The rent will come due
Surely New York State can do better than park 70,000 desperate souls in homeless shelters, at costs into the hundreds of dollars for each family each night, all for their want of funds sufficient to pay the rent. Then there’s Queens Assemblyman Andy Hevesi with his well-meaning, widely supported and possibly unsustainable proposal to shift the roughly billion dollars spent on shelters each year to instead dramatically scale up New York’s welfare benefits.
Backed by leaders on both sides of the aisle in the Assembly, and by the Independent Democratic Conference that makes possible Republican control of the state Senate (see Jeff Klein’s adjacent Op-Ed), Hevesi’s Home Stability Support program would expand a so-called shelter allowance long tucked into public assistance payments.
No question, the current $400 a month allotted to a New York City family of three, and the $215 for a single adult, bears no resemblance to rent paid by most — arguably in violation of state law that requires such aid to provide for the “physical, mental and moral well-being” of children.
Hevesi would have New York in effect increase that sum to about $1,400 for a two-bedroom apartment (in the city) for those in perilous housing conditions, including those doubled up with friends or relatives — replacing emergency aid now available only once a tenant is in Housing Court for failure to pay rent.
Assuming as Hevesi does that 80,000 households partake, and that the bulk of demand will be in high-cost New York City and environs, and the annual bill will rise to the high hundreds of millions of dollars.
Cheaper and more humane than shelter? Absolutely.
But particularly in a city where the construction of new housing fails to keep pace with a surging population, pricing housing ever higher and forcing ever more New Yorkers to double up, greater numbers than the state Legislature bargained for could rationally choose to stay on the employment sidelines in order to qualify for ample rent aid.
Already, New York City is seeing a troubling trend of increased public assistance rolls, even as the unemployment rate has declined and the city boasts a record number of jobs and a now $10.50 minimum wage.
Still: Applaud the assemblyman for stepping up with a well-conceived solution, in stark contrast to Queens politicians who raced to join screaming mobs protesting homeless hotels.
On a smaller-dollar scale, plan Hevesi could have promise. An increase in the welfare housing allowance is long overdue, but New York must take care not to overdo it.