New York
What Permanent Supportive Housing Can, and Can’t, Do for New Yorkers
Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at an apartment complex in the Bronx where about 60 formerly homeless people live in what’s called permanent supportive housing. We’ll also get details on a federal judge’s decision to drop corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams.
An apartment complex in the Bronx, called the Lenniger Residences, is home to about 60 formerly homeless people with mental illness. My colleague Andy Newman, who covers social services for the Metro desk, and the photographer Thea Traff spent more than a year talking with residents and workers at the Lenniger. It is owned by a nonprofit, the Center for Urban Community Services, and follows a model called permanent supportive housing. I talked with Andy about what life there is like.
From what you saw, how well does permanent supportive housing work? Is its one-stop approach a panacea?
The main goal of permanent supportive housing is to keep people who have been chronically homeless out of homelessness, and from what we saw at the Lenniger, it does a great job of that.
Over the last four years at the Lenniger, 97 percent of the supportive housing residents — all battling mental illness and most struggling with substance abuse — have either remained there or moved to other stable housing. About half the people who moved in when the Lenniger opened in 2011 are still living there.
But just because someone is housed doesn’t mean they’re doing great.
Supportive housing is designed to make it hard to “fail out.” It does that by, among other things, not requiring people to be sober or take their psychiatric medication. So there is a lot of drug use and a fair amount of disorder. The Lenniger generated more than 200 calls to 9-1-1 last year.
Some tenants told us that being around so much drug use made it harder for them to work on getting sober. Some told us that they felt like they were “stuck” there.
There aren’t many rules at the Lenniger. What happens when someone breaks a rule? Does the Lenniger evict people when they don’t pay the rent?
One rule the Lenniger does have is that you’re supposed to check in with your case manager twice a month. That’s a person who offers counseling, helps you set goals, helps you manage your finances, helps you navigate benefits bureaucracies and connects you to medical and psychiatric providers and drug programs.
But if you don’t meet with your case manager, there are no real consequences. The program director said they “work around client ambivalence.”
People who do things like act out and cause damage seldom face consequences, either. A Lenniger official told us that it’s hard to get the police to take calls from the Lenniger seriously because there are so many of them. If someone is causing problems, the Lenniger tries to counsel the person back toward stability, though occasionally people who are in major enough crisis will be sent to a hospital psychiatric ward.
What about paying rent?
The amount you’re supposed to pay is set at 30 percent of your income, which is typically a disability check.
About 20 percent of the supportive housing tenants at the Lenniger are at least three months behind on the rent, but again, the Lenniger doesn’t want to see people out on the street. So they haven’t evicted anyone since 2017.
You met one woman who had been addicted to heroin and crack for decades and was H.I.V. positive. For a long time she wouldn’t go to the hospital, although she finally did go to a drug rehab. Does the Lenniger force anyone to go for treatment when they clearly need it?
No.
The woman you’re talking about spent a month in an inpatient program last summer. A couple of weeks after she returned to the Lenniger, another tenant went to check on her. She was dead on the floor in her apartment.
Cases like hers must be difficult for the staff. Is the Lenniger a hard place to work? What’s the turnover among staff members?
The Lenniger is certainly a challenging place to work. Staff members spoke of the frustration they feel when a client disengages.
But working there is rewarding, too. As one case manager, Marcos Gonzalez, told us, “You stay in this because you want to make an impact in people’s lives, and you want to assist people that need assistance. And that’s the reward that you get. Sometimes you go home and cry, or you go chug a beer, however you handle it. And then some days you go home really excited, and you want to help somebody else in life, or you want to tell somebody, “Hey, I did this for this person.”
The concept of permanent supportive housing originated in New York. How many people are in permanent supportive housing now? How many more could be, if there were enough places like the Lenniger?
There are about 45,000 people in permanent supportive housing in New York City and about 70,000 statewide.
The city and state are always in the process of increasing the supply of permanent supportive housing, but there are never enough spots for the number of people who qualify. In the fiscal year that ended last June, about 9,600 people in New York City were found eligible to move into supportive housing. But only 2,400 found an apartment.
Weather
Expect a cloudy day with the possibility of light showers in the morning, fog, and temperatures rising to the high 60s. In the evening, mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and a low around 52 degrees.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until April 13 (Passover).
The latest Metro news
Corruption charges against Adams are dismissed
The end of the corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams indicated that politics now takes precedence at the Justice Department, which is using its power over prosecutions to further President Trump’s agenda.
The mayor, a Democrat, promptly doubled down on the mutually beneficial relationship he had struck with the administration, urging New Yorkers to read a book by the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel.
The Justice Department had sought the dismissal, saying the charges against Adams were keeping him from cooperating with Trump’s crackdown on migrants. Adams had curried favor with Trump for months, flying to Florida for a meeting with Trump, attending the president’s inauguration and giving immigration agents access to the Rikers Island jail complex.
The judge, Dale Ho of Federal District Court in Manhattan, did not give the Justice Department everything it asked for. He ruled out letting the government retain the option of reinstating the case.
“Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions,” the judge wrote in a 78-page decision. He suggested that the government’s other arguments, that the charges were filed too close to the next mayoral election and that the case had created “appearances of impropriety,” were misleading and insincere.
Judge Ho discounted the Justice Department’s claims that the case had been brought for political reasons by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. “There is no evidence — zero — that they had any improper motives,” he wrote.
After Judge Ho issued the dismissal, Adams reiterated that the case “should have never been brought, and I did nothing wrong.” Adams also said he would win his campaign for re-election, even though he is facing a crowded field of challengers and his fund-raising has lagged.
METROPOLITAN diary
Neighborhood Grocery
Dear Diary:
It was 1987. I had just moved to New York from Texas. I loved going to small neighborhood grocery stores in the city. They were so different from the huge suburban ones I was used to.
new video loaded: Protesters Clash with Federal Agents Outside ICE Detention Center in New Jersey
transcript
transcript
Protesters Clash with Federal Agents Outside ICE Detention Center in New Jersey
Protesters and immigration agents clashed outside Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, where activists have gathered for days to denounce conditions inside.
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“Get back!” “Get back, get back, get back, get back, get back!” [chanting] “ICE, ICE has got to go. Hey, hey, ho, ho.” “We’ve heard repeatedly about these horror stories of pregnant women not getting access to care, of people with injuries not being treated. People shouldn’t have to starve themselves to make their dignity known.” “Down, down with the degradation.” “Down, down with the degradation.”
By Christina Kelso
May 28, 2026
How can people possibly afford to live in one of the most expensive cities on the planet? It’s a question New Yorkers hear a lot, often delivered with a mix of awe, pity and confusion.
We surveyed hundreds of New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save. We found that many people — rich, poor or somewhere in between — live life as a series of small calculations that add up to one big question: What makes living in New York worth it?
Ellen Hagan grew up in a small town in Kentucky, and moved to New York City as quickly as she could after she graduated from college. She arrived a few weeks before Sept. 11, and tried to get her bearings in a city turned upside down.
She found a group of fellow young artists and writers who wanted to take advantage of everything they could in the city, on very limited budgets. They went to poetry readings and dance parties, and rented tiny apartments in the East Village.
All the while, Ms. Hagan was diligent about saving money, even when she had very little of it.
“I didn’t know what I was saving for, but I knew I wasn’t going to have a job that would give me a pension,” she said. “I wanted to make enough money to live the New York existence I was dreaming of.”
Twenty-five years later, Ms. Hagan and her husband, David Flores, whom she started dating in her early years in New York, have much more money than they used to. Still, they feel more anxious about money than they hoped they would at this point in their lives.
The couple both work at DreamYard, a Bronx arts nonprofit. Last year, they made $178,135 there collectively, with Ms. Hagan, 47, directing the poetry and theater programs, and Mr. Flores, also 47, serving as the head of visual art and design.
They typically bring in another $40,000 to $60,000 a year through their freelance work. Mr. Flores is an adjunct professor, a photographer and a filmmaker, and Ms. Hagan teaches at a graduate writing program and writes books and poetry. They try to set aside about 15 percent of their income each year to grow their savings.
The couple live in Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan with their two daughters, who are 12 and 15.
Homeownership Doesn’t Solve Everything
As a young couple, Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores lived in a 400-square-foot East Village rental. When their rent started to tick up, Ms. Hagan began looking for a place to buy, seeing homeownership as a buoy that would all but guarantee a secure financial life in New York.
Sixteen years ago, the couple found a perfect apartment in Washington Heights and scrambled to cobble together a down payment. They pooled their savings to put a 15 percent down payment on the $335,000 home. Once they closed, they were left with only a few hundred dollars in savings, but were thrilled and relieved.
“I had this sense that when you buy, you’re set in New York City,” Ms. Hagan said.
The reality, she has found, is more complicated.
The couple’s mortgage payment is $1,300 a month, and their maintenance fees keep rising, partially as a result of a new local law that requires increased inspections and repairs for buildings. Local Law 11 boosted their maintenance by $462 a month, at least temporarily, to about $1,900 total. And when the building’s management installed a new security system, each unit had to chip in $95 a month for three months.
Ms. Hagan loves the apartment, but she worries that they may eventually be priced out of their neighborhood.
“This building isn’t going to be for us at some point,” she said. “This feels like, uh oh, they’re imagining people who have much higher incomes than we do.”
Keeping the Kids Busy
Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores, who each maintain packed calendars, have encouraged their daughters to adopt the same approach to city living.
“I’m definitely a proponent of, let’s fill your schedule and see what you love,” Ms. Hagan said.
The girls’ public school offers free debate and band classes before and after school, and they’ll appear this spring in the school’s productions of “Annie” and “The Addams Family.”
The girls are also enrolled in a free theater academy at the People’s Theatre and writing workshops at Uptown Stories, which has a pay-what-you-can system. Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores typically pay the full tuition, which is $800 for each 12-week session, and donate about $2,500 a year to the organizations their daughters are part of.
The couple’s older daughter, Araceli, who wants to be both a writer and a doctor, is enrolled in a medical training program for middle and high school students. She made $2,500 for completing an internship at a cardiothoracic intensive care unit last summer.
Their younger daughter, Miriam, is going to a Y.M.C.A. camp this summer, which costs $2,600 for two weeks.
Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores spent about $500 total on holiday gifts for both girls, and the couple doles out their daughters’ weekly allowances in two installments: $25 on Mondays and $25 on Fridays.
They shook their heads when Miriam, who is known as the most stylish member of the family, came home one day wearing a Dr Pepper T-shirt she’d bought at Target.
“We were like, ‘What are you doing with your money?’” Ms. Hagan said.
The Fun Stuff
The extra income from the couple’s freelance work allows the family to splurge on theater, vacations, books and memberships at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Sometimes, Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores work together. A few years ago, they sold a young adult novel called “Tell Me Every Lie” they had co-written for a $35,000 advance, some of which went to their agent.
Every little bit helps. The family is spending a weekend on Long Beach Island in New Jersey this summer, which will cost about $3,500. That price tag includes a hotel room big enough for four.
The family typically travels twice a year to Kentucky, where both Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores are from, and where the couple co-owns a home in Louisville with Mr. Flores’s parents. They put $40,000 down and spend about $12,000 annually on expenses related to the home.
The family was hoping to travel to the Philippines this year, where Mr. Flores’s father is from, but they realized it could cost as much as $15,000. The trip is now on hold indefinitely.
They spend about $700 a month on groceries from nearby supermarkets, and occasionally order grocery deliveries from FreshDirect.
Every Wednesday, when the girls come home late from theater class, someone picks up dinner at the nearby halal truck or the Dominican restaurant Malecon, which usually runs about $60.
Dinner out as a family of four can easily cost $200, so Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores typically eat at restaurants just once or twice a month. The other night, the whole family was hungry and craved Italian food from a favorite upscale spot nearby.
They balked, and walked around the corner to a diner instead. The meal was $120, all in.
We are talking to New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, a Democrat who has clashed with the Trump administration over immigration policies, joined protests outside a detention center in Newark on Monday in support of detainees participating in a hunger strike.
Ms. Sherrill heard from family members of detainees, who have complained about rotten and spoiled food and inadequate medical care at Delaney Hall. Dozens of protesters waved signs, banged on drums, and chanted “Free Them All!” The governor told the crowd she had requested access but was denied.
“No matter what your immigration status is, you shouldn’t be treated with anything less than dignity in this country,” said Ms. Sherrill, who was dressed in a T-shirt, jeans, and blue-gray jacket on the Memorial Day holiday. At one point, she rested her hand on the shoulder of a crying relative and smoothed the hair of an upset child.
After the governor left, the scene worsened outside the detention facility. A tense standoff erupted between Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and protesters who blocked an entrance; the agents responded by firing pepper balls and spray at the protesters. Senator Andy Kim, who was trying to de-escalate the situation, was among those affected.
On Monday, the governor and other elected officials, including Mayor Ras J. Baraka of Newark, appeared outside Delaney Hall amid growing concerns over the hunger strike, which started on Friday inside the gray, cinder-block building enclosed by a high chain link fence topped with razor wire.
Immigration advocates have rallied outside Delaney Hall since Friday. Detainees said they would go on a hunger and labor strike while calling for an investigation of the detention center and its operations and for Ms. Sherrill to visit to discuss protections from ICE. Hundreds of detainees were participating, one protester told Ms. Sherrill.
The governor said in a statement on Sunday that she had contacted ICE to gain access to the detention center and was working to monitor the situation and “do what’s necessary to ensure humane conditions.”
At Monday’s protest, some protesters shouted in Ms. Sherrill’s face to criticize her for not showing up earlier in the weekend, like other elected officials had.
Representative Rob Menendez of New Jersey had arrived at 8 p.m. on Sunday and stayed all night until he was allowed into the center on Monday morning. Mr. Menendez said that he had spoken to some of the detainees inside Delaney Hall, including a young woman who just wanted to go to her high school graduation, a pregnant woman who was trying to get medical care, and a man who showed him a carton of milk that had gone rancid.
“I heard just desperation from so many people in there,” Mr. Menendez said afterward.
Angela Martinez told Ms. Sherrill that her cousin, Bolivar Bueno, 65, has diabetes and that she hasn’t been able to speak to him to make sure he is getting medication. “We don’t know what’s going on,” she told the governor.
Afterward, Ms. Martinez said, “I want for her to help me out.”
Ms. Sherrill left after about an hour, around 11:30 a.m., as some demonstrators jeered at her. Her security had to clear the road of a couple people who tried to stop her S.U.V. from leaving.
A few hours later, a convoy of ICE vehicles approached another entrance on the south side of Delaney Hall. Protesters, who had rallied at the north entrance in the morning, ran over to sit down in front of the vehicles. Many said they feared that the detainees on hunger strike inside would be transferred to other facilities.
ICE agents — most of whom were wearing face masks — pushed and shoved the protesters out of the way, even dragging one young man by a kaffiyeh around his neck. As the protesters chanted “Trump Has To Go,” they linked arms and faced the ICE agents.
The standoff prevented anyone from leaving through the south entrance. Soon after, a military-style vehicle moved toward that entrance, with a man on top holding a firearm pointed at demonstrators.
Senator Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, who had been allowed inside Delaney Hall, came out during the confrontation and walked over to support the protesters. Soon afterward, the ICE agents and military vehicles backed away from the entrance and slightly retreated toward to the detention center, but the standoff continued.
“They provoked it, they brought that tank over,” Mr. Kim said. “It’s getting worse and worse here.”
The senator said he was working to “de-escalate” the standoff through negotiations with federal officials and would push for families to be allowed to visit detainees as early as Tuesday. “I’m going to keep at it,” he said.
Not long after, the standoff escalated with ICE agents using pepper balls and mace on the crowd.
It’s not the first time Delaney Hall has faced protests. In June 2025, four men escaped from the detention center after days of unrest over meager and sporadic meals and overcrowding that forced some detainees to sleep on the floor. Detainees had smashed windows, doors and security cameras.
And Mr. Baraka, the Newark mayor, was arrested in May 2025 during a clash with federal agents outside its gates last year.
Dakota Santiago contributed reporting.
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