The New York City Department of Homeless Services (DHS)

As the only city in the nation where homeless people have a legal right to shelter provided by the municipality, New York City has a governmental agency that coordinates the federal, state, and local funding of crisis shelters for homeless single adults link and families, and contracts with local non-profits for an array of services for these groups, such as outreach to the street homeless, transitional and permanent housing, a housing subsidy program, and community-based homelessness prevention.

The Department's well-developed and long-standing administrative data systems have been used for landmark studies of shelter utilization patterns (Culhane and Metraux 1999; Metraux et al. 2003; Culhane et al. 2007) and shelter policy (O'Flaherty and Wu 2006; O'Flaherty and Wu 2008). Since the mid-1990's, a productive partnership with DHS has fostered NIH-funded grant projects (Caton et al. 2005; Schanzer et al. 2007); most recently the NIDA-funded R01 on HIV Risk among Homeless Mothers (Caton et al. 2009). In addition, Center faculty have worked with DHS staff on a qualitative study of pathways to homelessness using narrative histories of housing and services experiences of men and women entering DHS assessment facilities from three contrasting neighborhoods, in order to examine circumstances and turning points in transitions to shelter (Barrow 2009). O'Flaherty and Messeri are currently working with DHS on an evaluation of the agency's innovative homeless prevention program. The Center's Providers and Stakeholders group includes DHS Deputy Commissioner for Policy and Planning Ellen Howard-Cooper who participates in various Center activities. Robert Hess, Commissioner, serves as a Center Senior Advisor.