
successful lives, economic mobility, socialmobility, and that's where we need to
be focused. Going back just thebeginning of our conversation to New York,
state legislators have introduced a bill thatwould halt the Adams Administration's thirty and sixty
(12:24):
day shelter notices for newly arrived immigrants. Your thoughts on that. I'm not
sure if that policy proposal is theright one for this moment. I think
we have an obligation as a cityto provide shelter to anyone who needs it.
That's clear, that's a legal obligation. But where we really need to
(12:45):
be focusing legislative efforts, budgetary efforts, is on shifting the mindset towards a
right to housing and coming up withstronger pathways for people to achieve permanent housing.
Transitioning out of the shelter system.What can someone listening do to contribute
to or what would you like themto take away from this conversation. Well,
(13:07):
I'd love people to think more abouta right to housing. Look at
some of the movement that has beengaining steam around some of these zoning changes
that I talked about that would helpfacilitate more housing production. The City of
Yes is a package of policy proposalsthat the Atoms administration has put forth that
(13:33):
would help create more housing in everyneighborhood across the city. And I think
getting involved with your legislators, lettingyour legislators know that you're pro housing,
that you want to see more housingbuilt, and start to raise awareness of
the fact that if we don't startbuilding more housing across the city in every
(13:54):
market, it's really going to bea huge drag on our economy moving forward.
Our guest is Scott Short, CEOof Riseboro Community Partnership. You can
find out more at Risborough dot org. Thank you for being on get Connected.
Thank you, it's my pleasure.This has been Get Connected with Nina
del Rio on one oh six pointseven Light FM. The views and opinions
(14:18):
of our guests do not necessarily reflectthe views of the station. If you
missed any part of our show orwant to share it, visit our website
for downloads and podcasts at one ohsix to seven lightfm dot com. Thanks
for listening.
Welcome to Get connected with Nina delRio, a weekly conversation about fitness,
health and happenings in our community onone Oho six point seven Light FM.
Good morning and thanks for listening toget connected. New York City's thirty and
sixty day shelter limits could be liftedthanks to a proposed bill in Albany.
But no matter what happens, onething is clear. The cities homeless need
(00:26):
a clear pathway to permanent housing.Our guest is Scott Short, CEO of
Riseborough Community Partnership, as the headof one of the largest nonprofit developers and
providers of affordable housing in New YorkCity. We'll speak about the city's shelter
system and what would be a coherentexit strategy to move folks to permanent housing.
Scott Short, thank you for beingto get connected. Thanks for having
(00:47):
me. Since nineteen seventy three,Riseboro Community Partnership has offered services designed to
support every generation and meet the needsof communities. Their unique model of holistic
community revitalism works by developing neighborhood assetslike affordable housing to create the foundation for
a more vibrant and diverse community.You can find out more at Risborough dot
(01:08):
org. That is our sebo rdot org and Scott. Maybe we can
start by just getting a little bitmore detail on what Riseboro Community Partnership does.
Sure yeah, Riseboro is a fiftyyear old community based organization that focuses
on holistic community development. So weprovide services designed to help empower marginalized communities
(01:37):
and the people who live within themto get on the path to social and
economic mobility and ultimately overcome poverty.So it is a holistic set of services
that is based on a foundation ofsafe, stable, affordable housing for all,
and then we wrap around that housingstability with services in the area of
(02:00):
health, senior services, youth andeducation, economic justice, and healthy food
and really try to provide a onestop shop for any need that someone in
the communities where we work might presentand we want to help provide the solution.
(02:20):
So let's go a little bit backin time for people who haven't really
been following what's been going on.The city's right to shelter laws, which
guaranteed anyone a bed to someone whosought one on the same day, were
functionally ended by Mayor Eric Adams atthe end of last year. Meanwhile,
as because of the number of migrantsarriving in the city grew exponentially, so
those were in place for about fortytwo years always meant to provide temporary housing.
(02:43):
Now that the law is gone,what is the city's strategy to help
people who need transitioning? What istheir strategy to get folks into permanent housing.
Well, I think the solution tosuccessful exit from shelter is multip solution,
and I think both the city andthe state have several irons in the
(03:06):
fire that could potentially alleviate the incredibledemand that we're seeing for shelter beds currently.
And I think it really all startswith shifting our mindset from a right
to shelter to a right to housing. We see that the shelter system isn't
really working for any of the stakeholders. It is a necessary intervention at a
(03:30):
time of a homelessness crisis, butit is too expensive for the city and
it is not providing the stability tothe homeless and or migrant population that are
the primary users of the shelter system. So we really need to shift our
mindset towards developing and creating more permanent, affordable housing for everyone who needs it,
(03:57):
and part of the immediate solutions thatcould get us there is a more
robust housing voucher system. The cityhas done a lot to invest in its
city the HEP system. The statehas a proposal in front of the legislature
currently called the Housing Assistance Voucher ProgramHAVP. That would be a very important
(04:19):
step to try to provide another resourcethat families could use to exit shelter and
find permanent, affordable housing. Andultimately, I think the federal government needs
to do more in terms of theSection eight program, which is one of
the most effective tools that the federalgovernment has in terms of getting people immediate
(04:42):
access to housing when they are exitingshelter. So those are some of the
short term solutions. I think onthe long term side, what we really
have as a supply crisis. We'relooking at the lowest vacancy rate in New
York City in over two decades,one point four percent, and that is
a he speaks to a market thatis really not meeting the demand for housing
(05:04):
of all types that exist in thecity, and so we really need to
focus on how can we reduce someof the barriers that currently exist to building
more housing in New York City andNew York State and supercharge the apparatus that
is going to create the supply thatwe need to solve this crisis. I
(05:25):
think the first thought might be,all this stuff is expensive. Money,
at the end of the day,is going to be the reason why some
of these things happen. The cityis spending about three billion dollars annually on
homelessness. What would a transition likethese and other points we'll talk about what
would that cost? So it isexpensive, but the cost of doing nothing
is more expensive. The housing marketis one of the biggest drags on the
(05:49):
economy in New York City and NewYork State. It is becoming increasingly hard
for employers to find the workforce thatthey need at all levels to continue to
grow businesses and grow the economy.I consider it an existential crisis for the
New York economy. If we don'tsolve this housing problem. There are plenty
(06:11):
of employers who want to be here, who want to do business here.
There are plenty of workers who wantto be here, who want to work
here, but they just can't affordit. And if we're not able to
solve this crisis eventually, it willbecome a drag on our economy, and
the financial consequences of that are fargreater than whatever investment we need to make
(06:31):
to solve the housing crisis. Ourguest is Scott Short, CEO of Riseborough
Community Partnership. Prior to becoming CEO, during his tenure in Riseborough's Housing division,
the organization developed over fourteen hundred unitsof affordable housing with total development costs
of over three hundred million, includingthe first two multi family passive houses in
New York State. You can findout more about Riseboro at Risboro dot org.
(06:56):
You're listening to get connected on oneO six point seven light FM.
I'm Nina del One of the currentprojects at Riseboro is the conversion of the
former JFK Hilton into affordable housing.Can you talk a little bit more about
that project? Sure. This isthe first hotel to housing conversion that was
done under the state's Honda program,which was formed during the pandemic in an
(07:20):
attempt to repurpose under utilized hotel assetsfor permanent supportive housing. So we're really
excited about this project. We thinkit provides a really unique model and hopefully
a model that can be replicated throughoutthe affordable housing industry that both provides a
(07:40):
pathway for folks who are long termstayers in shelter to achieve permanent affordable housing
and does it in a way thatutilizes resources that are not typically used for
the construction of affordable housing. Sothe financing model for this project did not
use the low income house using taxcredit, which is a very fixed resource
(08:03):
that is highly coveted by affordable housingdevelopers, and instead used innovative set of
financing tools that are going to createover three hundred and twenty units of permanently
affordable housing without taking a big chunkout of more limited resources that you typically
see affordable housing being used to develop. I'm not sure if you're speaking of
(08:26):
the same program. I do knowin twenty twenty two there was a program
established by Governor Cuomo to help fundhotel conversions. Yours is the first actual
conversion underway. Why has it takenso long to get these off the ground?
You look at the city, youthink there are plenty of these transitions
that could take place. Yeah,I think there are a couple of reasons
why it has taken so long.One is just a zoning quirk that required
(08:52):
these hotel to housing conversions to existin a residential zone, and many of
the hotels, especially the hotels andthe outer boroughs that could be acquired for
a cost basis that would be workablewithin an affordable housing financing framework exist in
(09:13):
manufacturing or commercial zones. So findingthat right combination of an existing asset with
a willing seller that existed in aresidential zone and had the scale to really
make the numbers work as a pilotprogram was the big challenge and that's ultimately
what we were able to discover withthe JFK Hilton and why the project was
(09:39):
successful. You've also talked about writtenabout advocating for changes in zoning laws that
would allow more infrastructure and disinvested neighborhoodslike the West Farm section of the Bronx.
Is this related to that. Ithink it's related. It's not the
exact same zoning issue, but Ithink to overcome the the affordable housing crisis,
(10:01):
it's really requires a market based solutionthat looks to build more housing at
all levels, and that means zoninghas to be less restrictive. So whether
it's this requirement that hotel conversions mustbe in residential zones, whether it's the
overall floor area cap that is currentlyimposed on all New York City development,
(10:26):
whether it is accessory dwelling units thatpeople want to build in their backyards in
some of the lower density residential neighborhoods. These are all zoning tweaks that we
need to make as a city inorder to jumpstart more housing production at all
levels and relieve the pressure on themarket and especially on those who need affordable
(10:50):
subsidized housing. So if the currentsystem is essentially the current shelter system just
a band aid on this crisis,and if the housing crisis, the housing
issue isn't addressed, the city continuesto operate with these deadlines for migrants in
shelter, what is the near termresult of all these things. Well,
(11:13):
I think it is incredibly expensive forthe city. We know that. I
think we're spending a lot of money. We're not getting the outcomes that we
want in terms of putting the newarrivals on a path to success or putting
the existing homeless population in the cityon a path to success, and so
(11:35):
we're really wasting a lot of thismoney. I think we need to take
a step back and look at howwe can both meet the emergent need of
giving people shelter under the right toshelter laws, but do more to ensure
that they are not trapped in sheltersfor long periods of time and have feasible
(11:58):
pathways to exit in to permanent housingthat they can afford, that is safe,
that is stable, that is decent, and that is the foundation of
successful lives, economic mobility, socialmobility, and that's where we need to
be focused. Going back just thebeginning of our conversation to New York,
state legislators have introduced a bill thatwould halt the Adams Administration's thirty and sixty
(12:24):
day shelter notices for newly arrived immigrants. Your thoughts on that. I'm not
sure if that policy proposal is theright one for this moment. I think
we have an obligation as a cityto provide shelter to anyone who needs it.
That's clear, that's a legal obligation. But where we really need to
(12:45):
be focusing legislative efforts, budgetary efforts, is on shifting the mindset towards a
right to housing and coming up withstronger pathways for people to achieve permanent housing.
Transitioning out of the shelter system.What can someone listening do to contribute
to or what would you like themto take away from this conversation. Well,
(13:07):
I'd love people to think more abouta right to housing. Look at
some of the movement that has beengaining steam around some of these zoning changes
that I talked about that would helpfacilitate more housing production. The City of
Yes is a package of policy proposalsthat the Atoms administration has put forth that
(13:33):
would help create more housing in everyneighborhood across the city. And I think
getting involved with your legislators, lettingyour legislators know that you're pro housing,
that you want to see more housingbuilt, and start to raise awareness of
the fact that if we don't startbuilding more housing across the city in every
(13:54):
market, it's really going to bea huge drag on our economy moving forward.
Our guest is Scott Short, CEOof Riseboro Community Partnership. You can
find out more at Risborough dot org. Thank you for being on get Connected.
Thank you, it's my pleasure.This has been Get Connected with Nina
del Rio on one oh six pointseven Light FM. The views and opinions
(14:18):
of our guests do not necessarily reflectthe views of the station. If you
missed any part of our show orwant to share it, visit our website
for downloads and podcasts at one ohsix to seven lightfm dot com. Thanks
for listening.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.