State Budget's First Victim? NYC's Homeless Families!

Governor Cuomo may be warning of a government shutdown if a budget (preferably his) is not passed by April Fools, but his budget proposal has already effectively shutdown Advantage, a city program intended to reduce homelessness. The program—which helped 15,000 households with working family members by subsidizing up to $1,100 a month toward rent for up to two years (in comparison, paying to put a family in the shelter system for a month costs about $3,000)—was four years old.

A FAQ on the homepage of the city's Department of Homeless Service website explains the situation like this: "The proposed State Budget withdraws all federal and state support for the program which terminates the City’s authority and fiscal ability to run the Advantage program. The City strongly disagrees with the State’s decision."

The city says the budget for the Advantage program is $140 million (of which the state pays $65, the feds pay $27 and the city pays $48) while the state claims the program only costs $103 million and thinks the city is bluffing about the funds—earlier in the month a Cuomo aide told the Times "The reality is that, regardless of this year’s anticipated cuts, New York City has the funds to support the continuation of this program if it so chooses." And Cuomo's people aren't the only ones saying the city isn't quite telling the truth.

Whatever the case, the program appears to be dunzo. Advantage stopped accepting new applicants and signing leases earlier in the month and has now announced that it won't be sending out rent subsidies for the month of April. Which means 15,000 families which have only recently been able to get themselves off of the streets and into their own homes will be scrambling to pay rents that they thought were already covered.

Not that everyone is mourning the end of the program. The Coalition for the Homeless has a pretty strong argument that the "failed" program should be scrapped and replaced with a less costly system in which homeless families targeted for federal housing assistance (possibly along with a dramatically reformed Advantage program).