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Yesterday, the NY Times revealed that the "Bloomberg administration has quietly begun charging rent to homeless families who live in publicly run shelters but have income from jobs." The city was apparently starting to make good on a 1997 state law—and the state wants the city to pay back $2.4 million in homeless aid. If families do not pay, they could be forced out of shelters. However, advocates for the homeless (already critical of the city's efforts to stop giving homeless families priority for federal housing vouchers) suggest that the homeless and city would be better served if the homeless could save up towards getting a place of their own. One woman, told she needs to pay $336/month rent from her $840/month income told the Times, "I pay my baby sitter, I buy diapers, and I’m trying to save money so I can get out of here. I don’t want to be in the shelter forever." In response to the article, Mayor Bloomberg said, "Everybody else is doing it, and we're told we have to do it, so we're going to do it." Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said, "If this is a state requirement, New York City should be taking the lead in getting it changed."
Mayor Defends Charging Working Homeless For Rent
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Oh, suck it up, homeless people. You're upset that you're not getting a free ride anymore? People who don't own a home in the real world pay rent. Unless you'd like it back on the streets?
Stackmaster, does the word charity mean anything to you?
You know, the idea that those who have should help out those who don't?
Yes. Private charity means a lot to us---public charity, not so much.
I sincerely hope you end up homeless someday, by whatever means.
I agree - I hope Stackmaster, Jo and Snoopy all end up homeless, and being charged rent to sleep on a cot in an Armory!
oh shit
Well, thanks for your bleeding heart sentiments, but what's wrong with reminding these people that nothing comes for free? They have jobs. They should pay rent. They're not paying the same rent as other residents of NYC, but this isn't Fantasyland, either.
You don't have to be homeless to see what a hell hole these places are. If you volunteered a single night of your life (Yes, some shelters need any help they can get), you would never think of this as a sweet, free ride.
Actually, they have a worse deal that other New Yorkers - because they're being shaken down for half their income, for a cot in a God damned shelter!
And if you don't think that's morally wrong, you have a defective moral compass.
And what's with your brayingly arrogant outrage at poor people receiving government aid?
Are you so selfish that you balk at helping those who are poor and suffering?
Apparently so!
"I pay my baby sitter, I buy diapers," How about putting a cork up your vagina? Then maybe you will be able to afford a house up in Scarsdale.
Snoopy - you have a genocidal fascistic mentality!
The Constitution says that EVERYBODY has the right to reproduce - not just rich people!
Is it RIGHT for the first two kids to suffer and live in poverty because mommy's boyfriends complain that condoms ruin sex?
He's a Real Classy white Man Huh.
mayor douchephag,
this is city hall, not citibank.
I hope your daughter stays safe with them horses,
it sometimes can be dangerous.
what confuses me is that the rent in the homeless shelters is capped at 50% of a person's income, while I believe Section 8 requires that a renter pay no more than 30% of their income. How is this going to fix ANYTHING?
The city shelter system is expensive, temporary system to operate. By charging rent the city is keeping people stuck in this system. The entire point is to keep homeless people safely off the streets and into permanent housing.
Let all us New York city residents chip in and buy bus tickets for the homeless here in the city and ship them up to Albany and then we wont need any state money to house and care for them.
Snoopy - how about you use your personal money to buy a one way plane ticket to Antarctica, so you can live and die all alone with the penguins.
And hopefully, they'll shun you and chase you away to live on some uninhabited iceberg by yourself.
The real Snoopy would never say such hateful things. Change your name to Marmaduke at once!
how'd bout we just let them stay in the luxe suites in Yankee stadium or Citi field.?
got a job? good now pay some rent just like everyone else. be thankful that you got a second chance
Jo - you sound like a God damned Nazi!
People like you disgust me!
GREGORYABUTLER you are delusional
good thing the Yankee organization got a second chance,
what would we do without them here?
A simple solution: if the city places them in a nasty, rank shelter, they don't have to pay. if they get placed in a hotel room, they have to pay. Just like for the rest of us, there should be options for these people that reward finding work.
Unfortunately one has to think of their children and what is the best thing to do for them so they don't become like ....
"....these people"?
You have got to be kidding!
"...These people" is the coward's way of saying the "N Word" and the "S Word"!
Why don't you just come on out and say the "N Word" - you know you want to!
In this case it's not.
OK maybe it was a typo. give NannyState some slack. It should have read "those people" rather than "these people." Do you feel better now.
Your reading that content into my comment reveals much more about you than about me. I'm not stupid enough to think that homelessness makes any distinction between people of any particular background, with the possible exception of the rich.
So, our $ 19 billion net worth mayor thinks it's appropriate to charge RENT to homeless people in the shelter system?
That is all kinds of disgusting!
Not to mention very Marie Antoinette-ish!
Of course the homeless is being forced to pay rent. We live in a Capitalist society. Capitalism means we bail out the rich, not the poor and middle class. Because as you know, under Capitalism, only good, hardworking people become rich and therefore deserve to be helped. Anybody who is poor or has fallen on hard times is stupid, lazy, irresponsible, and not worth helping. Besides, we can't help them anyway-- that would be "Socialist" and therefore anti-American.
It may just be me, but it kinda feels like the same person is having a coversation with themselves in this comments section.
What we should do is set up an education system to get them a job
and have a time limit on how long they can stay...
gregory you need to calm down and stop yelling out different history figures that are "disgusting"
even though they are dead they have feelings too
Obviously, the best thing to do is to allow hardworking tax payers (rich, upper middle class, middle class, and poor to continue to fund subsidized housing and welfare—watch lazy people do nothing and get paid.
$336 seems very steep, but I feel something should be payed. Maybe the city should employ these people as volunteers which could offset these high costs.
These homeless, or more accurately former homeless, have jobs which pay them either by the hour or salaries. Even if it's a low amount they need, in order to be part of a growing society, to pay at least a little bit for rent, otherwise what's the point? How are they contributing the economy? How are they learning responsibility?
By the way, great idea—mentioning the mayor's net worth just lost you your argument.
you have a point, but up to 50% of their income? subsidized housing only has you pay up to a third, i believe.
until the shelters are cleaned up and made safer, they shouldn't have to pay squat or else they'll never afford to make it out of the shelters. besides, considering shelters are temporary, whereas after a certain amount of time homeless men, women, and families get released to an intake center and placed in another shelter, how can the city be sure there is consistency with the amount of "rent" that they're charging from shelter to shelter?
we should use this rent money to buy deadly sarin gas and gas these homeless rodents and GREGORYABUTLER for good measure.
What kind of person would refuse help to someone in need? No one likes a freeloader, but sometimes when there is a program to help, some people take advantage. You cannot assume all homeless people are rodents who don't WANT a house and a life. Sometimes things happen, and they may happen to you someday. Anyone can be homeless. ANYONE.
youze peoplez are off the hinges today.. thats Too, Too Funny
all of it. shit ! really they should be given jobs & low income housing until they get back on their feetz. They should get back into the world like all of us.
uh oh, the mayor's getting flustered at some press conferences lately. no more smart aleck remarks.
It's time to hold people more accountable. People who live in housing projects drive Escalades, AND their housing COMES WITH PARKING!!! The homeless could have been housed in the Brooklyn House of Detention, but it was felt beneath their dignity. C'mon! It's clean and secure, and it's NOT OUTSIDE! You're homeless; here's some help, not a windfall.