1. Right Under Our Eyes
Poverty, Hunger and Homelessness in Affluent Westchester County (And Our Hidden Homeless)
Presentation to the College of New Rochelle March 5, 2019 By Karl Bertrand, LMSW

2. Don’t people on welfare get enough money for rent?
Unit Size
WC Fair Market Rent 2019
WC Monthly Welfare Rent Allowance
0-BR
$1,243
$ 295 (1 person)
1-BR
$1,463
$314 (2 people)
2-BR
$1,775
$426 (3 people)
3-BR
$2,283
$479 (4 people)

3. How many hours/week at minimum wage do you need to afford a 2-BR apartment in Westchester without being “housing cost-burdened”?
A) 54
B) 82
C) 112
D) 135
Answer: D) 135 (= full-time jobs)
Source: “Out of Reach 2017,” National Low Income Housing Coalition.

4. How many people of Westchester’s 949,113 residents live in poverty?
77,827 (8.2%)
Source: Census 2010 Demographic Profile Data via American FactFinder.

5. How many people in Westchester receive public assistance?
Type of Assistance
# Households
# People (estimated)
Families with Children
3,170
9,500
Individuals and Childless Couples
2,156
2,200
Food Stamps
(SNAP)
40,242
71,089
Source: 2018 Westchester County Operating Budget-Proposed, pp. C198 and C-202, public assistance caseloads are 2017 estimates and Food Stamps is actual data for June 2017.

6. Don’t Food Stamps give people enough money for food?
One in seven Americans now get Food Stamps. That’s 45.7 million Americans.
The average Food Stamp benefit is $31.50 per person per week (Jewish Council for Public Affairs.)
This translates to $1.50 per meal.
64.4% of people in poverty in Westchester do NOT receive food stamps (U.S. Census 2010 American Community Survey.)

7. How widespread is hunger in Westchester?
30 cities/towns have emergency food programs
30 soup kitchens
68 food pantries
Over 7.4 million pounds of food distributed annually by the Food Bank for Westchester
Westchester’s Food Bank estimated 200,000 Westchester residents are “food insecure.”

8. What % of Westchester households experience “food hardship”?
“Food Hardship” = not enough $ for food in last 12 months
Congressional District
Communities Included
% Households with Food Hardship
17th
Mt. Vernon, W. Yonkers,
21.3%
18th
White Plains, New Rochelle, Scarsdale, Chappaqua, E. Yonkers
8.8%
19th
Yorktown, Peekskill, northern Westchester
12.7%
Source: “Food Hardship in America ,” Food Research and Action Center, March 2011.

9. Does affluent Westchester have homeless people?
In August 1989 Yonkers alone had more homeless persons than 51 upstate New York counties combined.
As of April 1990, 1.4% of all Yonkers households were living in shelters, more than 3 times the proportion in NYC.
By 1990 Westchester County was believed to have the highest per capita rate of homelessness in the nation.

10. What caused Westchester’s high rate of homelessness?
Poverty
Inadequate welfare rent allowances
Co-op/Condo conversions (Yonkers lost 10,000 rental units (20% of total) to conversion in 5 years ( )
RACISM (71.7% of Westchester’s homeless are Black and 24% are Hispanic)
Deinstitutionalization
Drugs (e.g. crack epidemic in 1980s)

11. What caused Westchester’s high rate of homelessness?
Divorce and failure to provide child support
Less acceptance of domestic violence
Returning veterans with mental health or drug problems
Declines in Federal housing subsidies
Aging out of foster care
The “pipeline to prison” and increasing “disproportionate minority contact”
Poor education and lack of job skills

12. Does Westchester still have a homeless problem?
Today Westchester STILL has more homeless people than any other New York county outside NYC and Long Island.

13. Who are Westchester’s homeless?
153 adult women without children
446 adult men without children
487 adults in 396 families
739 children
1,827 total people
Source: Westchester County Continuum of Care Partnership for the Homeless, Point-In-Time Count 1/25/18.

14. So is homelessness in Westchester a problem we are powerless to fix?
NO!

15. Westchester Has Cut Homelessness by 60% Since It Peaked in 1991
Source: : Westchester County Department of Social Services Monthly Shelter Counts; : Westchester County Continuum of Care Partnership for the Homeless, Annual Point-In-Time Homeless Counts.

16. How did Westchester cut homelessness by 60%?
Built or renovated over 2,000 affordable housing units
Got NYS approval to double the rent allowance for 908 formerly homeless households
Got ongoing HUD funding to pay Fair Market Rent for 720 disabled and formerly homeless households
Created mobile case management systems for 1,580 mentally ill and/or chemically dependent people
Cut length of stay by focusing on “rapid rehousing”

17. The Other “Hidden” Homeless
All the Westchester numbers you’ve ever seen are the official homeless counts.
They only include those living in shelters or on the streets.
This is the definition of homelessness used by HUD, New York State and Westchester.
They don’t include the “doubled-up” homeless, those squeezed – with no legal right of tenancy – into other people’s housing.

18. Westchester’s McKinney-Vento School Homeless Data 2017-2018
District
Enrollment
# Homeless
Rate Per 1,000
Mount Vernon
7,962
910
114.3
Peekskill
3,476
438
126.0
Yonkers
26,534
419
15.8
UFSD-Tarrytowns
2,862
249
87.0
White Plains
7,189
235
32.7
Portchester-Rye
4,931
140
28.4
New Rochelle
11,083
123
11.1
Ossining
5,139 61
11.9
Mamaroneck
5,730 56
9.8
Greenburgh
1,702 30
17.6
All 18 Districts (5+)
98,965
2,797
28.3

19. Estimated Percentage of Homeless Westchester Students Who Were Doubled-Up In 2016
Total homeless students reported by BOCES in school year*
2,785
Children Aged 5-18 in Emergency or Transitional Shelters Or On Streets During 2016**
- 959
Estimated Total Schoolchildren Doubled-Up
1,826
Estimated Percentage of Homeless Schoolchildren Doubled-Up
65.6%
* Source: Data from each school district's designated Homeless Liaisons collected by Southern Westchester BOCES' Homeless Student Program.
** Source: Westchester County Continuum of Care Partnership for the Homeless Homeless Management Information System, number of children aged 5-18 reported as unsheltered or living in emergency or transitional shelters in Westchester at any time during calendar year 2016.

20. Westchester’s Hidden Homeless
This is one of the first public estimates of the number of doubled-up homeless children in Westchester
Westchester has over 1,800 homeless doubled-up school-age children
Westchester has twice as many homeless schoolchildren living doubled-up as it has living in homeless shelters
Doubled-up households are NOT eligible for homeless housing subsidies from HUD, NYS or Westchester County
Doubled-Up families ARE called homeless by U.S. Ed Dept.
No one has ANY statistical data on the living conditions of these 1,800 'hidden homeless" schoolchildren

21. What We Don’t Know About Westchester’s Hidden Homeless
How many don’t have beds
How many have lost everything in a fire, domestic violence or hurried eviction (e.g. living out of a plastic bag)
How many are “severely overcrowded” (>1.5 per room)
How many are “unstably housed” (i.e. “families with children or unaccompanied youth (up to age 24) who:
have not had a lease or ownership interest in a housing unit in the last 60 or more days,
have had two or more moves in the last 60 days, and
who are likely to continue to be unstably housed because of disability or multiple barriers to employment.”

22. Why Minimum Housing Standards Matter
WCDSS “Homeless Diversion” units won’t place families in shelters if safe & adequate alternative housing is available
Shelters = case management, meals, housing placement & eligibility for “shelter supplement” doubled rent allowance
NYS offers operating & supportive service funding (Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative: ESSHI) for new permanent homeless housing that can serve doubled up

23. What We Need To Do Collect and assess the need data
Build public and political support for establishing minimum standards for alternative housing:
WITH a bed,
not “severely overcrowded”
NOT “unstably housed”

24. Karl Bertrand, LMSW Co-Chair, Westchester County Continuum of Care Partnership for the Homeless President/CEO, Program Design and Development, LLC 47 Wayside Drive White Plains, NY (914)