Sunday, January 3, 2016

Cuomo To Involuntarily Round Up Homeless, Take Them Off Streets When Temperatures Hit Freezing

Big Brother Cuomo going to make sure everybody stays warm - and sending another arrow Bill de Blasio's way:

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo will sign an executive order on Sunday that will bring the homeless in out of the cold — and it’s mandatory.

Citing the risks of hypothermia and possible death, Cuomo will require communities — including New York City — to take the homeless who live outside to shelters when the mercury hits the freezing mark, the Daily News has learned.

If they refuse to go, the order, which goes into effect on Tuesday, calls for the involuntary taking of the homeless to shelters when the temperatures hit 32 degrees or below.

“We’re in a period now of the winter inclement weather,” Cuomo told The News. “It’s dangerous for homeless people to be on the streets.”

Though Cuomo insists he is looking for a uniformed statewide standard to deal with homelessness, the order could add more flames to the simmering feud between the governor and Mayor de Blasio.

Without specifically singling out New York City, Cuomo’s executive order notes that “certain parts of the state are facing a crisis of homelessness unprecedented in recent history.”

Obviously this is aimed at the de Blasio administration, which has struggled with the numbers of homeless on the streets the past few years.

And in case there's any doubt of that, well, there was this "anonymous" dig:

A Cuomo aide recently said the de Blasio administration “can’t manage the homeless crisis.”

De Blaiso put some of the blame on the state and says he's got a plan to deal with the problem:

The mayor has said the city’s homeless crisis got worse after Cuomo cut a $68 million rental assistance program in 2011. After talks for a joint effort failed, the mayor recently announced a $2.6 billion, 15-year city plan to create 15,000 apartments that would cater mainly to people with mental illness and substance abuse problems.

Currently the city has a "Code Blue" protocol when temperatures hit freezing, with the city doubling down on the outreach to homeless people on the streets and letting people into shelters without the usual intake process.

But the city does not force people off the streets when it hits freezing.

Now they'll have to.

This is just another gin-up in the battle with de Blasio.

Cuomo doesn't actually care about homeless people or the mentally ill.

If he did, he wouldn't have cut funding for a rental subsidy program that kept people from, you know being homeless or threaten to eliminate state funds for homeless shelters (as he did this summer.)

He does care about one-upping de Blasio and making him look as weak and ineffectual as possible.

That's what's going on here.

The state is supposed to provide more resources for municipalities struggling with homelessness as part of Cuomo's mandate, but that remains to be seen.

Often promised monies fail to cover newly imposed mandates and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that is the case here.

And then there's the constitutional issue - is it legal to round people up and force them into shelters if they don't want to go?

Cuomo says it's fine and dandy:

Asked about whether such a move violates civil rights, Cuomo said case law is on his side.

“It’s not even a close call in my opinion or my counsel’s opinion,” he said.

“What we’re saying is these are people who are placing themselves in danger, and if you are placing yourself in danger, we believe as a society you should be given help because you can hurt yourself,” he said. “That is the premise to this action.”

Lots of actions fall under Cuomo's "People who are placing themselves in danger" premise - including smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol to excess or eating foods that are not healthy for you.

Shouldn't those activities be regulated under Cuomo's premise as well?

Enough with the bullshit from Cuomo - he needs to stop trying to one-up de Blasio, work with municipalities struggling with homelessness (not just NYC, btw - homelessness has "exploded" statewide since the recession, Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy), and provide more state resources to deal with the problems instead of cutting them.

In addition, he needs to take responsibility for adding to the problem by cutting state funds to programs that helped alleviate homelessness (like the rental subsidy program), as well as pointing fingers at others for contributing to the problem.

That's what an adult would do.

But Andrew Cuomo is a man-child and so this new "Homeless Off The Streets" mandate is as much about him as it is about solving a vexing social problem.

Preetmas can't come soon enough.

Then maybe we'll see Cuomo himself taken "involuntarily" off the streets.

10 comments:

  1. I will believe that our government has more than a rat's tail interest in its citizens when we have a national single payer health care system in place as does every other first world nation. Everything else, seat belts, faucet regulations, FDA rulings, smoking laws, soda drink size, is a facade.

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  2. It is no secret Cuomo sees de Blasio as a bit of a weak oddball (who doesn't?) and can't resist tweaking him now and again.

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  3. Once again, Andrew Cuomo should be indicted, prosecuted and jailed. Rahm Emmanuel should be indicted, prosecuted and jailed. Hillary Clinton should be indicted, prosecuted and jailed. However, the justice department is not a separate branch of government, it is not independent. Loretta Lynch was appointed by and is accountable to Barack Obama. Each one of the fore mentioned politicians are protected by Obama because their indictments would harm the Democrats in the 2016 elections. They will not be indicted because of partisan political interests of the Democrats. The interest of the public and justice be damned.

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    1. OMG, once again (actually this is my first time). Enough. Just about every prominent politician should be jailed. Thanks for sharing (once again).

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  4. I thought Cuomo would at least establish a 'Danielson Standards' protocol to determine which of the homeless people would get priority for the shelters.

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  5. Good Ol' marble-mouth Cuomo. Can't think straight. Can't talk straight. All he knows is that he hates De Blasio. Cuomo thinks we're all as moronic as he is. The whole state knows that Cuomo's cuts to homeless shelters put more people on the streets. But, if it's cold out, he'll send on the Jack boot thugs to harrass the same people he evicted. He won't help them get their homes back. He just wants to cuff them when it's chilly out. What a douche.

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  6. Yet another unenforceable mandate from Andrew "I am the government" Cuomo, in the putrid tradition of APPR and the Safe Act.

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  7. First they came for the homeless, and I did not speak out -
    Because 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.

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  8. This guy is absolutely sickening. At this point, I cannot even stomach listening to him speak. He so full of himself; so blatantly political and such an angry man. He is a sick person who desperately needs help. It is an embarrassment that he is the NY governor. Thank goodness that Suffolk County, where I live, had the good sense to give Cuomo's opponent a 4,000 vote plurality in 2014.

    Cuomo and his lap dog, Senator John Flanagan has combined to make an incredible mess of public education and teaching. They both should be driven from office.

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  9. I'm considering putting together a database where people can check (by zip code) if their assembly person voted for the APPR. If so, it will also reveal the date of said assembly person's next election. Pretty sure this is the only thing many voters care about at the state level (I'm not even kidding). So, if we make it easy for voters to connect the dots, we could see a lot of people driven from office.

    Any Assemblyperson who wants to stay off that list had better introduce legislation to completely overturn that bad bill. Tut suite.

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