New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the creation of a citywide task force to address street homelessness block-by-block, saying in a speech to business leaders Thursday that the city will arrive on-scene within an hour of a resident reporting a homeless individual. “After we tried a number of changes and reforms, we didn’t feel we were getting as much seamlessness and as much streamlining as we needed”, de Blasio told reporters.
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De Blasio added that Taylor will act as an advisor to support the re-organization of the DHS, which is set to begin on January 1, 2016.
“There are serious problems with a mayor’s Management Report that is setting goals that go against the direction we want our city to go”, said City Councilman Ben Kallos of Manhattan, who oversaw a hearing on the report. The program received state funding, and the mayor hasn’t pushed for such levies, and instead enlisted numerous city’s corporate elite, through ABNY and other nonprofits, to aid in programs to combat income inequality.
Some highly visible examples of homelessness have become a regular sight in the city’s tabloids and on local TV newscasts, and a poll released last month showed that almost two-thirds of New Yorkers disapproved of how de Blasio has handled the issue. An additional 3,000 to 4,000 people are estimated to be living on the city’s streets.
After analyzing the city’s expenditures, the report found that the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), for example, the agency that’s primarily responsible for handling the issue of homelessness, devotes a modest proportion of its budget to people on the streets.
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Since taking office, the administration has moved more than 22,000 people into apartments from shelters. NYC is legally required to provide shelter for the homeless, and the cost continues to skyrocket. “No one wants to confront those feelings on the streets of their city”, the mayor said. Their objective, according to de Blasio, is to make sure services to the homeless are administered “as efficiently and effectively as possible”. He also admitted not all indigents would be immediately responsive to HOME-STAT’s outreach, and said no city has “cracked the code” of permanently getting all people off the street. Areas that will likely receive specific examination for improvement and modernization include how contracting with non-profits is performed in the agencies; the sharing of functions across agencies; the coordination of client service delivery, and program development efforts. De Blasio also ordered a top-to-bottom review of the department. In addition, New Yorkers report homeless encampments cropping up, and an increase in numbers of homeless people on the subway and streets.
