Expanding forced commitments to hospital is wrong Rx for the homeless — and for most people

Gov. Cuomo’s perennial preaching on homelessness is meant to reassure us all that he knows just what to do about a seemingly intractable problem. But, as with so many other issues, our state’s chief executive too often shirks his own responsibility for contributing to the problem.

Cuomo’s homelessness policies have been plagued by false starts, deliberate under-funding of local needs, and heavy-handed policing with far too little investment in the solutions proven to work. He shamelessly sends more than half of those released from state prisons to New York City directly to shelters, rather than provide adequate reentry planning.