HomeBase Homeless Prevention Program
HomeBase is designed to help individuals and families avoid the trauma of homelessness by helping overcome the immediate problems and obstacles that could result in the loss of housing. Program services are crafted to meet the unique needs of each individual or family and to help meet the demands of maintaining a household. Currently, the HomeBase program is available to individuals or families in six community districts - Mott Haven/South Bronx (CD1), East Tremont (CD6), Bedford Stuyvesant (CD3), Bushwick (CD4), East Harlem (CD11), and Jamaica (CD12).

HASA Housing Services
The Human Resource Administration's HIV & AIDS Service Administration (HASA) provides emergency, transitional, permanent housing assistance and rental assistance services to individuals and families with AIDS.

The NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance administers the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP), which may help offset some home heating costs.

Anti-Eviction and SRO Legal Services
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) contracts with nonprofit organizations providing legal representation and technical assistance to low-and moderate-income tenants of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) buildings. Also, anti-illegal eviction services to this population and seniors. If you are in need of assistance, contact a provider in your home borough:

LawHelp
The LawHelp Web site provides family and single adult tenants with a list of non-profit legal services providers that offer representation for those facing eviction.

Victims of Domestic Violence
If you have been the victim of a recent incident of domestic abuse, you have the following options:

Call 911 if you are in an emergency situation.
If you require emergency shelter (domestic violence shelter), or need help figuring out the options, call the NYC Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-621-HOPE (TDD 800-810-7444).

You may also find the following hotlines and Web sites useful:

• Crime Victims Hotline 212-577-7777
• Rape & Sexual Assault Hotline 212-227-3000
• Department of Youth and Community Development's Domestic Violence Awareness and Intervention page
• A list of non-residential DV services can be found on the HRA Web site

In the longer term you may be eligible to request housing from the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), which provides priority housing to Victims of Domestic Violence (DV) in both the public housing and Section 8 programs. NYCHA tenants who move in with a DV priority will be offered After-Care supportive services.
Learn more about Section 8 Program

Department of Homeless Services Intake Centers:

If you are in need of immediate emergency housing, please visit the Department of Homeless Services web site at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/html/home/home.shtml

Public Housing 
In order to be considered for an apartment in a public housing development, a completed application must be submitted. Applications for public housing may be picked up from any of the five Borough Applications Offices or you may call the Applications Offices to have an application mailed to you. Applicants select a first and second borough choice and provide information about their total household income, family composition and current living situation. Completed applications must be mailed to:

NEW YORK CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY
Post Office Box 1342
Church Street Station
New York, NY 10008

Applications are assigned a priority code based upon the information provided, and placed on the Housing Authority’s preliminary waiting list to await an eligibility interview. Within several weeks of our receiving of your application you will receive an acknowledgement letter.

Applicants are scheduled for an eligibility interview based upon the following:

• The Authority counts the number of vacancies at each development and determines how many applications are needed to fill anticipated vacancies over a 9-month period.
  
  
• The Authority determines the number of applicants needed to be interviewed that would complete the application process and result in the number of rentals needed to fill those anticipated vacancies in each borough and its developments. A computer finally selects applicants on a borough by borough basis, based upon their first borough choice, apartment size required, housing priority and date of application and schedules them for an eligibility interview.

Borough Choice is a significant factor in determining how soon an applicant will be selected for an interview. Therefore, it is important for applicants to select their first borough choice carefully. The Authority has longer waiting lists and fewer vacancies in the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens. Applicants selecting one of these boroughs as their first borough choice will probably take longer to be reached on the preliminary waiting list.

All applicants scheduled for an eligibility interview are asked to appear at the Housing Applications Office located in the borough in which they reside. Applicants who are "mobility impaired" or who have some other type of disability that would make it a hardship for them to appear in person for their eligibility interview, can request that a telephone interview be scheduled. In addition, the Authority makes every effort to provide Bi-Lingual staff to meet the various language needs of applicants.

At the eligibility interview the applicant’s family size and composition, housing priority, total family income and citizenship/immigration status are determined. If the family is income eligible and all requested documentation is received, their application is sent to the Department of Housing Application’s screening unit. There are 2 steps to screening:

• Criminal background check for all household members age 16 or older
  
  
• Current and / or previous landlord contact

If the screening process determines that the family meets the Authority’s Standards for Admission, the family is found eligible. Depending on the housing priority and family size, an applicant may be offered the option to select a specific development or to be placed on a borough-wide waiting list. Emergency applicants which include homeless, victims of domestic violence and intimidated witnesses, and all families requiring 5 bedrooms or more, are only entitled to a borough choice. All other applicants are permitted to select a development. Health Emergency applicants have the option of project choice or borough choice.

For more information about NYCHA please see the NYCHA Fact Sheet and the NYCHA Web site.

Guide To Housing Developments, English
Guide To Housing Developments, Spanish

Federally Subsidized Housing
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) also provides a list of affordable apartments that are subsidized. In order to be eligible for these apartments, you must meet certain income requirements. These limits may be found at http://www.huduser.org/datasets/il/il05/index.html. If you are eligible for a subsidized apartment, visit HUD's site and go to the subsidized apartment search page to find apartments available in New York. The HUD list is updated daily, and you can search for apartments for family, disabled, and elderly.

Definitions:
Disabled
Federal laws define a person with a disability as "Any person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; has a record of such impairment; or is regarded as having such an impairment." In general, a physical or mental impairment includes hearing, mobility and visual impairments, chronic alcoholism, chronic mental illness, AIDS, AIDS Related Complex, and mental retardation that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Major life activities include walking, talking, hearing, seeing, breathing, learning, performing manual tasks, and caring for oneself.

Elderly
Housing for the elderly usually addresses the needs of those 65 or older; however, some developments may accommodate adults who are 55 or older, or 62 or older. For information on eligibility, contact the development in which you are interested.

Are you seeking Supportive Housing?
Supportive housing provides permanent housing in which formerly homeless, low-income and disabled people can live independently, with support and assistance provided through on-site social services funded by the City and State. These housing units are intended for tenants who need assistance in overcoming the issues that led to their previous homelessness. Supportive services such as case management, front desk crisis counseling, substance abuse and mental health counseling, and job readiness and job training are offered on-site.

For general information on supportive housing, affordable housing, and shelters, visit the web site of the Supportive Housing Network, a non-profit advocacy organization, at www.shnny.org. In addition, you can get a free download of their June 2005 Guide to Supportive Housing Resources in New York.

For more information on HPD's Supportive Housing Loan Program, which provides financing to not-for-profit organizations to develop supportive housing, click here.