NYC’s Homelessness Policy Is Being Exploited
Our Homeless Policy Was Established 4 Generations Ago - And Needs To be Updated To Meet The Needs Of New Yorkers Today.
Many people still believe that homelessness was much worse in the 1980s, but unfortunately that’s a myth. The average population of homeless people in NYC throughout the entire decade was only 23,295, a small fraction of the 107,510 registered names that slept in our city’s shelter system during fiscal year 2021.
14th Street, NYC
After modern homeless emerged in the late 1970s, a class action lawsuit was filed (on behalf of a chronically alcoholic homeless man) against the city, arguing that a constitutional right to shelter existed in New York. “Callahan v. Carey” argued that “the aid, care and support of the needy are public concerns and shall be provided by the state.” In 1979 the New York State Supreme Court ordered the City and State to provide shelter for homeless men, and after two years of negotiations, it was settled.
From this moment forth, anyone whose feet touch the ground in NYC now had the right to demand shelter - and the city had a legal obligation to provide it. The Callahan decree (AKA right to shelter) was agreed upon in 1981, not as an official bill but as a public consent decree, which is actually how much of our city is governed.
NYC was strewn with abandoned buildings in 1981. The population had 3 million fewer people, abandoned lots, and plenty of unused space. When you think about the city in that context, housing a manageable homeless population seems both feasible and the morally right thing to do. But today NYC is a much different city, a shining, expensive city that took 25+ years of good policy choices to become the mecca of big business. The guiding principal of our homelessness policy no longer serves the people of New York City, and is currently being exploited by everyone from the NY State Department of Corrections to Joe Biden himself.
One of the reasons NYC never sees a reduction in our homeless population is because the Callahan decree exists in NYC but not in New York State, leaving a loophole for NY State prisons to funnel releases directly into NYC’s homeless shelter system. They get on a bus to Bellevue Hospital and poof: out of sight, out of mind. Since 2015, more than 40% of people released from state prisons were released directly to NYC shelters. This single loophole makes NYC the dumping ground for the entire state’s ex-con population, and if it’s such an important part of who we are as New Yorkers, why is the entire state exempt?
NY State Prison - NYC Shelter Releases from Coalitionforthehomeless.org
While the prison-shelter pipeline is a serious problem, our recent arrival of migrants from the southern border is an even more serious problem based on the sheer numbers alone. Recently Mayor Adams held a press conference stating that 2,800 migrants have entered the city’s shelter system in a matter of weeks. A statement he released on August 1st claimed that there are now an average 100 more migrants arriving per day, totaling an estimated 4,000 in July alone. During his first press conference on this subject, Mayor Adams explained that we do not have the resources to handle an influx this large. These people need food, shelter, translators, and to get their children into our school system. This first group of 2,800 migrants was enough for Mayor Adams to publicly call on President Biden for assistance.
On August 8th, the City Council held an emergency hearing about the migrants and stated that our homeless shelters are at less than 1% vacancy. Only two days later, the city leased 11 hotels to house the migrants, who continue to arrive by the busload every day.
Pew research shows that 1.6 million migrants attempted to cross the Mexican border in 2021 alone, giving us no reason to expect the daily arrivals of migrants will slow down and the Callahan decree holds us legally responsible to house all 1.6M provided they chose NYC as their destination.
If Mayor Adams needs federal help for 2,800 migrants, how will our shelter system fare when we finish off the year with an additional 15,300 migrants at the rate of 100 per day? Or the 36,500 that are estimated to arrive in 2023? With all the issues facing NYC, we now have the added responsibility of being South America’s social safety net.
Let’s say that the city decides to shell out the standard $1,945 to give them section 8 housing. That would mean the city would pay $93.3M per year (forever) to house the 4,000 migrants that arrived in July alone. This does not include any other costs such as jobs, food, translators, education, and social services.
Times Square, NYC
One would think our comptroller Brad Lander would be concerned about having the financial resources to shoulder this burden, but in a recent statement he said “New York’s commitment to providing shelter is an essential part of what makes our city a safe haven. We will work closely with the administration to appropriately expedite contracts and ensure New York City can deliver the shelter and services that families seeking asylum here urgently need.”
By definition, an asylum seeker is either the victim of past persecution or has a well-founded fear of future persecution. In the case of past persecution, you must prove that you were persecuted in your home country or last country of residence. These are just migrants, and while NYC is in fact a sanctuary city, Brad’s mislabeling them with an additional false layer of victimhood will only help in his case for the continuation of funneling tax dollars into corrupt homeless nonprofits that double as his wife’s personal clients.
While homeless advocates regularly defend the importance of right to shelter, homeless New Yorkers overwhelmingly still prefer sleeping on the subway, proving those who benefit most from our outdated homelessness policy are the ones giving themselves raises while homelessness increases.
Take a look at these numbers:
Homeless nonprofit CEO’s salaries & recent pay raises Via Reza Chowdhury
Homeless nonprofit CEOs have given themselves raises as high as 84% in recent years, combined with doling out cushy six-figure no-show jobs to friends and family members while failing to reduce homelessness in any meaningful (or visible) way. The Department of Homeless Services budget is currently slated at $2.2 Billion dollars for 2023, and you can’t walk a block in NYC without seeing homeless people on both sides of every street. Given the visible growth of street homelessness combined with homeless nonprofit CEOs giving themselves such generous raises every year, one has to wonder if they care about solving homelessness as much as the growth of their own nonprofits.
While homeless nonprofits continue to seek higher pay and bigger government contracts, it appears their only real goal is expansion. This leaves many New Yorkers wondering if what is best for homeless nonprofits actually stands in direct opposition to what’s best for the city.
As long as the Callahan Decree remains, it is DHS’s legal duty to continue building homeless shelters in every neighborhood, forever. This flawed system entitles everyone from a bank robber from Rochester to an unemployed South American migrant to shelter in places like Soho or the Upper West Side. Places they have absolutely no connection to, and have never been before.
We all know that NYC is a city built by immigrants, but flooding our shelter system with prison-releases and South American migrants isn’t fair to our city. How could it be? It’s not even fair to our current homeless population who will now have to compete with this new group for the same housing opportunities and resources.
It’s also important to note that building a good life here wasn’t the dream for many of the recent arrivals. In fact, for many it wasn’t even their choice. The first report about migrant arrivals claimed many were boarded onto a bus by authorities and sent here unknowingly.
Our homelessness policy is completely unsustainable, and Mayor Adams needs to stand up for NYC residents and end it before it gets worse. The current border crisis proves there is infinite global need for shelter that cannot fall solely on the shoulders of NYC. New York might be a big city, but it is only 13 miles long and 2.3 miles wide. to assume web have enough space, resources, finances, and staff to serve as the primary homeless shelter for another continent is both completely insane and untenable.
Isn’t failing our own homeless population bad enough?
