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Bloomberg Claims NY Is "More Compassionate" About Homeless Than Other Cities
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Feb 23, 2013
Modified Feb 23, 2013
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Feb 23, 2013
Modified Feb 23, 2013
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Mayor Bloomberg hasn't exactly established himself as a friend to the city's homeless population lately, but he says the homeless still love him; he announced on his weekly radio show yesterday that "We’re three to 10 times more compassionate than the other cities," when it comes to homelessness. After all we've got so many!
Hizzoner's been criticized over a recent, much-contested policy requiring homeless single individuals to prove they have no alternate housing before being allowed into a city shelter. But Bloomberg said yesterday that there were way fewer homeless people sleeping on the streets as opposed to shelters in New York in January than in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami and Seattle (though, perhaps the homeless Miami residents find their outdoor January weather a little more conducive to street-sleeping than our sub-freezing temps). “So we’re three to 10 times more compassionate than the other cities if you use that as a measure of compassion, assuming everybody’s measurements are the same,” he said yesterday. And our shelters are so damn pleasurable!
Meanwhile, the city says they'll spend $955 million on homeless services in the next fiscal year. Though that does seem like a waste of money, considering that guy sleeping on a bench in Union Square is just a hallucination from all that heavy weed you've been smoking, anway.
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Rebecca Fishbein
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