Who We Serve
People Experiencing Homelessness
The people we serve confront longstanding barriers to accessing quality housing, healthcare and employment every day. AAPCI’s work focuses on some of the most vulnerable: those experiencing homelessness, the chronically homeless, those suffering from mental illness or from debilitating medical conditions, survivors of domestic violence, and those who have developed resistance to traditional shelter.
The mission of AAPCI’s domestic violence programs is to offer survivors and their minor children, a safe but temporary haven in which to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. The secondary goal is to prepare families for independent living, assist them in locating permanent housing within or outside the State of New York, and to offer a host of on- and off-site supportive services that will help empower victims and minimize the root causes of domestic violence.
The movement in the 1970s to deinstitutionalize psychiatric patients had the unintended consequence of leaving scores of individuals with mental illnesses without access to appropriate care or supports. As a result, many became homeless.
Of the estimated 744,000 people who are homeless on any given night across the United States, nearly half of them have a serious mental illness, such as clinical depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, personality disorders, and substance abuse.
Most of the mentally ill homeless go untreated, and unable to work, and many living on the streets. They also frequently cycle in and out of medical and psychiatric hospitals, drug rehabilitation programs, and prisons and jails, at enormous personal and public costs.
AAPCI’s supportive housing offers a life-enriching alternative to both institutionalization and street homelessness. Hundreds of our clients manage serious mental illnesses while living independently in our housing, with the support of on-site case managers and linkages to appropriate care.
The high cost of health care and life-saving medications for people living with HIV/AIDS and homelessness often forces individuals with the illness to have to choose between their health and housing. In addition, persons living with HIV/AIDS are more likely to lose their jobs due to discrimination or as a result of frequent health-related absences. Up to half of all HIV positive individuals are thus at risk of becoming homeless.
Special housing subsidies enable individuals living with HIV/AIDS to access permanent supportive housing and associated services. With the stability of a secure home, AAPCI tenants living with chronic illnesses are able to access essential medications, manage their condition with regular preventive care, and address psychological issues that may contribute to the course of their disease.
While HIV & AIDS remain formidable foes and continue to disproportionately impact people of color (over 80% of NYC’s new HIV cases are among African-Americans, Latinos and Asian/Pacific Islanders), advances in drug therapies have turned HIV & AIDS into chronic, manageable diseases. AAPCI’s supportive housing provides the stability and services to aid people living with HIV & AIDS to live healthy, live long, and live with dignity.
AAPCI has long devoted considerable resources to addressing homelessness among veterans, who on average make up about 5% of our total client base. Significant progress has been made over the past decade to end veteran homelessness, and we continue to do everything possible to reach that goal.
Stable, affordable housing is essential for families to grow and thrive. Edwin’s Place, AAPCI’s first affordable residence designed primarily for families with children, opened in 2020 in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Our second affordable housing residence, Glenmore Manor, is projected to open in mid-2025. More than half of our current 359 apartments provide two or three bedrooms. Our housing for families helps people coming out of the shelter system or those at risk of homelessness to find a stable and affordable home.
Critical to the success of AAPCI’s housing management model is our commitment to inclusive, mixed-income communities. Rather than being marginalized in quasi-institutional settings, our formerly homeless tenants live amongst a diverse group of low-income New Yorkers. In addition to making it possible for formerly homeless and other vulnerable individuals to stabilize themselves in permanent housing, the affordability, security, and prime location of AAPCI’s housing enables our tenants to contribute to the unique character of New York City. Some are young people newly embarking on an independent life, while others are winding down their careers or cutting down on expenses after retirement.
AAPCI is increasingly housing older adults. Over the last five years, the senior population (62 and older) within AAPCI’s permanent supportive residences has grown to represent nearly 30% of our total resident population. We continue to seek innovative ways to develop senior-specific housing for vulnerable populations.