Photo Courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Unit
Sen. Addabbo said the mayor’s “decision to spend $1.1 billion of taxpayer money over the next three years to continue to house homeless New Yorkers in commercial hotels is not only wrong, but it goes against his own plan to get the homeless out of hotels.”
By Michael V. Cusenza
It seems that the albatross of the de Blasio administration—the homeless crisis—shows no sign of affording Hizzoner a breather any time soon.
The mayor has been catching some serious heat lately from critics dismayed that the City is set to spend more than $1 billion on housing the homeless in hotel shelters across the five boroughs.
State Sen. Joe Addabbo, Jr. (D-Howard Beach) said the move essentially doesn’t make sense, especially when you consider that just a year ago de Blasio unveiled “Turning the Tide on Homelessness, Neighborhood by Neighborhood,” his 114-page vision to address the crisis by ending the use of 360 cluster sites and commercial hotel facilities as temporary shelters.
“I cannot believe the mayor’s administration still talks about the use of hotel rooms as a means for helping homeless individuals, including children. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to spend $1.1 billion of taxpayer money over the next three years to continue to house homeless New Yorkers in commercial hotels is not only wrong, but it goes against his own plan to get the homeless out of hotels,” Addabbo said. “That money could be used more effectively to get these individuals the services they desperately need, not spending hundreds of dollars each night to house them in inadequate hotel rooms, which mainly benefits the hotel owners. Although the administration says this is a temporary measure, as it stated in an April 2016 report, we need to actually move away from housing the homeless in hotels as soon as possible, and quickly develop a more rational, realistic long-term plan to help these individuals.”
De Blasio announced “Turning the Tide…” in February 2017. According to the administration, the City has pledged to eliminate the use of 360 cluster sites and commercial hotel facilities and replace them with approximately 90 new shelter fa
