Cuomo forces homeless into shelters during winter

Cyril Josh Barker | 1/7/2016, 10:56 a.m.
“We’re living with the mistakes that past mayors have made, all the hand-outs to landlords that made this city unaffordable, ...
Homeless man in Harlem Bill Moore

“We’re living with the mistakes that past mayors have made, all the hand-outs to landlords that made this city unaffordable, but this mayor and this governor aren’t helping,” said homeless woman Sheila Turner.

Having lived on the streets for 30 years, Turner’s reaction to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order requiring that the homeless be forced into shelters when temperatures fall below 32 degrees Fahrenheit was not positive, to say the least.

“Putting people in shelters is like putting them in a cage,” said Sheila Turner, a member of Picture the Homeless. “You can’t imagine the things that have happened to people in there. How they’ve been hurt. “

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio are at it again, with a war of words over how to handle the city’s homeless. However, while the two take schoolyard-style verbal swipes at each other, the problem of people being on the street isn’t getting better.

Sunday, Cuomo issued an executive order that not only requires homeless individuals be forced into shelters when temperatures go below 32 degrees but also also requires homeless shelters to extend their hours of operations so that those without shelters can remain indoors.

Local law enforcement will do outreach to the homeless to make sure they go to shelters. Cuomo said New York State has a comprehensive system of more than 77,000 emergency shelter beds for the homeless and will assist local social services districts if they are lacking facilities, resources or expertise.

“It’s getting even colder now, frigid weather is coming in,” Cuomo said Monday. “To leave people on the street—we have to do everything we can to reach out to them and bring them into a shelter.”

The governor added that homeless people don’t want to go into shelters because the shelters are “dirty and unsafe.” Taxpayers pay $1 billion per year for the shelter system.

“It’s not right to leave brothers and sisters on the street corner,” Coumo said, “It’s not right to leave children on the street corner. It’s not right to have a shelter system that is so dirty and unsafe, that people have to stay on the street corner.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio is firing back at Cuomo, saying that New York City’s “Code Blue” system is already in place to get homeless people off the street during winter months.

“To forcibly remove all homeless individuals in freezing weather, as the Governor has ordered, will require him to pass state law,” de Blasio’s camp said in a statement to the media.

De Blasio’s administration announced Wednesday that between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. Jan. 4 and Jan. 5, the city made 97 placements from streets and into shelters, safe havens, hospitals and other indoor locations. More 100 people also entered NYC Health + Hospitals emergency rooms to get out of the cold and receive medical care.

The mayor used outreach teams across agencies and city-contracted nonprofit providers.

“As in previous years, city outreach teams scoured neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs last night to help bring New Yorkers out of the cold,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “City employees are saving the lives and protecting the health of homeless individuals across the city. Our shelters are open and prepared to offer warmth, food and other services.”