Bill takes heat over homeless
Mayor is ‘callous,’ policy a ‘disgrace’
Advocates for the city’s homeless demanded on Friday that Mayor de Blasio do more to provide permanent, affordable housing for thousands of New Yorkers living in shelters and on city streets.
Coalition for the Homeless Policy Director Giselle Routhier trained her ire on de Blasio’s Housing New York 2.0 plan, which aims to create 300,000 units of affordable housing by 2026, which Routhier claims is failing “tens of thousands of New Yorkers without homes.”
De Blasio’s “callous disregard for the homeless is truly staggering,” Routhier said.
Under de Blasio’s leadership, the city’s shelter population has hovered at record highs for months with about 63,000 people now living in them. Under the mayor’s plan, only 5% of the 300,000 units would be set aside for the homeless, while about 10% would be reserved for renters who can shell out more than $2,500 each month.
In an attempt to pressure de Blasio into shifting gears, Routhier and several other advocates held a City Hall press conference on Friday immediately before a City Council Housing and Buildings Committee hearing.
“The mayor’s methods of addressing homelessness are Band-Aid approaches. They don’t address the underlying problem, which is a severe lack of affordable housing for low income New Yorkers,” Neighbors Together executive director Denny Marsh said. “Until he addresses the crisis of homelessness with a commensurate solution, New York City will continue to have record high homelessness.”
Several Council members, including Helen Rosenthal (D-Manhattan), also dug in against de Blasio.
Rosenthal described the mayor’s handling of the homeless situation as “a disgrace.”
“Our ongoing affordable housing crisis makes solving homelessness impossible,” she said. “There is no clear end in sight.”
A representative for de Blasio defended the mayor, saying he’s “focused on getting the maximum number of families out of shelters and into homes.”
“Building new apartments is part of that strategy, but it’s a much more expensive and slower option than providing things like rental assistance,” de Blasio spokeswoman Jaclyn Rothenberg said.
“The mayor’s housing plan must balance the need for quick solutions with long-term approaches that also help low- and middleincome New Yorkers afford their city. It’s a delicate equation we think we’re getting right,” she said.