Posted on May 4, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone With the shelter system bursting at the seams, the City and State governments need to immediately prioritize strategies that offer concrete help to the unprecedented number of New Yorkers without homes. A New York Daily News editorial reviewed the mixed results of Mayor de Blasio’s efforts to address the historic crisis he inherited when he took office sixteen months ago. • Shelters bulge with 12% more people than at his inauguration. A surge in adult homelessness continues unabated, to nearly 12,000 — up 20% since de Blasio took office. •The mayor’s programs to move families out of shelters sputter at a fraction of their expected paces. The Department of Homeless Services projected that 4,000 families would move into private apartments by the end of June, their rent paid for up to five years by the city and state. As of mid-April, 900 had. Landlords have been slow to sign up. •The Department of Investigation in March issued a withering report on vile conditions at 25 city-funded shelters, finding the worst at so-called cluster sites run by private landlords that bill the city an average of $2,541 a month, often for slum-grade apartments. •As a candidate, de Blasio vowed to stop using clusters. But DHS has since increased their number and has yet to move families out. These daunting problems cannot be addressed solely with City funds: The Governor must step up and commit sufficient funds to help homeless New Yorkers – including funding the State’s half of a NY/NY IV agreement that will create 35,000 units of supportive housing statewide. Supportive housing has been proven time and time again to help break the cycle of chronic homelessness for the most vulnerable among us – those with mental illness and other special needs. The Mayor has taken steps in the right direction, but record homelessness demands a stronger effort from both the Mayor and the Governor. Anything short of a full commitment is a disservice to the 60,000 men, women and children who will sleep in shelters tonight. While de Blasio has made progress in placing 750 families in public housing, for every spot in permanent housing, six shelter residents apply. He also counted wrong in depending on Albany for help. Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature gave him just one-third of the amount he sought in funding for housing and services aimed at clearing out adult shelters. A deal on how to spend what money he got remains far from sealed. Having run aground against political and practical reality, de Blasio confronts the chasm between the easily delivered rhetoric of a progressive tribune and the hard-earned solutions that New Yorkers expect from a mayor. He owes a great debt to every family living in squalor, to every adult living in fear of the man in the next bed, to every New Yorker who hopes for a better future for children like Dasani. While confronting a daunting human tide that bedeviled his predecessors, he needs to come far closer to fulfilling his promises.
