Posted on July 15, 2016 by Jarrett Murphy in City Limits City Limits, By Jarrett Murphy It wasn’t until the waning days of his mayoralty that Mayor Bloomberg was held accountable for his failure to meet his goal of a major reduction in homelessness. The scrutiny of Mayor de Blasio’s shortcomings came earlier and from multiple sources: A challenge from the governor on shelter security, a tough audit from the city comptroller concerning shelter conditions and some stinging press coverage of homeless encampments. After a year that saw major changes in this policy area (from the departure of the deputy mayor overseeing human services to the restructuring of the city’s homeless-services bureaucracy to a city promise to build 15,000 units of supportive), how has the situation facing the city’s 58,000 shelter residents and thousands of street homeless changed? And what is the primary obstacle to more progress? (Hint: It has a population of 98,000 and rhymes with “Mallbany,” although the city could be doing more, too.)
