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Court Shoots Down Bloomberg's Tough New Homeless Shelter Policy
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 22, 2012
Modified Feb 22, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 22, 2012
Modified Feb 22, 2012
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In November, the Bloomberg administration tried to swiftly implement a controversial policy requiring single homeless adults to prove they have nowhere else to stay before the city gives them shelter. The new rules would have reduced the shelter population by about 10 percent and save the city $4 million a year, according to the Department of Homeless Services. (In the fall, the city's shelter population reached an all-time high of 40,000 people, the Times reports!) But yesterday a State Supreme Court judge blocked the new rules. Bloomberg is having a hard time dealing with it.
At a press conference yesterday, the mayor told reporters his administration would do everything in its power to implement the new rules, "or let the judges explain to the public why they think that you should just have a right to walk in and say, whether I need services or not, you give it to me. You cannot say, 'I'm tired of paying my rent; therefore, the taxpayers of New York City should just pay my rent.' OK? That's not reasonable. I don't think that's what this country is all about and never will." Subtext: MY ADVICE TO BUMS IS TO DO WHAT THEIR PARENTS DID, GET A JOB, SIR.
The Legal Aid Society and the City Council had sued to stop the new policy, which was not struck down on its merits, but because the Bloomberg administration had quickly tried to impose it. The City Administrative Procedure Act requires public vetting before such policies can be changed, the judge ruled. Steven Banks, the chief lawyer for Legal Aid, said yesterday, “It should not have required litigation to stop this plan that would have resulted in women and men in need of shelter being turned away."
In a separate, unrelated ruling in state appeals court yesterday, Bloomberg won a victory in the War on Bums after a judge ruled that the city did not immediately have to pay rent for the 8,000 families still enrolled in the Advantage rental-subsidy program that was canceled last spring. The program—which helped 15,000 households with working family members by subsidizing up to $1,100 a month toward rent for up to two years (in comparison, paying to put a family in the shelter system for a month costs about $3,000)—was shut down after state funding was canceled.
Tagged
homeless
mayor bloomberg
shelter
shelters
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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