In superb match of gall, the Coalition for the Homeless has slammed Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul for “poor planning, misguided methods, underinvestment in confirmed options and bureaucratic ineptitude,” as if that’s why town shelter system is on the breaking point.
No, it’s the roughly 2,000 “asylum seekers” nonetheless touchdown right here every week. These unlawful migrants are why the shelter inhabitants has roughly doubled, to over 100,000.
Sure, Metropolis Corridor’s fumbled for options, however we’re fairly positive the Coalition for the Homeless didn’t warn that this was coming when President Joe Biden opened the southern border.
As for any failure of planning: One of many Coalition’s tightest allies was operating metropolis homeless coverage for eight years earlier than Adams took over. If Steve Banks left behind a scheme to double town’s shelter capability in some emergency, it was very effectively hidden.
No, what actually has the Coalition fearful is that this disaster simply would possibly power town to reopen the Callahan consent decree that provides the nonprofit a lot energy and revenue.
New York Metropolis’s “proper to shelter” rests purely on court docket settlements with advocates just like the Coalition, which itself then collects taxpayer money to fulfill the ensuing necessities. It lately received one other $714,000 contract to offer supportive housing for homeless with psychological well being and/or drug-abuse points.
But this strategy has solely introduced town an ever-growing drawback: The primary lawsuit again in 1979 demanded the taxpayers present simply 750 beds.
If the migrant disaster has any ghost of a silver lining, it’s that it may power the political elite to lastly rethink an strategy that for greater than six many years has fueled rising miserly and failure, in addition to an enormous social-service “nonprofit” business plagued with corruption.
On the very least, it ought to expose the Coalition for the Homeless as a central a part of the issue.
