We don’t need to spend years and millions of dollars building better shelters. We need fewer shelters — and far more true housing.
I’m sure we’ll hear a hue and cry from shelter providers that they’ve been underfunded. That claim, however, is no excuse for allowing New Yorkers who desperately seek shelter as the last refuge from the street to live in such inhumane circumstances.
A better course would be to immediately revoke the contracts of these shelter providers (and stop doing business with those without contracts) and find organizations that appreciate the moral imperative of caring for the people they serve.
Today, our city’s shelter program too often functions as a way for organizations to collect lucrative government contracts. Those providers, many of them non-profits, have become a significant bloc in supporting a status quo that simply doesn’t work for those who are homeless.
It’s all terribly insidious, with organizations couching their interests in outmoded social services theory to perpetuate the belief that shelter is necessary because homeless people are supposedly not “housing ready.”
From the Daily News:
“New York City is indeed facing a crisis,” she said in a keynote speech at the Homeless Policy Forum, citing the 58,000 New Yorkers who sleep in shelters each night.
She lashed out at neighborhoods that have protested against shelters, sometimes using derogatory language against the homeless.
“Too much NIMBYism happens, and we know how certain communities have responded - unfortunately, very unfortunately, in the way they’ve characterized and vilified homeless families and children in certain neighborhoods,” Mark-Viverito said. “That is inhumane, and it is our moral obligation to really do something about it.”
So neighborhoods should not protest against the "insidious" shelter system. Because her friends profit from it. Got it. We must defend tweeding at all costs.
13 comments:
Lot of empty underutilized space in those dark Manhattan towers.
Remember that most of city council led by Jimmy Van Bramer supports this woman.
Sure, go ahead and give everyone needing housing a nice apartment.
Who is going to pay for it? It's free to them, but someone is paying for it.
If the public assistance clients were awake at 6am when I am out the door in the morning, they would be laughing at this taxpayer.
I will be at work earning the tax money to pay for their food, shelter, education, and healthcare until the time they wake up.
The criminals of organized crime are no longer out in plain sight and blended into Howard Beach, Staten Island, New Jersey and Sicily, Italy---but, right here in City Hall, Albany and throughout all levels of government service, that no longer serves its taxpaying citizens. The city council are true Neo-fascists of complete power and control, as they continue to be vastly overpaid, while reinforcing a dereliction of public duty, "selective" and "occasional" representation and a total disregard for the collective, public oaths of office that they swore to uphold, with unprecedented impunity. Alas, society is collapsing in NYC in all directions (left, right and center)---except for the politicians themselves. Sounds like history is once again repeating itself with a 21st century rendition of the fall of the Roman Empire---and the overburdened taxpayer be damned (again, still, always and forever)!
If she's referring to Elmhurst and the Pan American hotel, it's no surprise she doesn't mention that her homeless buddies were yelling nasty comments to the neighborhood protestors as well. It might ruin her narrative of the poor, downtrodden, innocent homeless that of course will be good neighbors if only the bad racist homeowners would just roll over and take whatever she and the council doles out.
Now there are plans for an 11 story "hotel" next to the Pan Am.
Would anyone build a hotel next to a homeless shelter? Or will this just be an add on for the homeless shelter?
If the Pan Am couldn't make it as a hotel why do they think a new hotel will make it?
Maybe it's just for the tax breaks for the developers and we'll be stuck with more crap.
“Too much NIMBYism happens, and we know how certain communities have responded - unfortunately, very unfortunately, in the way they’ve characterized and vilified homeless families and children in certain neighborhoods,” Mark-Viverito said. “That is inhumane, and it is our moral obligation to really do something about it.”
Typical, instead of holding investigations into the awarding of the DHS contracts to these politically connected " nonprofits" she plays the NIMBY card and suggests we need to throw more tax dollars at the problem. Blame the people not the the crooked politicians.
And how many shelters are on Viverito's block. If these politicians are going to have to walk the talk. Show by example.
I love how politicians and the rich folks say that something should be done, but none have shelters in their neighborhoods or are willing to make sacrifices, yet what others to.
Can you imagen how bad these shelters must be to have the Partnership for the Homeless speak out against them and the thieves that run them?
And most important of all, one does not need to be a NYC resident or even legally in the US in order to receive shelter! Wow, who's paying for all this? I'm sure it's not me.
Rose Marie and her Ukkies will go apesit when they discover the Section 8 hotel they are planning for the 'under used' property next to the Steinway Mansion.
Can't happen to a better group of people. Hope they stop by and thank the Vallones for doing a great service to the community.
The rumor is that these big business "not for profit" shelter providers are recruiting folks down south and sending them north to our great city. Once they are here, they are entitled to shelter, benefits, while our elected officials trumpet the emergency of the growing homeless population in NYC, and the need to create more and more shelters. When will the media look into this?
The rumor is ....
Possibly when they hear of it from a credible source, not an anonymous blog poster. Can you name one or cite other info that any media person reading this -you know they do!-could look into?
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