The Empire Page

The most obvious thing about Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to charge homeless people rent to live in City shelters is that it is immoral. The idea that the poorest among us that have lost their homes will need to pay for temporary shelter if they are lucky enough to get a job is just wrong. This is no way to help someone get that first step towards independence. People starting over have a number of issues to surmount need all the support they can get not the cold realities of the real world. The whole purpose of these shelters is to help people get ready for the world outside not to just thrust them into it.

Secondly the policy makes no sense. If people are supposed to be encouraged to find work, why penalize them by taking away some of their paycheck by charging them rent. Part of what people learn in shelters is money management, but there are many ways to do this without taking their meager earnings from them. Also, in order to move to an apartment people need to save for a security deposit and the first month’s rent. By taking their money from them the City will be slowing their rate of savings and their eventual transition to inedependent living. In many ways charging rent in shelters will perpetuate homlessness instead of helping to end it.

This policy is another example of when Mayor Bloomberg’s view from the top government is wrongheaded. This seems to symbolize a view many in the upper classes have that many homeless people are homeless by choice and in the case of this policy they should pay for the privilege of living in City shelters.  As someone who works with many homeless service organizations I know this is far from the truth. People in shelters want to get out of them and City policy should be geared to encouraging them in this direction, not the opposite. The State Legislature can stop this policy and needs to do so now.