BUZZ: 'Shelter-Industrial Complex' ... Prisoner Reentry Institute ... NYC senior services

Nonprofit Picture the Homeless released a report today entitled The Business of Homelessness: Financial and Human Costs of the Shelter-Industrial Complex. The group plans to follow up the release with an event on the steps of City Hall this morning. “This groundbreaking report provides hard evidence for what we've always known is true - not only is building housing for our lowest-income neighbors possible, doing so would actually prove more financially sustainable for our city in the long term," said New York City Council Member Stephen Levin, chair of the Committee on General Welfare, in a press release accompanying the report.

The John Jay College of Criminal Justice Prisoner Reentry Institute is hosting an April 19 event in midtown Manhattan focused on “healing justice.” Here’s a bit on what that term means: “Structural issues such as poverty, unemployment, underfunded schools, incarceration, lack of access to quality health care and poor quality housing are understood as root causes of violence and trauma, which erode trusting relationships and severely constrain collective action and agency.” Speakers at the event with firsthand experience with such issues will be Shawn Ginwright and Jim St. Germain.

The New York City Department for the Aging has awarded contracts to four nonprofits who provide senior services. The contracts run from July 1, 2017 until June 30, 2018, according to the City Record.

• Medicare Rights Center, $142,900
• Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesvian, Bisexual, and Transgender Elders, $170,055
• Shorefront YM-YWHA of Brighton Manhattan Beach, $229,595
• Vision Urbana, $100,000