Posted on May 13, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone Just one day after Mayor de Blasio announced the creation of an interagency “Shelter Repair Squad” to inspect and improve shelter conditions – a development hailed by advocates – Governor Cuomo’s administration inexplicably threatened to withhold funding from City shelters found to have code violations. Rather than expedite repairs, the State’s actions are more likely to delay improvements for homeless families, potentially jeopardizing the safety of the homeless men, women and children whom Governor Cuomo purports to be protecting. A Wall Street Journal article by Josh Dawsey explains why the State’s decision does more harm than good. In a letter Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration sent to City Hall, the state said 16 shelters were in such poor condition that it would withhold funding until matters improved. The letter from the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance said state officials had investigated the shelters in recent days. The city’s homeless population in shelters is near 57,000 and has risen significantly in recent years. Many of the shelters have multiple violations, according to City Hall, which has already investigated many problems and said Monday it would expedite fixes across the system. The issue has dogged Mayor Bill de Blasio as he has pitched his message on income inequality outside New York, and homeless advocates say the city needs to do more. City officials say they inherited a troubled system and are trying to make it better. “Instead of spending scarce resources to reinspect shelters and issue redundant reports, while citing issues which it knows are already being addressed as an excuse to withhold needed funding, the state should be meeting its own fiscal responsibility to New York City’s homeless families,” said Gilbert Taylor, commissioner of the New York City Department of Homeless Services. Mr. de Blasio said last week the city would send teams of workers into the roughest shelters to fix problems, and that it he city allocated $100 million more in next year’s budget to the dilapidated system. … Mary Brosnahan, the president of Coalition for the Homeless, said she was disappointed with the fighting between the mayor and the governor over the city’s homeless system. Ms. Brosnahan blamed the state—and not the city—because the mayor was trying to solve problems, she said. She said the state needed to do more than withhold money if the Cuomo administration wanted to fix the problem.
