A Step Forward
“But if you are poor and homeless you’d be better off in New York City than anyplace else.” In February of 2014, Mayor de Blasio announced that his administration would be transferring out children from homeless shelters that were repeatedly reported for inexcusable conditions. A major change from Bloomberg’s administration got feedback from an advocacy group, “Coalition for the Homeless” who reported that Mayor Bloomberg’s administration policy was “disastrous” because it encouraged for-profit shelter operators. Now in 2014 under Mayor de Blasio’s administration, major steps have been taken in order to help homeless New Yorkers. The new mayor “presented plans to build and preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing in the next decade by increasing rent protections for the poor and requiring developers to include below-market apartments in newly zoned areas.” [Bloomberg.com]
New York City is known as the city that never sleeps. Each night, more than 60,000 people experience homelessness. This number has risen by 73 percent since 2002 [Coalition for the Homeless]. Previously, Bloomberg’s administration tackled New York City’s homeless issue by announcing that the homeless New Yorkers would have to become self dependent. That didn’t turn out well. Bloomberg defended himself by saying that the homeless would no longer have access to public housing right away; instead the city would help with the rent for a short period of time. In 2013, the number of families that came into the homeless shelters increased from 1,129 to 1,288. Still Bloomberg denied arguing, claiming that New York “has done more than any city to help the homeless,” citing the city’s policies of subsidized health care, job training, and shelter counseling.
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