Recordsetting homelessness in New York City

[Hannah Bell]

The homeless population in New York City has risen to never before seen levels, according to a recent report published by the advocacy group Coalition for the Homeless. A staggering 113,552 people slept in the city’s emergency shelters last year, including over 40,000 children. The total marked an 8 percent increase from the previous year and a 37 percent increase from 2002.

The report also highlighted the growing number of families sleeping in shelters—another record, at nearly 29,000 families in the system, an increase of over 80 percent from 2002 levels. Also skyrocketing was the number of families who had previously spent some time in the shelters returning for further aid, now approximately half of all those receiving assistance.

However, even these numbers in fact drastically underestimate the true scope of the homeless crisis in New York City. According to the NYC Department of Homeless Services, 64 percent of those applying for emergency shelter last year were denied it... Three years after the Wall Street meltdown, the official jobless rate in New York City remains near 9 percent, with real unemployment and underemployment much higher. In particular, the long-term joblessness that has characterized this economic crisis continues to bring severe hardship—and homelessness—to large numbers throughout the city.

Yet even for those who have escaped unemployment, a job is by no means a guarantee of housing. A significant percentage of adult workers—nearly a third citywide and over 40 percent in the Bronx—are classified as low-wage earners, according to the Center for an Urban Future. For New York City, this equates to a wage under $11.54 per hour, or $24,000 per year on a full-time schedule.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/apr2011/home-a26.shtml

[notesdev]

1. Maybe they can camp out on Wall St?

Possibly a banker might take pity on one or two and toss them a few million dollars in spare change.

[midnight]

2. K&R.

[Skidmore]

3. In Cedar Rapids, IA, they are considering a new ordinance regarding junk cars.

It seems that there are too many around making the city look trashy. City official on the news this morning explained why expanding the definition of a junk car is essential because they create an "attractive nuisance" in which critters may crawl AND "some people want to live in them." I guess we know what critter CR is concerned about.

[Hannah Bell]

4. i was reading the other day about some legislator, now an imf official, who

campaigned on his proposal to make homelessness illegal.

that way you could arrest homeless people -- then they could "get help".

lol. he lost, thank god, but now he's helping to run the imf.

same difference.

i think he was canadian.

[Skidmore]

5. That type of thinking is present in the US too. The thought that comes to mind for me

is if it were to be illegal to be homeless or unemployed then the gate is opened to enslave people ass a fix.

[LAGC]

8. Wow, you know, if I had to make a choice...

Between sleeping outside on a cold winter night and spending the winter in a warm jail cell with 3 hots and a cot, I'd be hard-pressed to choose "freedom" over confinement. Just for the winter that is.

Of course, we should never have to make that choice in the first place. I honestly don't know how so many of the homeless do it. Survive, I mean. What a horrid existence, living without shelter over your head or knowing where your next meal might come from day after day.

I wonder if we'll ever reach that mythical point where each of us can truly have each according to our needs without worry, so that we may truly contribute each according to our abilities?

I'm afraid a lot more people will have to face the prospect of homelessness before anything seriously changes in this country.

[TheKentuckian]

6. Another indicator of the "progress" we are making under Turd Way leadership

and by compromising with the insane and wicked.

[xchrom]

7. Recommend