By opening nine new homeless shelters in just the last two months, the Bloomberg administration has responded quickly to an 18% increase in the number of people entering NYC's shelter system in the past year, much to the dismay of local officials.
The Bloomberg administration's "hallmark ability to pounce" on a problem is again ruffling feathers in New York City. With the homeless population in New York City having jumped sharply over the last year, the city has moved quickly to try to accommodate the increase in demand for shelter. However, many are criticizing the city for moving too quickly, reports Aaron Edwards.
"The administration said the increase stemmed in part from the end of the city's main rent-subsidy program for homeless families," notes Edwards.
"But the new shelters - five in the Bronx, two in Manhattan and two in
Brooklyn - have provoked criticism from local officials who say they
were blindsided by the decisions to open them."
"Mr. Diamond [the city's commissioner of homeless services] said he did not believe that his department had deceived
neighborhoods by opening shelters with little notice, saying the process
for picking the sites had been done 'always with community
communication.'"
Manhattan's borough president, Scott M. Stringer,
said, "This is no way to meet the needs of vulnerable citizens in this
city by simply packing in hundreds and hundreds of people in the dead of
night without a long-range plan."
FULL STORY: New York Acts Quickly Amid Sharp Rise in Homelessness
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