NYC Non-Profit ICL In The News: More Taxpayer Money Lost?

ICL is a non-profit in New York City that has a long history operating in the city. Along with similar agencies such as BRC (which came under fire for it’s handling of millions in government contracts) it’s one of the most notorious of the shelter system agencies.

The outrage in the media concerns the huge amount of money spent and how much of it might have been wasted. A report in a Brooklyn newspaper details the latest scandel to hit the NYC non-profit world. ICL is a non-profit that is written about at length with a critical look at it’s spending.

Stories have circulated with increasing frequency about how wasteful non-profits are. Even more distressing are the concerns among community advocates that millions is disappearing from public accounting and not being rightfully accounted for.

Institute for Community Living: Major Player in the NYC Non-Profit

ICL is one of the major non-profits in the NYC non-profit world. Hundreds of millions in government funds are sent every year to large NYC non profits.

Major Non Profits include:

• The Jewish Board
• ICL
• The Doe Fund
• Project Renewal
• Praxis
• Safe Horizon
• Sheltering Arms
• Breaking Ground

These are only a small list of some of the many non-profits that operate in NYC.  Because these non-profits are so huge and receive so much in money, there are literally thousands of jobs posted on websites that come from these companies. Companies like Praxis are one of the more higher profile ones, but there are endless non-profits that recieve millions in government grants and funding.

Many non-profits will use temp staffing agencies because they do not want to hire on full time (remember, the non-profit millionaires are always the executives, never the ground workers) but they still serve as an easy job for anyone graduating with a social service degree. The fact is it’s easy to get a job at a non-profit through a temp agency, but it won’t be a good job and the lack of good benefdits and pay is one of the reason staffing agencies are bad.

ICL posts jobs online on sites like Indeed, but you might also find a job through any of the hundreds of short term staffing agencies in nyc.

The pay for working at a non-profit is never going to be great. However, there is ample work to be had for anyone who is interested in applying. The only qualification needed is that the person has a bachelors degree from a local college in Social Work or Mental Health.

What Programs Does ICL and Other Non Profits Provide to NYC Residents?

You can always read up on the official website, but a brief review of some of the recent news articles about ICL will also help you determine what work they do. And importantly, for any social service job seeker, if it’s something that you want to purse as an employee seeking social service work as a case manager or other non-profit employee.

Here are some of the programs that non-profits provide in NYC. If you are seeking to work as a case manager, it’s a good idea to read up on what exactly the job entails. It doesn’t matter what agency you are looking to work for, the general job details are similar. There’s a good write up on what a case manager does in social work that you can review.

Free Housing

In NYC , many of the residents are not able to pay the rents that landlords expect. While some people pay up to 50% of their paychecks to live in small apartments, many other people are assigned to voucher programs, supportive housing programs, and other government funded programs.

While many residents live in city funded housing called NYCHA or have Section 8 programs, there are quite a large number of people that find free housing through non-profits. The government funds non-profits and provides them with hundreds of millions in rental assistance. City funded hotels and lucrative real estate deals regarding homeless contracts are nothing new to the city.

Non-profits then partner with landlords and pay the landlords for their clients. It’s a lucrative business for NYC landlords as they do not have to worry about collecting rent from someone who lost their job, the Non-Profit will always pay the bill.

This program requires every single person who is not working or doesn’t have money to have a case manager. That case manager then finds them an apartment to live in and makes sure that all the forms are filled out so that the landlord receives their money from the government.

If you’re looking for work as a housing case manager, companies such as Praxis, ICL, BRC, and many many other non-profits will have ample job openings.

The recent influx of migrants has caused a huge uptick in the need for case managers in NYC. NYC and the mayor is working on a new $300 millon dollar deal to handle the influx of people.

Homeless Shelters

Another area where non-profits work in NYC is in the homeless shelter operations. These shelters are either fully built out facilities where the government pays Non-Profits to administer and operate the shelter system, or these are regular buildings or hotels that the city has taken control over and used to house homeless people or people who are seeking affordable housing in the city.

For every instance of a homeless shelter or hotel program with the city has to have case managers to handle intake. They also need security on site to handle the residents as well as care workers, nurses, and support staff. These account for tens of thousands of jobs with non-profits in NYC.

Many homeless shelter jobs are not apparent to first time job seekers. If you see the term housing case manager on a job board, then it might very well be a case of a homeless shelter program with a non-profit that has been contracted to handle these systems for the city.

Prevention Programs

Prevention programs run the gamut from health and wellness programs designed to instruct people on the correct types of foods that they are supposed to eat to be healthy to programs designed to instruct people not to take drugs or have unprotected sex.

Some common prevention programs are include:

• Heroin and Opiate Prevention Program

• Health and Disease Prevention: Assisting People sign up for Medicaid and Other Medical Welfare programs.

• Crime Prevention Programs (proving funds to pay people to not commit crimes and instead attend non-profit classes and community workshops)

• Family Prevention: Helping parents with skills and support to raise their children and prevent them from being placed into government care.

All of these many programs, and many more, include dozens of job openings for local workers who work assisting families find free housing