New York City Targets Spending $1.04 Billion on Homeless

[hrmjustin]

MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL

The New York City agency responsible for sheltering the homeless is planning to spend more than $1 billion this fiscal year, a record amount that comes as an unprecedented number of people sleep in shelters.

The $1.04 billion that the Department of Homeless Services is forecast to spend through June 30 is more than each of the city's budgets for transportation, parks, libraries, cultural affairs and affordable housing. It is $140 million more than the city anticipated spending when the City Council passed a more than $70 billion budget last June.

More than 54,000 people, on average, slept each night in city homeless shelters in March, a record that represents a 2% increase since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office in January, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group that tracks the shelter population.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303647204579546111625674066?mg=reno64-wsj

[AScott]

1. When I visited NYC last week, I certainly saw homeless people.

It's not something I'm used to seeing. Oh, there are always people begging on street corners...but from everything I've seen & read, 99%+ of such people are just pulling off a scam.

As I was traveling via the subway, though, I didn't have the slightest doubt. A man dressed in what could charitably be called rags searching through a trash can, or the extraordinarly fragrant guy sleeping in the subway car with a bottle of Thunderbird in his hand? Eye-opening, to say the least.

[hrmjustin]

2. It breaks the heart.

Can happen to any of us.