Gaining Support for 12,000 New Supportive Housing Units in New York City
Public and nonprofit agencies in New York City face an extraordinary challenge: building 20,000 new units of supportive housing for mentally disabled homeless people throughout the five boroughs. That’s why the Supportive Housing Network of New York (SHNNY) turned to GCA and its national reputation for winning political and community support for controversial projects to help overcome NIMBY resistance to housing and services for special populations.
Working with the Network, GCA convened a series of roundtables and discussion forums with mental health, housing, and homeless service providers. GCA outlined citywide outreach strategies to promote public acceptance for supportive housing, including outreach to New York City religious organizations and the creation of a citywide database of pro-housing citizen advocates. GCA produced comprehensive “key messages” for individual housing proposals, a prototypical endorsement card, and a standardized telephone recruitment script to turn pro-housing attitudes into pro-housing action. In-depth training sessions provided SHNNY’s member agencies the training they need to deal with angry or suspicious neighbors and to get citizens to say “yes” to supportive housing in their own backyards.
GCA projects are successful projects. Check out www.shnny.org