Homeless New Yorkers gave the cold shoulder Sunday to Gov. Cuomo’s order that could force them off the streets when the temperature dips below freezing.
“Hell no, I won’t go to a shelter! How’s that even lawful? You can’t force people off a public street,” said Luis Diaz, 31, who was shivering with his girlfriend on a Midtown streetcorner as temps hovered in the mid-40s.
“It’s going to be crazy. They don’t have enough room. They don’t have the infrastructure to do this. Where are they going to put us? If they’re shoving us in shelters with crazies and people who can’t handle being in there, there is going to be a lot of fights. We’re safer out here.”
“I feel violated by this,” added William Sanders, 45, who said he considered it “cruel and unusual punishment” to be forced into a shelter, where he said he has faced hostility from other residents because of sores on his legs but has been unable to get medical services.
“There is going to be anger and violence in the shelters if we go against our will. They are putting us in a really bad situation,” he said.
...
A handful of homeless people welcomed the new policy. “Some nights are really cold. You try to stay warm, but you can’t,” said Jose Flores, 47, who typically sleeps outside a Harlem subway station. “If I’m out here freezing, I’d welcome any van taking me to a warm place. People can die out here."
But most rejected the idea.
“That’s not right,” fumed Steve Jones, 63. “The governor can’t force people into shelters. We should have an option. People have rights.”
This is Cuomo trying to make it look like he's doing something about homelessness while really doing nothing about it.
In fact, he's exacerbated the problem.
Cuomo cut $68 million from a program that provided housing subsidies back in 2011.
He's not adding any more funds to what municipalities receive in order to deal with the mandate he imposed yesterday:
Cuomo's executive order "adds no legal or financial resources to NYC's programs to assist the homeless" https://t.co/6dpoBhKiL2
— Bill Hammond (@NYHammond) January 4, 2016
He's getting headlines, which is one of his main goals, and he's looking to make de Blasio look ineffectual, which is another of those main goals.
But as for alleviating homelessness with this mandate - not so much.
And as to his argument that it's the humane thing to do, it seems many homeless New Yorkers are rejecting that argument.
As to the practical angle of the argument, no one's quite sure how this mandate will work - kinda like other Cuomo mandates like his APPR teacher evaluation and the SAFE Act.
Cuomo's big on big announcements - not so big on making those big announcements work in the real world.
First they came for the homeless, and I did not speak out -
ReplyDeleteBecause I was not homeless.
Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Only real thing to understand here and take away:
ReplyDeleteCuomo again made de Blasio look like an incompetent goof.
To us, as teachers in NYS, the only take away is that Cuomo made a progressive voice all the more reduced and marginalized.
Cuomo wins here. Period. Not about the homeless folks. About making de Blasio look incompetent and half-assed.
You are so right and what disturbs me most is that cuomo never did this crap when bloomberg was mayor. Cuomo kissed bloombergs ass and now he is taking it out on diblasio. If I were diblasio I would give it right back to cuomo as cuomo has showed himself to be purely a fake. For example he sold himself out to the charter goons and threw the teachers union under the bus. Now he is abusing dibasio who is a good man and its really disturbing in that cuomo is not consistant except for being consistently a phoney.
Delete