No-show pols out at ‘home’
SOCIAL SERVICES Commissioner Steven Banks heads the agencies grappling to deal urgently with a growing homelessness crisis in the city — but City Council members apparently weren’t in a rush to hear from him.
Banks, who heads both the Human Resources Administration and the Department of Homeless Services, offered more than 25 minutes of detailed testimony on the proposed $9.8 billion HRA budget to just two Council members — General Welfare Committee Chairman Stephen Levin of Brooklyn and Councilman Barry Grodenchik of Queens. The two Democrats were the only members of the nine-person committee to show up on time.
It was the start of a marathon day for Banks, who was set to testify about the welfare agency at 10 a.m.
Councilman Fernando Cabrera (D-Bronx) joined the group at 10:43 a.m, followed by Councilwoman Annabel Palma (D-Bronx) at 11:16 a.m. — bringing attendance to four members of the committee by 11:30 when his homeless services testimony was scheduled to start. That testimony was delayed as Banks was asked about food stamps, vouchers, emergency food rations and other Human Resources Administration programs.
Councilman Rafael Salamanca (D-Bronx) arrived at 11:41 a.m., followed by Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson (D-Bronx) at 11:55 a.m. and Councilman Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan) at 12:04 p.m., all of whom did ask questions — some touching on topics that had previously been discussed.
By the time Banks read his testimony on the $1.43 billion Homeless Services budget proposal just after 1 p.m., Palma and Johnson had left.
Two never showed up: Councilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx), who’s out of the country, and Councilman Ruben Wills (DQueens). Gibson and Cabrera blamed traffic caused by a George Washington Bridge crash. Johnson said he’d been sick while Salamanca said he was at a briefing on a committee he chairs.
Members who did attend quizzed Banks on why more homeless people aren’t moved into public housing and the city’s plans to build 90 new shelters.
Banks took the absences in stride. “Every one of the members of the committee . . . are people we’re in constant dialogue with,” he said.