Alex Gomez (Coalition for the Homeless) calls for 60,000 units for homeless New Yorkers

Good afternoon.

My name is Alex Gomez with Coalition for the Homeless and Homes for NYC.

Homes for NYC is a coalition of service providers, advocacy organizations, and experts working to increase affordable housing for homeless and extremely low-income New Yorkers.

We are calling on the mayor to increase capital funding and build 60,000 units of affordable housing for homeless and extremely low-income New Yorkers.

Along with some of my other colleagues here as well.

Last month, over 96,000 people, 96,000 people,

Slept in New York City shelters on average every night, including over 30,000 children.

That does not include people sleeping unsheltered or the estimated 200,000 New Yorkers doubled and tripled up in someone else's home before they inevitably end up in shelter.

The number of people without homes in the cities continue to increase.

Homelessness is the consequence of our housing crisis, specifically the lack of homes renting for prices that low-income households can afford.

73% of extremely low-income households in New York are severely rent-burdened, as previously mentioned, meaning they pay more than 50% of their monthly income on rent.

Evictions disproportionately impact extremely low-income homes as well.

Between 2020 and 2025, the top 10 zip codes with the highest eviction rates were concentrated in the Bronx, where more than half of households earned less than $53,000.

That's right at the very low income level.

Yet despite record levels of affordable housing production in recent years, only 21% of new affordable housing units over the last decade

were available to extremely low-income households, 21% for a vast majority of the city.

While block by block contains some significant commitments to address homelessness, it fails to articulate a vision of housing production that would significantly reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness.

May I wrap?

Thank you.

The production target falls short for the lowest income New Yorker.

A 40% increase in homeless set-aside units does not come close to the 50,000 households currently in shelter,

nor do the 24,000 units of affordable housing for ELI households in 2027 and 2028 are going to be able to match that 50,000 households in shelter as well.

So we're calling on the city to commit to 12,000 units of truly affordable housing a year for the next five years, 60,000 units in total reserved for homeless and extremely low-income New Yorkers, because it is time for the city to build housing for those who need it most.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much to this panel.

Next panel is Ravnak Zamal, Jessica Balgobin, Amalia de la Iglesia, and Tussif Hassan.

Yeah, she's Iglesias, right, Amelia?

And the following panel will be from Local 3 so that you are ready.

So whoever is ready can begin.