Posted on May 12, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone Every New Yorker deserves a permanent home. They also deserve – and, thanks to the Coalition, have the legal right to – safe and decent shelter. Unfortunately, after years of neglect, conditions in the many of the City’s shelters are appalling. A Department of Investigation report from March painted a grim picture of the City’s family shelter system, uncovering a shocking 621 health and safety violations in a sampling of 25 shelters. In the wake of the disturbing DOI report, Mayor de Blasio – who last year ordered the DOI to conduct the investigation – vowed to use the findings as a way to improve conditions in the shelters. The City has already rectified most of the violations cited in the DOI report, and at a press conference yesterday the Mayor announced the creation of an interagency “Shelter Repair Squad.” Representatives from the FDNY, Buildings Department, Homeless Services, HPD and the Department of Health will work together to ensure that shelters are thoroughly monitored and that any issues are resolved swiftly. Mary Brosnahan, President and CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless, said, “Homeless New Yorkers deserve safe, compassionate shelter. But for far too long, entering New York City’s homeless shelters has often meant experiencing deplorable conditions that no family should ever face. Mayor de Blasio’s administration deserves praise for moving thousands of homeless families into affordable homes and taking important steps to provide safe shelter for those who are still homeless.” Capital New York outlined the Mayor’s plan: As part of the $12.5 million, multi-agency initiative, more than 100 city workers making up “SWAT teams” will visit 500 shelters and fix the problems, which were detailed in a scathing New York City Department of Investigation report earlier this year. “We will be deploying hundreds of special SWAT teams to accelerate critical repairs at homeless shelters all over the city. We want to help ensure every shelter is safe and healthy for all its residents,” de Blasio said during a press conference outside the Corona Family Residence, a homeless shelter in Queens. “This is going to be an all-hands-on-deck effort.” The mayor said the subpar conditions in shelters and the overall homeless problem are “decades old,” and have been “exacerbated” by diminished state and federal aid and the elimination of a rental subsidy program in 2011 known as Advantage.
