Senior Supervising Attorney Abby Biberman testified to the State Senate on the state of housing and homelessness in NYC, advocating for the Home Stability Support program, the implementation of a housing access voucher program, and the elimination of the public assistance resource test. Below is an excerpt:
“An adult recipient of public assistance with one dependent child is maximally eligible for the basic shelter allowance of $283, an amount that will not even rent a private room for this family in any of our five boroughs. This same family will have been forced to deplete any savings they may have had in order to apply for public assistance, thereby putting them in the almost impossible position of transitioning off of benefits. And finally, because this family’s benefit level is so low, and the cost of living so high, they are also even more likely to encounter the shelter system at one time or another. NYLAG offers the following recommendations to help address these issues.”
