On March 6th, 2020, Citizens’ Committee for Children submitted public comment to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and New York City Housing Authority on the Where We Live NYC Draft Plan, which identifies the goals, strategies and actions that the City of New York will undertake to advance fair housing over the next five years.

Our public comment stressed that children and families experiencing homelessness must be at the forefront of this public reckoning of the inequities in housing insecurity we see today. Among our comments we included recommendations to:

· Invest in support services that reach families facing housing insecurity earlier to prevent shelter entry, promote child well-being for families experiencing housing instability, and strengthen post-shelter vouchers.

· Involve to a greater degree non-governmental organizations as implementing partners.

· Combat housing discrimination and exploitation in all forms – including families transitioning from shelter to permanent housing, as well as immigrant families who are forced into severely overcrowded conditions.

· Maintain and improve measurement and monitoring of conditions critical to stopping this crisis.