“Apparently, late last night the Bloomberg administration announced a new policy for homeless individuals. This policy is an irresponsible ‘no room at the inn’ approach that does nothing to address the record number of people experiencing homelessness in New York City as winter approaches.

This policy is cruel, risky, unacceptable, and will not reduce homelessness in the city of New York. Denying people shelter because they have found another option for some period of time is punishing people for trying to do the right thing.

The recession has had a real effect on unemployment and on people’s ability to stay in their homes — our charge is to find ways to help these people — not to send them into the streets with nowhere to turn to for help.

We urge the Bloomberg administration to reverse this policy. Given the current plan to implement this policy on November 14, the Council’s General Welfare Committee will hold an emergency oversight hearing on November 9th at 1pm at 250 Broadway.”

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