By Claire Silberman
7/31/19
Ok, it’s kind of clickbait. This summer I’ve been a Policy and Advocacy (PandA) intern at the Supportive Housing Network of New York, which is a non-profit membership organization in Midtown Manhattan. The Network represents over 200 nonprofits, corporate partners, and stakeholders in New York supportive housing. Collectively, our members operate 52,000 units statewide. Our staff of 13 works to advocate, educate and share best practices to assist our members and advance New York’s supply of supportive housing.
The Network staff at our June conference.
At this point you might be wondering what exactly supportive housing is — as was I at the beginning of the summer. Supportive housing combines affordable housing with onsite social services for people with a disability or special needs. Clients come from a variety of backgrounds and populations: chronically homeless individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), families led by a parent with SMI, individuals with substance abuse disorders or HIV/AIDS, youth aging out of foster care, and survivors of domestic violence. Deinstitutionalization of psychiatric facilities in the mid 20th century, coupled with the mass destruction of low-cost single room occupancy (SRO) units, gentrification, and rising rents led to widespread homelessness in New York. On a given night, almost 92,000 people experience homelessness statewide.
The back patio at Melrose Commons, a supportive housing building in the Bronx. Residents can relax, play ping pong, or garden herbs to use in their kitchens.
I work with the policy and advocacy team and thus had the opportunity to approach the issue of homelessness from a systemic lens. I spent a lot of my time prepping for the National Alliance to End Homelessness conference in DC and scheduling our lobby day. In total, Network staff had 28 meetings with NY congressional offices, and a highlight of my internship was leading four of them. In preparation for the meetings I got to learn all about different federal housing programs and funding streams like the Affordable Housing Tax Credit, McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Grants, the HOME Investment Partnership, the Housing Trust Fund and Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, to name a few. Getting familiar with the strategic marketing of effective advocacy campaigns was particularly fascinating–what data to use, which legislators to target, and how best to frame the message to engage the legislator. As a membership organization, we are tasked with representing our members interests to the people who represent them. In order to make our advocacy stronger, we often take part in coalitions and coalition building. For me, that meant I got to learn about the unique rewards and challenges of collaboration within and between different sectors with slightly varying, nuanced interests.
PandA meeting agenda, complete with baby panda pictures, featuring my sticky note addiction and chicken scratch to-do lists.
Another one of my favorite tasks this summer was researching and writing policy memos. My projects ranged from analyzing the impact of a proposed regulation to change the federal poverty level index, to comparing Medicaid policy across states. I also worked on a state legislation tracker which would help the policy team stay on top of which bills and legislators to watch for the upcoming session. This was important to me as I could witness firsthand how academic research can have real world policy consequences; I loved seeing how my classes apply to on-the-ground advocacy.
Outside the Capitol on lobby day (coincidentally also the Mueller hearing day).
Due to the nature of the legislature, policy and advocacy work needs consistent attention to keep current with new bills and electeds. Future interns will need to do similar work and keep pressure on elected officials to maintain a commitment to the most basic housing needs of vulnerable New Yorkers.
