ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The solution to homelessness in Rochester is affordable housing, according to the organizer of a recent count of the city’s homeless population.
“Affordable housing,” said Charles Bollinger, Deputy Director of Partners Ending Homelessness, when asked about the solution to the homeless issue.
Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “And we don’t have that?”
Charles Bollinger: “No we don’t. We don’t have enough. We don’t have enough affordable housing.”
Nick Coulter runs Persons Centered Housing Options, a group that helped count the number of homeless people in Rochester. Part of his team counted a 48-year-old man who slept in a car and a 30-year-old woman who was four months pregnant.
Berkeley Brean: “The city doesn’t have enough affordable housing. What does affordable mean?”
Nick Coulter: “HUD defines affordable as being able to pay 30% of your income.”
“That means that people that are below 50% of the area median income are eligible and they only pay 30% of their income per unit,” Coulter said.
The census says the area’s median income is $46,000.
Berkeley Brean: “So 30% is different from one person to another.”
Nick Coulter: “Correct. If I’m making $1,000 a month, obviously 30% of my income is going to be 300 plus dollars. If I’m making no income, 30% of my income is zero.”
Berkeley Brean: “How many more affordable units do we need to have enough?”
Nick Coulter: “I’ll give you a snapshot. We have a thousand-plus people that are experiencing homelessness right now. We have another several thousand people that are doubling up in apartments, that are paying above the 30% rule.”
“The issue is that these affordable housing units take five-plus years sometimes to get done,” Coulter said.
Cecilia’s Place on Central Park near the Public Market used to be an old abandoned warehouse. Now it’s 15 affordable units and most of the people there either came from a shelter or the street.
“We took a three-story warehouse that used to supply the community with furniture,” Coulter said.
The city’s housing booklet says over the last few years, 3,000 affordable housing units have been built in Rochester.
The final count of homeless people in the community will be tallied sometime in the spring.
Link to News10NBC Story and video below: