{"id":355323,"date":"2021-10-20T05:24:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T02:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/mayor-de-blasio-refuses-to-take-responsibility-for-homeless-crisis\/"},"modified":"2021-10-20T05:24:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T02:24:00","slug":"mayor-de-blasio-refuses-to-take-responsibility-for-homeless-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/mayor-de-blasio-refuses-to-take-responsibility-for-homeless-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"#Mayor de Blasio refuses to take responsibility for homeless crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Mayor de Blasio refuses to take responsibility for homeless crisis<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n        <\/aside>\n<p>As Mayor de Blasio\u2019s tenure at Gracie Mansion winds down, homelessness \u2014 a key campaign issue against which he swore to fight a \u201cblood and guts\u201d war \u2014 remains as bad as it ever was. Combined with the rise in street crime, open drug use and the return of prostitution, the number of people living on the street in Manhattan \u2014 almost all of whom are seriously mentally ill \u2014 stands as the signature policy failure of the de Blasio administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Take a walk from the Village to Midtown. On Eighth Street and University, a woman, hopelessly alcoholic, lives on the sidewalk, surrounded by a hodgepodge of possessions and reading James Patterson novels. On Fifth Avenue, a deranged barefoot man camps out in front of the Church of the Ascension, endlessly hollering imprecations at passersby, or at no one.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Sixth, a middle-aged transgender woman \u201crejected by family\u201d (so her sign reads) maintains a pile of old office furniture and other detritus. Over the summer, the Sanitation Department hauled her stuff away; it\u2019s all back now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Heading uptown, nearly every block is inhabited by someone sleeping, \u201cnodding\u201d or pacing and muttering aggressively. Penn Station has devolved into asylum territory, with derelicts and lunatics gibbering madly and using walkways as latrines. The subway system has turned into a rolling annex of the Department of Homeless Services.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The mayor, as usual, is h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>y to assign blame \u2014 and accept credit \u2014 where it isn\u2019t due. Sure, he acknowledges that his management of homelessness failed to \u201csee the whole picture\u201d and \u201cmissed pieces of the problem entirely.\u201d But, at the same time, de Blasio has blamed the pandemic for \u201cexposing inequalities\u201d in the system, effectively giving himself a pass on conditions that actually worsened under his rule.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/homeless.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"A homeless man sleeping outside of Moynihan Station in Manhattan.\" class=\"wp-image-19858489\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/homeless.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/homeless.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/homeless.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>A homeless man sleeping outside of Moynihan Station in Manhattan.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Stephen Yang<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The mayor has even congratulated New York City for not having sprawling tent cities, insisting that our vaunted \u201cright to shelter\u201d spares us from the fate of Los Angeles, where tens of thousands of people camp out on a permanent basis. In fact, New York is perversely blessed with a bitter winter, which encourages all but the most stubborn street cases to seek warmer climes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cright to shelter\u201d was established by the famous 1981 Callahan v. Carey case, in which the city consented to provide every homeless man (women and children were included in succeeding suits) with a place to live on an emergency basis. Callahan is the basis of our present shelter system, which houses about 50,000 New Yorkers every night. It\u2019s also the cornerstone of the vast personal wealth that some corrupt and connected <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a>-service providers like Jack Brown of CORE Services Group have sucked from the taxpayer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The person most responsible for enforcing and extending Callahan over the decades was Steven Banks, who, as the head of the Legal Aid Society, sued the city dozens of times. De Blasio appointed Banks head of the Human Resources Administration in 2014, and added Homeless Services to his portfolio in 2016 \u2014 a classic case of letting a hen guard the henhouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/steven-banks.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024\" alt=\"Former Legal Aid Society head Steven Banks was made the Commissioner of Homeless Services by de Blasio in 2016.\" class=\"wp-image-19858469\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/steven-banks.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/steven-banks.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/steven-banks.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Former Legal Aid Society head Steven Banks was made the Commissioner of Homeless Services by de Blasio in 2016.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Dan Herrick<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Now, presumptive mayor Eric Adams has signaled his intention to keep Steven Banks on when he takes office in 2022. This would be a terrible choice. Banks has overseen extensive provider corruption and mismanagement, a risible expansion of \u201coutreach\u201d staff whose job is to advertise the availability of services as timidly as possible to homeless people who know full well they exist, and an explosion in spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As mayor, Adams will have to come up with bold measure to do something about the problem. \u201cUpzoning wealthy neighborhoods,\u201d to build \u201caffordable housing\u201d \u2014 his primary homelessness-related campaign pledge \u2014 may play well among his class-warrior base but is an unserious policy when it comes to dealing with an entrenched, mentally ill street homeless population. New York City demands a real response and needs it now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Seth Barron is the author of \u201cThe Last Days of New York: A Reporter\u2019s True Tale.\u201d<\/em>\n                        <\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/10\/19\/mayor-de-blasio-refuses-to-take-responsibility-for-homeless-crisis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Mayor de Blasio refuses to take responsibility for homeless crisis&#8221; As Mayor de Blasio\u2019s tenure at Gracie Mansion winds down, homelessness \u2014 a key campaign issue against which he swore to fight a \u201cblood and guts\u201d war \u2014 remains as bad as it ever was. Combined with the rise in street crime, open drug use&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":355324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/newspress-collage-19858387-1634695471019.png?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[117715,5042,72473,71038,71039,87900],"class_list":["post-355323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-10-19-21","tag-bill-de-blasio","tag-homeless","tag-homeless-shelters","tag-homelessness","tag-steve-banks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}