Thousands Of Homeless Left Out In The Elements
The city’s current homeless policies have failed both the homeless and the communities asked to accept homeless shelters, according to policy papers released last week by the office of City Comptroller John C. Liu.
“It is a disgrace that in a city where luxury abounds nearly 21,000 children go to sleep in a shelter each night,” Liu said. “The mayor’s disastrous homeless policies exclude communities from having a real voice in the shelter siting process and waste millions of taxpayer dollars each year. We desperately need a new approach to address the record homelessness in our city.”
A report released by the Comptroller’s office, “Down and Out: How New York City Places its Homeless Shelters,” details that the city is not meeting the goal of early and open public consultation required by the so-called “fair share” siting process, and makes recommendations for making the process fairer and more transparent.
In an accompanying brief, Liu recommends the creation of a Strong Families Rental Voucher Program that would provide housing vouchers for up to 10,000 families living in the city’s shelters at a budgetary savings to taxpayers.
“Our report found that homeless shelters tend to be clustered in the poorest neighborhoods. The siting of the shelters in these neighborhoods may permanently condemn these areas to poverty,” Liu said. “More- over, there needs to be complete transparency and significant community involvement in this process. That is not happening.
“Homeless families need concrete rental assistance that will enable them to have stable residences and join their communities. Our proposal is a win-win for homeless families and taxpayers alike,” the comptroller added. “Struggling families will be empowered and given an opportunity to start over, and, at the same time, taxpayers could save as much as $237.5 million annually.”
As of Friday, May 3, the Department of Homeless Services reported that there were 11,890 families in the city’s shelters, representing 18,108 adults and 20,668 children.
The number of families has increased 60 percent under the Bloomberg administration, from an average of 7,100 families in fiscal year 2002 to an average of 11,500 during the current fiscal year.
The rental assistance program proposed in this report would cost about $11,000 a year per family, compared to the current cost of sheltering a family, which is about $35,000.
All told, 275 of the city’s 370 homeless shelters are located in Brooklyn and the Bronx, many in struggling neighborhoods.
Liu’s report on shelter siting and its accompanying fact sheet can be found at www.comptroller.nyc.gov.
