Lantern Community Services

Founded in 1996, Lantern Community Services champions the independence and well-being of chronically homeless New Yorkers. We believe the best way to end homelessness is to give people a stable, affordable home, and that supportive housing is the first step towards a better life. Each year, Lantern’s innovative services enable more than 2,000 people– formerly homeless families and single adults, and youth who have recently aged out of foster care – to build empowerment in their lives.

Lantern delivers comprehensive services to 16 supportive housing sites and one shelter in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. We provide our clients—many of whom live with mental illness, addiction, disability, HIV or other chronic illnesses—with the tools to integrate into the greater community. With proven results in health, employment, education and life skills, our client-centered and evidence-based programs are delivered by experienced social workers inside each of Lantern’s residences. 

Our culturally competent programming promotes stability, wellness, dignity, and independence. This work addresses systemic inequity by helping to “level the playing field” for individuals who – along with housing instability – face health disparities, barriers to education and employment, and other obstacles to self-sufficiency and well being.