Nonprofit Talk: The task of serving NYC’s most vulnerable during a pandemic

Áine Duggan is the president and CEO of The Partnership for the Homeless. Photo courtesy PTH

By Áine Duggan, as told to the Eagle

 Áine Duggan is the president and CEO of The Partnership for the Homeless, which serves people throughout the five boroughs. The Partnership seeks to solve homelessness by preventing it with robust programming for New Yorkers at-risk of or experiencing homelessness — now and for future generations. Our work is putting the building blocks in place to address immediate housing needs, create stability through important health interventions, disrupt generational homelessness and change the public narrative about homelessness.

How has your organization navigated the pandemic?

Our clients are among those hit hardest by the virus and its economic fallout, so our work has intensified on two fronts. We are taking care of the immediate housing and emergency needs of our clients, and we are partnering with and sharing resources with other frontline organizations. Simultaneously, we are working to get the message out to local and national leaders about what is needed to safeguard people in their homes now and in the wake of the pandemic, particularly resources for rental assistance to prevent a tsunami of evictions in the months ahead.  

How are you now serving your constituents/clients/program participants?

Since the beginning of the lockdown, we have been working remotely to maintain all of our services for clients. In March, we engaged in a client well-being assessment and conducted interviews with clients going back over three years. All client intake and meetings are being conducted via telephone and video conferencing, and this past month we restarted our client support group work on virtual platforms. 

How are you balancing the needs of your clients with the level of risk to your employees?

Our services and operations in this time have been designed to mitigate risk to clients and employees, alike. By temporarily working virtually no one needs to engage in unnecessary travel. We are also working with our funders and government agencies to make virtual services possible for clients across our suite of programs.  

What types of support do you most need support now?

Our greatest concern is the increasing number of New Yorkers struggling to pay rent. With more than one million people losing work, we are receiving more crisis calls from people who fear losing their homes when the eviction moratorium ends. Individual donors are showing amazing leadership by sending checks to help fellow New Yorkers pay their rent. We need our federal government to follow the leadership of the people and provide more disaster relief funding in the form of rental assistance. Private businesses and philanthropic support for rental assistance will also help our fellow New Yorkers keep their homes. 

What programs/services have you had to cut back on, and are you hiring for any positions?

The biggest challenge is not being able to conduct in-person client interactions. While we are able to provide some essential services virtually, our clients and staff are missing the relationship element of the in-person meetings as well as the peer-to-peer support clients provide to each other in support groups. Virtual meeting platforms are a helpful short-term measure, but they cannot replace the in-person services that clients tell us they need and value.

We are currently recruiting for open positions we had going into the pandemic, in our housing and mental health programs - the two areas of greatest need. 

 What do you think the future holds for your sector as a result of the pandemic?

The immediate future holds two possibilities. The pandemic has underscored home as being core to health and safety, and has shown all of us that funding can be made available when the political will to do so exists. One possibility is that this lesson will prevail past the immediacy of the pandemic and our government leaders will invest in the affordable housing, rental assistance and voucher programs that would ensure a safe home for everyone. The other is that we will not make these investments and pretend the eviction moratorium alone is the solution, and in a few short months, we will begin to experience the worst eviction and homelessness crisis in modern history. The choice is ours.

Learn more about The Partnership for the Homeless at partnershipforthehomeless.org