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Report: Pace Of Shelter Creation Slowed While Homelessness Spiked
By
Emma Whitford
Published Nov 21, 2016
Modified Nov 21, 2016
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By
Emma Whitford
Published Nov 21, 2016
Modified Nov 21, 2016
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During the summer of 2014, two years before residents in Maspeth, Queens started vehemently protesting the creation of a new homeless shelter in their neighborhood, residents in neighboring Elmhurst waged a similar battle. Their target was the former Pan American Hotel, which the city had recently converted into a new shelter for homeless families. And while that shelter remains, Politico NY reports this week that Mayor de Blasio significantly slowed the pace of shelter creation as a result of that drama. Meanwhile, his administration has increasingly relied on commercial hotel rooms to temporarily house the homeless—inferior accommodations that de Blasio pledged months ago to phase out.
Politico's tip on Mayor de Blasio's policy shift came from an anonymous former staff member. From the outlet:
It was around that time [that the Pan Am shelter opened] that the mayor inserted himself into the shelter-siting process, informing staff verbally that the city would not open any additional shelters unless he expressly approved them, according to the former administration official.
New York City opened 19 shelters in 2014, and only four in 2015, according to Politico. In the meantime, homelessness has reached a record high, hovering around 60,000 adults and children. According to the Department of Homeless Services, 6,000 New Yorkers were living in commercial hotel rooms as of last month. For comparison, the Wall Street Journal reports that there were about 1,000 homeless people living in hotels as recently as early 2015.
Hotel shelters have a reputation for inadequate services and poor security—Mayor de Blasio made his pledge to phase them out in February, after a triple-stabbing murder at a hotel shelter on Staten Island.
"We intend to use hotels less and less, and, as quickly as possible, stop using them," he said at the time. "However, we may have to use them going forward when there is a need."
Mayoral Spokeswoman Aja Worthy-Davis did not confirm whether Mayor de Blasio asked for final approval for all shelter deals in 2014. But she said that the mayor did ask his staff at the time for a "comprehensive vision around the creation and placement of shelters."
As for the slowed pace of shelter creation, Worthy-Davis said that shelters are just one part of a "cohesive vision" for homelessness mitigation, which also includes funding for rental and legal assistance for New Yorkers on the brink of homelessness.
DHS Commissioner Steven Banks has recently denied allegations that the city is bowing in the face of community-opposition, insisting that hotel sheltering is a necessary "stop-gap" while the city pursues its dual goals of opening new homeless shelters and phasing out the widely unpopular cluster site model—a Bloomberg legacy that resulted in homeless families being placed in sordid apartments at high cost to the city.
In October, after DHS dropped its controversial plan to open a new shelter in Maspeth—opting to rent out rooms temporarily, instead—Banks implied that phasing out hotel sheltering in the short term was not a reasonable expectation.
"Phase-out of commercial hotels was part of 46 reforms that we announced five months ago," he said.
Meanwhile, advocates say that the de Blasio and Cuomo administrations need to do more on the affordable housing front if the city hopes to see any marked dip in the homelessness count. Despite laws prohibiting landlord discrimination against rental voucher holders, for example, that practice is still rampant.
"City Hall says it's working on a 'comprehensive vision,' but it's not doing anything to stop the skyrocketing rents and mass displacement that are the true causes of the crisis," said Picture the Homeless member Jonathan Morales. His group is pushing for a formal count of NYC's vacant properties. The next step, advocates say, could be passing those properties to nonprofit developers committed to building housing that low-income New Yorkers can afford.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the department told Politico that nine new shelters have opened in NYC since Commissioner Banks stepped in in December 2015.
City spending on homelessness prevention also reached record heights this year—about $1.6 billion for 2016, up 60% in three years, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Earlier this fall DHS made the case that its spending has had a positive impact, with the homelessness count being about 7,000 people shy of projections.
City officials have also emphasized what they are up against: a housing crisis, stagnant wages, and the void left behind when Governor Andrew Cuomo and former mayor Michael Bloomberg eliminated the Advantage rental assistance program in 2011. According to the city, the homelessness count spiked more than 5,000 per year between 2011 and 2014.
Tagged
homelessness crisis
hotel shelters
mayor de blasio
Emma Whitford
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