By: Justin Credible
Elected officials are furious over New York City’s recently exposed plan where NYC secretly exported 5,074 homeless families — 12,482 homeless individuals — to 373 towns with a full-year’s rent in their pockets.
A New York Post exclusive written by Sara Dorn first exposed this apparently secret plan to the entire nation, and town officials are outraged.
“Hawaii will not be able to handle a large number of homeless people being dumped here should New York continue this practice,” wrote Democratic state Rep. John Mizuno after learning one family moved to Honolulu, according to the NY Post exclusive report.
“I ask that your agency conduct a legal review and investigation into this matter, as many Hawaii residents have serious concerns that this illegal program could exasperate [sic] an already tragic situation here in Hawaii”
A report acquired by the New York Post revealed that the city spent over $89 million to fund the Special One-Time Assistance Program. Since Mayor Bill de Blasio launched the initiative in August 2017, 12,482 homeless individuals (or 5,074 families) were sent to 373 cities around the country with a years’ worth of rent, TJV reported.
A separate program called Project Reconnect provides funding for transportation, which the Post estimates could cost approximately $1,400 for a family of four to Honolulu, one of the cities where families are reportedly sent. The city also provides funding for furnishings, according to Dorn’s NY Post exclusive.
In order to qualify for the program, people must prove that they have been living in a NYC shelter for a minimum of 90 days. In terms of income requirements, they may not earn more than two times what they owe in rent.
Westchester County, Mount Vernon Mayor André Wallace, a Democrat, had harsh words for City Hall in response to revelations his community has taken in 138 homeless families in the last two years, the Post reported recently.
“I want to send a message to everyone: We know what you are doing, and I’m not playing with you,” he fumed. “Those days are over. Our town is not standing for it.”
Many critics say that the program has done little to solve the city’s homelessness; once the year of subsidized rent is up, the families often move back to New York. Some are even suing the city for “being abandoned in barely livable conditions, while “multiple outside agencies and organizations have opened investigations into SOTA,” TJV reported previously regarding the NY Post article.
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano said he is considering suing the city of New York over the “secretive, unfair” program, according to the NY Post.
“It’s unfair for the biggest city in America to deal with their homeless issue by sending it to other communities without telling them,” Spano was reported stating in the Post.
Read Sara Dorn’s reporting at: https://nypost.com/2019/11/02/mount-vernon-mayor-fumes-over-nyc-exporting-its-homeless-there/