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New York City and New York State have agreed to a $1 billion initiative that would more than double the amount of “supportive housing” for chronically homeless people in the city, possibly include projects in Queens.
Supportive housing is subsidized permanent housing where residents are also offered social services like medical treatment and emotional counseling. Two previous agreements in the 1990s created 5,300 such units. The new initiative, called New York/New York III, seeks to build an additional 9,000 units.

“Our goal is nothing short of ending chronic homelessness through proven, cost-effective solutions like prevention and supportive housing – and we’re taking a giant step in that direction today,” said Mayor Mike Bloomberg. “Investing in solutions and reducing reliance on expensive shelter is good for our neighborhoods, taxpayers, and, most importantly, homeless New Yorkers.”

The new initiative will attempt to reach out to a wider range of homeless people, including those with HIV and substance abuse problems. Previous supportive housing programs had only dealt with single adults with mental illness and some history of homelessness.

While exact sites have not yet been chosen for the new housing units, in the past officials have tried to spread construction around the city, according to Neill Coleman, spokesman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which is spearheading the effort. Queens would be a likely location for at least some of the units, he said.

“I’m sure that will be the case,” Coleman said.

In April, the mayor announced that a $14 million, 100-unit supportive housing facility called Immaculata Hall would be built in Jamaica with funding from a previous New York/New York initiative. That project could serve as a model for future developments in the borough, Coleman said.

Gloria Black, chairwoman of Community Board 12, said her district needs more affordable housing for low and middle-income residents, not the homeless.

“We already have problems with shelters and the indigenous poor,” Black said. “I would have a problem with more houses coming in for the homeless with we already have here in Southeast Queens.”

New York City has one of the lowest ratios of street homeless to the general population, according to a study by HOPE 2005, a homeless advocate organization. Queens accounts for 8 percent of the homeless in the city, second to Staten Island, the study said.