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According to this, homelessness is DOWN nationally as it continues to RISE in NYC and in LA.
"The administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg set out to make a significant dent in homelessness with an overhaul of policies in the mid-2000s. But instead, the city’s shelters are packed, with more than 50,000 people relying on them. Mr. de Blasio has promised to reverse course by restoring the preference given to homeless families for a portion of public housing apartments and rental subsidies. He has also vowed to negotiate with the state and HUD to create a new rent subsidy program."
So de Blasio says he will create a new welfare program to pay the rent (wonder if Cuomo will allow that, plus Congress has been reducing funding).
Now here's why I think the Bloomberg administration is bull****.
"“Given our legal mandate to provide safe, temporary emergency shelter to all eligible families and individuals in need every night, we meet this mission successfully, while other cities around the country are putting up ‘no vacancy’ signs and turning families to the streets and to live in cars,” the city’s Department of Homeless Services said in a statement.
But it may get worse before it gets better. Dennis P. Culhane, a professor of social policy at the University of Pennsylvania who helped direct the research in the HUD report on homelessness, said that while the current government programs were having an effect, further progress was not guaranteed."
Many homeless people refuse to go to shelters. There's a huge number of homeless people living in the street around Union Square Park, the East Village/Lower East Side area, Chelsea, Williamsburg (I'm told Astoria too). Even in the Bronx in 2013 I saw a number of homeless people. You do see a lot more homeless people in affluent areas closer to the city's core (more opportunities to panhandle and more soup kitchens and other services).
Even homeless people who do go to shelters DO NOT LIVE there. You have to leave a shelter at 6am or 7am in the morning. Shelters feel if they let people stay there all day they might get too comfortable and not look for work or whatever other situation. That's partially why a lot of homeless don't bother with shelters to begin with.
Shelters also don't have to house everyone. You can be kicked out for drugs, booze, fighting, having sex, etc.
But anyway, the point is NYC's and LA's homeless populations are STILL GROWING!
Im out in New Orleans. Dont see much homeless here. May see on or two here and there but not what you see in NYC or in LA and SF. Do you have a link to this?
Even homeless people who do go to shelters DO NOT LIVE there.
True. And those in shelters were counted as homeless for this study. It's a one-night count of "sheltered and un-sheltered homeless." They counted those in: emergency shelters, transitional housing and locations such as cars and abandoned buildings.
The USA Today article says homeless are being undercounted, partly because the study doesn't count homeless families who are doubling up with another family. If they were able to add these numbers, I wonder how the figures would play out for NY vs the rest of the country. It seems much harder for families to double up here due to the lack of space.
Housing costs in NYC keep increasing whilst unemployment and or under employment levels remain high as well. Something has to give and regardless of NYC supposedly being a pro-tenant place, if you cannot pay your rent it is only a matter of time.
Am seeing something one has not seen since the 1980's, more and more homeless in or on the subways. We also see them in the streets and camped out over night sleeping on various church's steps.
What is interesting is if you read some of the signs/placards homeless have put up around themselves (even whilst sleeping on the above mentioned church steps), it is obvious these often are very intelligent people. One man camps out at a church on Park Avenue and 85th Street and not only writes very well, but has lovely block script handwriting.
There are many persons that are homeless because while they do work, apartment rentals that can be paid on their wages are few. With many of the SROs, "short stay" hotels/flop houses and so forth now gone, there isn't really anywhere for someone earning say $30K or under to live in the City.
Also am seeing more persons sleeping or rather living in their cars as well.
The USA Today article says homeless are being undercounted, partly because the study doesn't count homeless families who are doubling up with another family. If they were able to add these numbers, I wonder how the figures would play out for NY vs the rest of the country. It seems much harder for families to double up here due to the lack of space.
But that is just what Bloomberg's administration wanted/wants.
If a family or person is seeking homeless services from the City, Bloomberg's plan was to refuse them if they had family where they could move in, regardless of how cramped things may have been.
But that is just what Bloomberg's administration wanted/wants.
If a family or person is seeking homeless services from the City, Bloomberg's plan was to refuse them if they had family where they could move in, regardless of how cramped things may have been.
The homeless advocate was talking about the entire country's homeless being undercounted due to the families moving in with other families, as far as I could understand.
While not a very scientific assessment, I see many more homeless in the last few months than in the last eight years.
I have no idea what the shelters are like, but the overwhelming majority of people I see on the street....their homelessness has nothing to do with lack of jobs, high rent, etc. majority are extreme outcasts of society, eg druggies or alcoholics, mentally ill, or young white kids who think face tattoos are a good look.
Im out in New Orleans. Dont see much homeless here. May see on or two here and there but not what you see in NYC or in LA and SF. Do you have a link to this?
The USA Today article says homeless are being undercounted, partly because the study doesn't count homeless families who are doubling up with another family. If they were able to add these numbers, I wonder how the figures would play out for NY vs the rest of the country. It seems much harder for families to double up here due to the lack of space.
Even with lack of space, families in NYC do indeed double up. This has always been true among poor immigrants.
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