Things in the city just got tougher for the city’s homeless, and advocates are not taking it lightly. However, the city says it’s just abiding by the law.
News broke last week that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is going to comply with a state mandate to charge rent to homeless New Yorkers. The law that was established in 1997, but never enforced in the city, requires homeless working New Yorkers to pay 44 percent of their income if they live in shelters.
When broken down, a family of three making $10,000 a year could pay as little as $36 a month. The same family making $25,000 could pay $926 a month to live in a shelter. Close to 15 percent of those living in shelters have the money to pay, according to reports.
Advocates say the move couldn’t come at a worse time when homelessness is at an all-time high. According to the organization Coalition for the Homeless, there are more than 39,000 homeless New Yorkers and 10,000 families living in shelters.
“It’s not fair and it’s not right,” said Teresa Paiva of Picture the Homeless, who has been homeless for the past three years with her husband. Paiva lives in a non-cooking facility shelter and spends close to $6 to $7 to buy food everyday. “You have to save up money in order to get out of the shelter. The conditions are bad in the shelters. It would be a devastating blow.”
To make matters worse, Coalition for the Homeless said Gov. David Paterson’s budget proposal includes record-breaking cutbacks to homeless services in New York. The cutbacks include more than $104 million in cuts to services, including permanent supportive housing, aftercare and homeless emergency and crisis services.
Reduced permanent housing options could force homeless families to stay in shelters longer, resulting in more money for the city from the homeless. Families and individuals unable to pay the rent will be forced into the streets or even the subway system as a means to get by.
“At a time of record homelessness and foreclosures, thousands of homeless families, veterans, even the mentally ill and disabled, would have to pay up to half of any available income they have–or get tossed out onto the street,” said Mary Brosnahan of Coalition for the Homeless.
The Working Families Party is working alongside Coalition for the Homeless to get the state to pass a law to prohibit Bloomberg from charging the homeless. Dan Levitan of Working Families says charging the homeless will make things worse.
“This is like denying health care to those with preexisting conditions. This is a horribly misguided policy and it completely undermines the system. You have people who lost their homes, and rather than allow them to save money to get back on their feet, the city is taking half of it,” said Levitan.
The Legal Aid Society has also joined in the fight to stop the mandate from going through. Steven Banks, who serves as attorney-in-chief for the Legal Aid Society, said the plan is ill-advised.
“It would make far more sense to permit these families, who are able to pay, to find and keep work in the current economic system, rather than force them to pay,” he said. “We will be prepared to go to court on this.”
City Council Member Jumaane Williams said that charging the homeless makes no sense, and that if the homeless can’t afford rent for an apartment, they shouldn’t be charged to stay in a homeless shelter.
“The administration’s ideas about homelessness, from the plans for the Bedford Armory to rent at homeless shelters, shows they have no interest in actually helping people in need,” he said. “These solutions only create more problems.”
However, the city says it’s about responsibility and principle when it comes to the homeless. Reports indicate that Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services Linda Gibbs said that the system of handouts is not working and it boils down to personal responsibility.
A spokeswoman from the city’s Department of Homeless Services told the AmNews that the city is required by state law to comply with the state mandate called the income contribution requirement (ICR). Because of years of non-compliance, the city was denied $2.4 million in 2009 for not enforcing the program.
ICR was suppose to start in May of last year, but was suspended due to technical issues with calculation amounts for families who receive public assistance and reside in shelters.
The city previously proposed to allow clients to place a portion of their contributions in restricted savings accounts, which the city believed was the most effective way of supporting exits from shelters, was not within OTDA’s authority to approve.
“We are very interested in engaging in a conversation with the state about amending the law because we think that there is a good way to have clients make a modest contribution toward the cost of shelter but also reinforce asset building and savings, so that when families move out of shelters, they have resources,” said the spokeswoman.
She added that the city plans to help homeless families through the Advantage NY program with employment that will return clients back to their communities. Homeless families living in shelters will receive notices in September, with rent due in October.