ACL continues to actively participate in the advocacy efforts of the Campaign 4 NYNY Housing to urge the Governor and the Legislative Leaders to sign the Housing MOU.
We are asking all of our members to participate TODAY in a call-in campaign to the Governor’s office. It should take less than one minute and will make a big difference in our overall advocacy. Please see instructions below. We appreciate all the work you do!
- Call 518-474-1041. It is a recorded number which gives options.
- Press “1” immediately and leave a message. Otherwise you will have to listen to the menu of options.
- Message to Leave:
“We urge Governor Cuomo to get the housing MOU DONE NOW. He made this promise more than a year ago. Over 80,000 people are homeless across the state. Every day that passes without an MOU is another day that people live in the streets and in shelters. We need the Governor to fulfill his promise and get the MOU signed now.”
As you know, Governor Cuomo committed to develop 20,000 units of supportive housing over fifteen years at last year’s State of the State Address. His 2016 executive budget included a five-year $2 billion housing and homelessness plan that included the first 6,000 supportive housing units. However, at the end of the last legislative session in June, the Governor and Legislative leaders only signed off on a $150 million Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for 1,200 units of supportive housing. The rest of the $1.82 billion has been the subject of a still unresolved MOU. Even though the Governor’s new budget removes the MOU language, there is nothing preventing this MOU from being signed now or any time before a new budget is enacted in April.
As a community, we must work together to urge our leaders to find a solution now. The homeless men, women, and children across the state cannot afford to wait for another round of negotiations.