Ex-PR ace, now in shelter, wants to advise Bill on policy

A FORMER top political aide who now lives in a city-run shelter wants to use his experience to persuade the de Blasio administration to drastically change how it assists the city’s burgeoning homeless population.

“I want the opportunity to speak to de Blasio,” said Sherman Jackson, 70, a day after his plight was highlighted by the Daily News. “There are serious discrepancies in the way the Department of Homeless Services is functioning.”

The experience he’s had “doesn’t solely affect me,” he added.

Jackson (photo inset) currently lives with 24 other men in an open dormitory homeless shelter in downtown Brooklyn.

He worked as a newsman at NBC and as a public relations aide for a host of big-name elected officials, including former Rep. Herman Badillo, before he fell on hard times.

His primary focus is to find a new place of his own with the help of city subsidies like the Special One Time Assistance Program.

But he also wants to use his knowledge of the city’s budget and operating procedures to highlight several city initiatives he describes as “counterintuitive.”

That includes paying millions to private firms or nonprofits to operate shelters.

“They need to hear it from someone who has actually experienced said.

“The mayor has made a big deal about trying to cut down on the homeless population. The way the Department of Homeless Services is doing it is not the way. I’ve worked in city government.” it,” Jackson Jackson also pointed out that he doesn’t qualify for a Living in Communities housing voucher because his $2,100 monthly Social Security check puts him over the eligibility threshold. Meanwhile, the city pays Camba, a nonprofit running the shelter, an estimated $3,000 a month for each resident.

“If the mayor is looking to get people out of these homeless shelters, let’s be smart how the money is spent,” Jackson said. “At this point in time, the only people who seem to be benefiting are the homeless shelter operators.

“That’s the essence story,” he added.

Several generous readers were so moved by Jackson’s plight they offered to assist him. of my

That includes Uber driver Robert Sanchez, who said Jackson is welcome to stay for a few days at his beachfront apartment in Long Beach, L.I.

Several other readers suggested he move somewhere cheaper. Jackson welcomed the ideas but is hoping for a permanent setup somewhere in the city.

“I’m a New Yorker plain and simple,” he said. “It would be really difficult for me to pull myself out of here.”

But he’s worried for his safety in the shelter.

“I’m trying to do the best I can,” he said. “It’s difficult. I’ve not had any physical altercations. But at any moment it seems like something can happen.”

Homeless Services Department spokesman Isaac McGinn said the city’s “strategies are taking hold, with the shelter census flat for the first time in a decade and over 81,000 individuals exiting shelters through the rental assistance programs we rebuilt upon taking office.”