Covenant House New York (CHNY)

Crisis shelter Covenant House New York (chny) provides services to youth experiencing homelessness who have nowhere else to turn. The chny crisis shelter is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to any youth or young adult, age 16-21 who is experiencing homelessness. Chny also provides a 20-bed shelter for young female-identified adults, ages 21-24. Youth can stay in our crisis shelters for up to 60 days, or 120 days with an extension allowed by nys office of children and family services (ocfs). In fy2022, Covenant House New York provided shelter and supportive services to 1,105 youth. With capacity 140 beds per night, chny's crisis shelters specialize in ensuring that at-risk young people receive basic needs while moving toward stability in a supportive setting that emphasizes warmth and compassion. Many people who come to our crisis shelter have experienced significant trauma, including abuse, trafficking, rejection from family of origin, etc. The focus of chny's crisis shelter is to ensure the provision of basic needs in the form of food, shelter, and clothing, along with appropriate support and wraparound services such as counseling, physical/mental health programming, legal services, education and employment services, and more. Mother/child program - Covenant House New York operates a shelter program designed specifically for mothers & children. This program specializes in ensuring that these moms and babies are receiving basic needs while moving toward stability in a supportive setting that emphasizes warmth and compassion. Many of the young parents who come to the mother/child program have experienced significant trauma, including domestic violence, abuse, trafficking, rejection, and addiction, and chny's focus is to ensure the provision of basic needs in the form of food, shelter, and clothing, along with other appropriate services such as counseling, parent training, physical/mental health, legal, vocational, and more. Our mother/child program also offers daycare and other services to ensure that the children are being nurtured in a loving and healthy manner. In fy2022, Covenant House New York provided shelter and supportive services to 71 mothers/pregnant youth and 45 children.

Health clinic -chny operates a federally qualified health clinic (fqhc) through which it provides comprehensive health services. In fy2022, approximately 1,094 homeless and/or runaway young people received care, and 3909 medical visits were provided. The health and wellness center is staffed with medical and administrative staff that includes doctors, nurses, lab technicians, and other medical professionals who ensure the delivery of high-quality health services in a compassionate atmosphere. The health and wellness center also provides mental health services in order to ensure we help to meet the significant needs of our young people, many of whom have extensive histories of trauma. During the last quarter of fy2021, chny continued to utilize its safety protocol and response to the coronavirus pandemic, in order to protect all youth and staff from covid while remaining open 24 hours a day. To continue to provide shelter and services, chny effects a rigorous cleaning schedule, ensuring that all staff and youth receive masks and personal protective equipment, and restructured some space within the building to allow for isolation/quarantine for youth who test positive for the virus. Chny has provided free covid testing for all youth, staff, and the wider community since the onset of the pandemic. Non-essential staff have worked remotely since march 2020, in order to create a safer space at our shelter and promote social distancing. Chny has also been providing the moderna covid-19 vaccine at its fqhc since january of 2021 and will continue to do so indefinitely. 100% of chny staff have been vaccinated or have an exemption. Chny continues its ongoing plan to protect all staff and youth from the effects of the coronavirus, not only through its health center, but in all programming.

Rights of passage ("rop") transitional independent living many people who benefit from chny's shelter program qualify for entry into our rights of passage (rop) program. Rop is a longer-term, 24-month program for youth and young adults, ages 16-21, and includes the same wraparound supports as our crisis shelter. Rop also provides permanent housing assistance and planning for youth while they reside in the program. Rop provided longer-term transitional independent living to approximately 126 young people in fy2022. The primary goal of rop is to prepare and move young people toward independence and self-sufficiency. People residing in rop not only benefit from provision of basic needs in the form of housing, food, and clothing but also from vigorous, evidence-based supports designed to encourage development of essential life and employment skills. Rop helps each resident develop and implement a personal plan designed to ensure that he or she is achieving goals and moving toward higher levels of independence and self-sufficiency. Covenant House New York also operates rop program designed specifically for fot mothers and children. In fy2022, this program served 15 motherspregnantyouth and 14 children. In addition to rop, chny also operates a hud-funded transitional housing program. This program provides the same two-year housing and supports, but for young adults ages 18-24 years old. In fy2022, chny served 59 youth through this hud-funded program.

Rapid re-housing and permanent housing -chny operates multiple permanent housing programs. Our New Covenant program, established in 2014, provides 27 apartment placements vouchers for affordable housing - for young adults who are diagnosed with a mental health disorder. In fy2022, this program had little to no vacancy. Young adults in this program receive intensive social work and case management supports, mental and medical health treatment via our federally qualified health center, and referrals to additional supports when needed. Chny also operates family Covenant, which is a permanent housing program for families, in operation since 2018. This program provides 30 apartment placements for young adults and their children, as well as evidence-based interventions that promote positive parenting models for young parents. In fy2022, 35 adults and 47 children were served in this program. Chny also operates a hud-funded rapid re-housing program. This is a New program that began operation in late 2019. It provides apartment placements for 50 youth (and their children, if applicable), with the same wraparound and support services provided to our other permanent housing programs. In fy2022, chny provided housing and support services to 31 youth through this program.