Group warns homelessness will increase without housing vouchers

Advocacy group Coalition for the Homeless says the recession combined with the city’s policy of denying federal housing vouchers to the homeless will worsen homelessness in coming months. The Bloomberg administration ended the longstanding practice of homeless families’ receiving priority for federal housing vouchers in October 2004. “We felt that it was a mistake in policy four years ago when they did it, and it’s even more mistaken now, given the recession and the rising numbers of homeless families,” said Patrick Markee, a senior policy analyst with the coalition. According to data analyzed by the coalition, the economic downturn drove nearly 110,000 people into city shelters in 2008. Heather Janik, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Homeless Services, said that in 2008, the department helped place 8,269 families in permanent housing, an increase of more than 30 percent from 2007.

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