HPRP-Yonkers
The City of Yonkers’ Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program (HPRP) received $1,533,003 in federal HPRP funding and is designed to achieve two purposes:
- prevent evictions of Yonkers tenants who have recently lost employment income but have a recent history of housing stability and the potential to become self-sufficient within 18 months or less, and
- help homeless people from Yonkers now living in emergency or transitional housing to move into permanent housing.
The City of Yonkers’ HPRP contract with HUD began July 30, 2009 and is expected to be completed within 20 months. Major partners in this project include:
- the City of Yonkers will serve as grant administrator;
- CLUSTER Housing Resource Center will provide outreach, enrollment, budget counseling, case management on issues affecting housing stability, quarterly financial reassessments for all households receiving financial assistance, and follow-up;
- Legal Services of the Hudson Valley will provide legal services including representation in housing court and advocacy regarding housing and entitlements;
- Westchester Residential Opportunities will distribute rent subsidies arranged through our Eviction Prevention component and help identify available housing for people who need to find more suitable housing;
- Westhab will manage the Rapid Rehousing component and distribute funds for moving-related expenses arranged in coordination with our Eviction Prevention component.
This project’s major deliverables include the following:
- 40 households will receive financial assistance to help prevent their eviction,
- 40 households will receive budget counseling and case management,
- 15 households will receive financial assistance with moving-related costs in order to move to a more suitable apartment as part of their long-term housing stabilization strategy,
- 100 households will receive legal services, and
- 60 homeless households will move into permanent housing.
Locally-Determined Eligibility Criteria for Yonkers HPRP: All participants must have been residents of Yonkers within the last 12 months (for Eviction Prevention) or within the last 24 months (for Rapid Rehousing).
Eviction Prevention recipients must also meet ALL 3 of the following criteria:
- Participants must have a history of recent housing stability (defined as at least 12 consecutive months of independent living at the same address within the last 36 months);
- Participants must provide all documentation needed to establish program eligibility and appropriateness (including copy of lease, evidence of income, etc.);
- Participants must have at least 2 of the following risk factors for homelessness listed in HUD’s "Notice of Allocations, Application Procedures, and Requirements for Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program Grantees", dated 6/8/09;
- Eviction within 2 weeks from a private dwelling (including housing provided by family or friends);
- Discharge within 2 weeks from an institution in which the person has been a resident for more than 180 days (including prisons, mental health institutions, hospitals);
- Residency in housing that has been condemned by housing officials and is no longer meant for human habitation;
- Sudden and significant loss of income;
- Sudden and significant increase in utility costs;
- Mental health or substance abuse issues;
- Physical disabilities or other chronic health issues, including HIV/AIDS;
- Severe housing cost burden (greater than 50% of income for housing costs);
- Homeless in last 12 months;
- Young head of household (under 25 with children or pregnant);
- Current or past involvement with child welfare, including foster care;
- Pending foreclosure of rental housing;
- Extremely low income (less than 30% of Area Median Income);
- High overcrowding (the number of persons exceeds health and/or safety standards for the housing unit size);
- Past institutional care (prison, treatment facility, hospital);
- Recent traumatic life event, such as death of a spouse or primary care provider, or recent health crisis that prevented the household from meeting its financial responsibilities;
- Credit problems that preclude obtaining of housing; or
- Significant amount of medical debt.
Locally-Determined Preference: For Eviction Prevention only, preference will be given to participants who have lost a job or had their employment income reduced by at least 10% over the last 12 months.
Note: Only a limited number of households can receive assistance through this program. Final decisions on which households to enroll will be based on subjective assessments balancing each household’s relative severity of need vs. their prospects for rapidly achieving self-sufficiency.
UPCOMING EVENTS
NEXT MEETING
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Time: 9:00am
Notes: This meeting will be followed at 10:00 by a meeting of the Yonkers Truancy Prevention Resource Coordination WorkGroup, and at 11:00 by a Yonkers Drug Free Communities Coalition meeting.
Location: Training Room A on the fourth floor of the Board of Education building.
Driving Directions
2009
December 2 12N Third Floor Conference Room
Department of Planning and Development
87 Nepperhan Avenue
February 3 12N Third Floor Conference Room Department of Planning and Development 87 Nepperhan Avenue
April 7 12N Third Floor Conference Room Department of Planning and Development 87 Nepperhan Avenue
June 2 12N Third Floor Conference Room Department of Planning and Development 87 Nepperhan Avenue
August 4 12N Third Floor Conference Room Department of Planning and Development 87 Nepperhan Avenue
October 6 12N Third Floor Conference Room Department of Planning and Development 87 Nepperhan Avenue
