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Housing
 In
New York City, as in many large urban areas across the country, the
cost of housing takes up the largest slice of the financial pie for
residents across the economic spectrum. Creative housing solutions
for low and moderate-income families can provide major opportunities
to fight poverty. Such housing can anchor and rejuvenate marginal
communities, creating new businesses and jobs while providing
affordable housing for needy families that hover above the poverty
line.
Our nearly three decades of
experience in combating poverty has demonstrated, time and again,
that poverty prevention begins with affordable shelter. We are proud
to be one of NYC's largest providers of affordable housing to the
poor and near-poor, with more than 1000 units of housing in
operation.
In addition to providing housing,
we work closely with communities, government and private developers
to increase economic activity in neighborhoods, to ensure housing,
jobs, and business opportunities. Met Council continues to be at the
vanguard in providing solutions to the housing problems of New York
City's poor and near poor.
Homeless and
Mentally Disabled
A combination of government
grants, private investments, and foundation gifts has enabled
Met Council to operate a number of housing facilities for
those truly in abject poverty. Met Council's tenants include
formerly homeless mentally disabled men and women and homeless women
and children.
Our first project was Metro House developed in 1992 on Manhattan's
Upper West Side and later relocated to the Bronx. This facility
provides housing for 54 formerly homeless, mentally disabled men and
women. Abraham Residence I and II in Seagate, Brooklyn, and Abraham
House III on First Avenue in Manhattan, provide more such housing.
Sixty homeless women and their children have found a safe haven in
Met Council's Hillside House. Here they find shelter and receive
counseling, referral to health and community services and assistance
in locating employment and permanent housing.
The Elderly
For many of the elderly poor,
decent affordable housing is simply unavailable on the open market.
Met Council has received four federal HUD Section 202 grants and
foundation grants to develop such housing. These buildings, the
Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Council Towers I, II, III, and IV,
located in Brooklyn and the Bronx provide decent and affordable
housing for hundreds of New York's elderly.
Mindful that New York's population is aging, and that the
frail and needy elderly can all too easily fall through the cracks
of government programs, Met Council continues to work hard to meet
the growing need for affordable assisted-living and housing for the
elderly. A new project, currently under development in Staten
Island, will provide over 500 units of affordable independent and
assisted living for the elderly.
All together, Met Council houses more than 1,250 needy New Yorkers -
individuals and families who might otherwise be living in the
streets, in shelters or in sub-standard conditions.
Basic Needs
In addition to providing housing
to needy New Yorkers, Met Council works round-the-clock to provide
crisis intervention, preventing eviction, providing health care,
food, clothing, furniture and other basic necessities of daily life,
to many thousands more. We know that without our efforts, tens of
thousands of needy New Yorkers would be left to fend for themselves and
would become even more vulnerable.
Family Crisis
Intervention
At Met Council, our crisis
intervention team works 365 days a year to help more than 100,000
people avoid eviction, obtain medical and pharmaceutical assistance,
receive emergency donations of food, shelter and furniture, and
prevent domestic violence and abuse. Our domestic violence
intervention includes assisting clients in obtaining government
entitlements, orders of protection, and emergency shelter for those
families fleeing an abusive situation. In addition, Met Council has
spearheaded an investigation into the problem of "at-risk"
youth in the Orthodox community and is designing appropriate
intervention strategies.
Home Health Care
Met Council has forged an
important link between the need for homecare for the elderly poor
and the need for employment for the working-age poor. Since 1985 Met
Council has trained over 21,000 home attendants. Our training is so
effective that the City government is beginning to adopt some of our
innovations! Some 3000 elderly poor receive home attendant services
through our program every day. Without Met Council, many of these
people would be forced to live in nursing homes at far greater
expense to their families and tax payers, while being deprived of
the dignity of living in their own surroundings.
Project Machson
 In
operation since 1989, when it was initiated through a state
legislative grant, Met Council's warehouse distribution program
solicits new and used furniture and clothing. We then provide these
goods to indigent families and individuals including newly arrived
and recently settled needy immigrants. Three trucks pick up
merchandise from donors and deliver essential items to approximately
200 families per month. These trucks also assist with the
distribution of food to Jewish Community Councils during the Jewish
holidays. In addition, Met Council operates the Machson Mobile, a
clothing distribution center on wheels that provides new and used
clothing to thousands of poor New Yorkers.
Food Program
Our food program helps more than
100,000 hungry and destitute New Yorkers per year. These include the
homeless, those in crisis, recent immigrants, and the elderly. Our
centralized food distribution system, operated in conjunction with
the local Jewish Community Councils and other community-based
organizations across the city, includes a number of neighborhood
outlets and pantries, as well as monthly food packages and food
vouchers redeemable in local supermarkets. We work especially hard
during the holidays, providing communal meals as well as family
packages and supermarket vouchers. With funding supplied by a
combination of government and foundation grants, Met Council's
trucks and vans allow us to more easily pick up donated food and
distribute packaged meals to needy households. The purchase of these
vehicles enabled the agency to significantly increase the volume of
food distributed on an annual basis.
Project Metropair
and the Handyman Program
Through these two programs,
income eligible elderly and Holocaust survivors who face safety or
security concerns in their homes and apartments can count on Met
Council to respond quickly when there is faulty plumbing, a broken
window or the need to install adequate security and safety devices
such as window-guards or bathtub safety rails.
Camp Scholarships
Each year, Met Council assists
hundreds of children from needy families throughout the metropolitan
area to attend summer camps. The boys and girls attend a variety of
day and sleep-away camps, including some specially designed for the
disabled. In most cases, Met Council's funds are matched by
assistance from other sources, including contributions from the
campers' families. All of these scholarships, large and small,
enable hundreds of children, whose lives may be somewhat difficult
the rest of the year, to experience several weeks of joy and
excitement.
Services for
Holocaust Survivors
With the majority of Holocaust
survivors now in their senior years, Met Council has taken steps to
address their needs and provide emergency financial assistance where
necessary. With public and private financial support, we have been
able to make a number of our services available to this particularly
vulnerable population, including Project Metropair, Project Machson,
emergency cash assistance, crisis intervention, senior housing, and
home care.
Employment
Services
 With
the goal of self sufficiency through productive and sustained
employment, Met Council’s Employment and Vocational Training
programs have experienced consistent growth and success since they
began in 1992. We have regularly exceeded our contracted performance
goals. The success of these programs directly reduces the number of
people on public assistance and those in danger of falling below the
poverty line. This allows both our individual clients and the larger
economy to flourish.
Our target populations include
new immigrants (mostly from the former Soviet Union) seeking safety
in the USA, older workers, dislocated workers, and Jewish women with
a history of domestic violence. Through the efforts of dedicated job
development, vocational counseling, and vocational skills training
teams, jobseekers are able to benefit from variety of employment
opportunities. Specialized interventions include workshops and
seminars on job market realities, work readiness, and adjustment
skills, resume preparation, proper behavior and attire, and
interviewing techniques. These help increase our clients’
competitive edge in the job market. Clients with barriers to
employment such as insufficient language skills or non-transferable
work experience, are referred to vocational training and/or
English-as-a-Second-Language programs.
Since 1998, our Futures in
Information Technologies (FiIT) Program has been providing highly
successful, specialized information technology (IT) training and job
placement to dislocated workers. We believe that the FiIT Program,
which benefits both workers and employers, succeeds because of its
creativity, professionalism, and timeliness. The growth of this Met
Council program confirms that there is an urgent need among many
potential employers for the development of skilled IT workers.
Together with funding from the New York City Department of
Employment and the financial help of grants from UJA-Federation and
the Jewish Women’s Foundation, we have been able to help a number
of Jewish women with a history of domestic violence find good jobs
that enable them to help themselves.
Our efforts are designed to
provide and promote useful work experience opportunities for
economically disadvantaged older New Yorkers as well as to
facilitate transition of job ready participants into unsubsidized
employment in public and private sector business and industry.
Child Health Plus
and Family Health Plus
Many people in New York do not
have health insurance. Child Health Plus A (formerly Medicaid) and
Child Health Plus B (CHP) can cover most children, while Family
Health Plus (FHP) or Medicaid can cover most adults.
CHP offers free or low-cost
health insurance coverage for children under the age of 19 who are
residents of New York State, regardless of their immigration
status. To assist parents in this process, Met Council has
partnered with several grassroots organizations in the southern
Brooklyn region that employ facilitated enrollers. These enrollers
are familiar with the cultural aspects and languages of their
respective communities.
Family Health Plus (FHP)
provides free health insurance for lower income families. Those
eligible include: working adults aged 19-65, singles, and childless
couples who do not have health coverage through their employer and
whose income disqualifies them from other public programs. FHP is a
new managed care plan that is an expansion of the Medicaid program.
Met Council facilitated
enrollers can assist you in determining the appropriate health
program for you and your family. |
