Public Advocate Gotbaum Blasts City for Failed Homeless Policies

MANHATTAN, NY - July 9, 2009 - (RealEstateRama) – Public Advocate Gotbaum, joined by elected officials and advocates, today criticized Mayor Bloomberg for defending his administration’s failure to reduce homelessness by claiming that he had made city homeless shelters “a lot more attractive” to families. 

PA Gotbaum, Comptroller Thompson, Councilmember de Blasio, Advocates Call for an Immediate Reassessment of Homelessness Policies to Help Growing Numbers of NYC Homeless

Public Advocate Gotbaum said, “It is clear from the Mayor’s comments that he is totally out of touch with the city’s homeless population and the experience of living in these shelters. It’s absurd that he would think anyone would choose to live in a homeless shelter over permanent housing. Because the administration doesn’t understand the problems facing homeless New Yorkers, its policies fail to present real solutions. Policies should be reevaluated to respond to the worsening economy, the scarcity of jobs and affordable housing, and the reality that recent strategies have not been working.”

According to a recent report by the Coalition for the Homeless, the “total homeless shelter population is essentially the same as when the Mayor unveiled his plan” in 2004, and the number of homeless families is actually 9 percent higher than when Mayor Bloomberg unveiled his plan. The Coalition for the Homeless noted several flaws with the Mayor’s plan, including the administration’s decision to stop giving homeless New Yorkers priority status for federal Section 8 vouchers and public housing.

Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. said, “The Mayor continues to demonstrate how much he does not understand the struggles of New Yorkers. His callous comment about “families finding shelters attractive” reveals just how out of touch he is. Families enter a shelter out of desperation. And they are desperate because the Mayor has failed to fulfill his promise to reduce homelessness. The Mayor needs a reality check and homeless families need real help.”

Councilmember Bill de Blasio said, “Last week, Mayor Bloomberg claimed that more people are choosing to stay in homeless shelters because they have become more attractive during his tenure. It is insulting to the 35,000 people who spent last night in a shelter to say that they were there out of choice, not out of necessity. We need real solutions for our City’s homeless population, not out of touch excuses.”

Robert Kelty, Deputy Executive Director of the Coalition for the Homeless, said, “In November, 2007 - long before the current downturn - the number of families in New York City shelters hit an all time high. That wasn’t about the economy - it was about a failed homeless policy. At that time we called on the Mayor to look at the numbers and reconsider his administration’s policy of denying federal Section 8 housing vouchers and public housing to homeless families. Now, nearly two years later, the number of families in shelter is expected to soon hit 10,000. Faced with the deepest recession in a generation, the Bloomberg administration continues to dig in their heels and resist common sense solutions to move families out of shelter and into permanent housing and is resorting instead to punitive sanctions policies and fines to force families out of shelter.”

Joel Berg, Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, said, “Given how absurd the Mayor’s personal assumptions about homelessness are, it is no wonder that his Administration is following absurd, counter-productive policies regarding homelessness. Given that the Mayor ridiculously believes that the reason more families are flooding to homeless shelters is that there are more ‘attractive’ as a result of his policies, it is no wonder that his Administration is sticking to the inane policy of charging homeless people rent to be in shelter. I challenge the Mayor to live in a shelter for just one week to see for himself what an ‘attractive’ option they are for poor families in New York City.”

Sophia Bryant, Picture the Homeless, said, “Mayor Bloomberg hasn’t learned anything. Homeless people know what the problems are, and we have ideas for the solutions. We need to work together to develop a viable, realistic plan, because the numbers are rising. We want housing — not shelters. $750 million could be better spent. Most homeless people work, and have worked all their lives. People from every borough are being displaced due to high rents. It’s time the Administration be held accountable!”

Last March, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum called on the city to end its costly cluster site housing program, which gives landlords incentive to push out rent-paying tenants instead of connecting homeless with permanent housing. And in May, Public Advocate Gotbaum stood with Assemblyman Keith Wright and other elected officials to protest the practice of charging rent to the working homeless in New York State shelters. This practice has since been temporarily discontinued by the Bloomberg administration.

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Contact: Gia Storms
212.669.4813, 917.626.6757

 

 

 

 

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