Bum shell!
Blas ‘can’t manage homeless’: Cuomo
Gov. Cuomo t hi nks Mayor de Blasio “can’t manage the homeless crisis” in the city — and pl a ns to “step i n” to help solve the escalating problem, his off ice announced yeste rd ay.
The governor will lay out the plan — a huge s hot at hi s rival — in t he St a te of t he St a te Address.
The City of New York stepped up and said, ‘We will make this a priority.’ We need to hear from the state of New York. — Mayor de Blasio, on the the homeless problem
It’s clear that the mayor can’t manage the homeless crisis, and the state does intend to step in with both management expertise and resources. — Dani Lever, spokeswoman for Gov. Cuomo
Gov. Cuomo took his biggest shot yet at Mayor de Blasio by declaring that Hizzoner “can’t manage the homeless crisis” in the city — and saying that he plans to “step in” and fix the festering problem himself.
A spokeswoman said Cuomo felt compelled to personally take action because de Blasio had proven himself inept at stemming the surging number of vagrants taking over the city’s sidewalks, subways and parks.
“Yes, it’s clear that the mayor can’t manage the homeless crisis, and the state does intend to step in with both management expertise and resources in a plan to be released in the State of the State [address],” spokeswoman Dani Lever said.
The Post has documented the plague of homeless people relieving themselves in public and begging for handouts — including one panhandler who says he rakes in as much as $200 an hour outside Grand Central Terminal.
Lever declined to detail Cuomo’s strategy ahead of his speech, which is traditionally delivered the first week of January.
De Blasio refused to discuss Cuomo’s planned intervention — the latest twist in their longrunning feud — when asked about it at a news conference ahead of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
“That’s an offtopic question. That’s a question for another time. We will talk to that in the coming days,” he said.
The Albany shot at City Hall amplified remarks Cuomo made Tuesday, when he said the city’s homelessness problem “hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves.”
It also followed de Blasio’s assertion earlier Wednesday that Cuomo needed to “step up” and provide state funding to create “supportive housing” for mentally ill and drugaddicted homeless people. During an appearance on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York,” de Blasio touted his recently announced, $2.6 billion plan to create housing “with the services to get people right again.”
“The city of New York stepped up and said, ‘We will make this a priority.’ We need to hear from the state of New York. Yes, money matters,” he said.
At one point in the interview, host Rosanna Scotto confronted de Blasio about having seen four homeless people “just in a half a block” while out on the town Tuesday night.
De Blasio responded by saying the city was “doing a lot right now” and blaming the situation on “the economic reality we’re in.”
“More and more families and folks who are economically dislocated, and folks who are working . . . but working a minimumwage job,” de Blasio said, “in today’s housing market, they can’t get by.”