Since March of 2008, homeless people have been dancing with a handful of covert power-brokers—a “Shadow Government” of unelected lawyers and policy drones who have consistently blocked our efforts to make real change happen through a City Council bill that would address the twin problems of homes without people and people without homes.

First, Council lawyer Jeff Haberman argued that our "Housing, Not Warehousing" bill was unconstitutional, since it could violate the Fifth Amendment under the “regulatory takings” doctrine. 

So we fixed that.

THEN, Jeff told us that our bill was in violation of the Urstadt law, since it gave the city too much power to impact rents, which only the State legislature can control. 

So we fixed that.

IN APRIL OF 2009, Jeff was concerned that the bill would be be challenged in court by the Administration, because our proposed Homeless Housing Trust Fund was a “curtailment of mayoral powers.” 

So we fixed that.

THEN THERE WAS ALMOST A YEAR of bobbing and weaving and back and forth and unreturned phone calls about “definitions of vacancy” and “information sharing” between city agencies. Then Jeff Haberman and his boss Rob Newman told us that no bill would be introduced at all, because it “conflicted” with another bill introduced earlier by David Yassky. We reached out to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and asked her to intervene, and they changed their minds about that in under 24 hours.

FINALLY, in February of 2010, the bill was introduced as Intro 48—empowering the city to conduct an annual count of vacant buildings and lots throughout the five boroughs. In less than a month, this modest and common-sense legislation attracted a majority of City Council members as co-sponsors.

The bill was referred to the Housing Committee of the City Council, and we were excited that the Committee Chair would be scheduling a hearing for the bill and it would go back to the full council for a vote. After two months of silence, we got worried. We reached out to the Council's policy division to see what was happening—and learned that these same professional obstructionists were “getting push-back” from the Administration, and were concerned about the cost of the bill. It was shocking to learn that Council technocrats had been sitting on the bill because the Mayor didn't like it. We had been under the impression that the Council exists as a counter-balance to the Mayor's power—instead of killing every bill he has “concerns” about. But in the spirit of good-faith dialogue, we commissioned two different cost analyses, one through dialogue with Boston (who conducts their own annual count), and one from Tom Angotti, PhD, Hunter College Professor of Urban Planning. These estimates ranged from $50,000 to $75,000—a drop in the bucket when you consider that the city spends up to $48,000 to keep ONE FAMILY in a homeless shelter for a year, multiplied by the 37,000 people in shelter RIGHT THIS MINUTE.

Several more months of silence ensued. After calling these policy-wonk gatekeepers on a daily basis, we were finally informed by David Pristin, the Director of the New York City Council's Policy Division, that “with this legislation, this is not something we're interested in moving forward, and we're setting it to the side.”

We were flabbergasted. This is a complete subversion of the entire legislative process. A bill has more than a majority of the council as its co-sponsors, yet a handful of faceless policy goons can “set it to the side?” This is an insult to every New Yorker whose taxes pay the salaries of politicians and bureaucratic functionaries alike.

As PTH Board Member Jean Rice said, "this isn't only about one bill that impacts homeless people. When our legislative process is sabotaged, it endangers the entire framework of our democracy - and if it's housing for homeless people that gets blocked now, who knows whose rights and benefits they will be "setting aside" next?"

YOU CAN TAKE ACTION! These "Shadow Government" operatives are used to working in the shadows. Let's shine a light on them. Call and email them to say:

ACT ON INTRO 48!
 

David M. Pristin, Director, New York City Council Policy Division. 212-513-0862, dpristin@council.nyc.gov Rob Newman, Legislative Director, NYC Council. 212-788-9098, rnewman@council.nyc.gov Jeff Haberman, Deputy Director, Council Infrastructure Division. 212-788-9122, jhaberman@council.nyc.gov

A sample letter to these Shadow Government drones is HERE. 

In the past, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has intervened to move this bill forward over bureaucratic suppression. Please join us in calling on her to act now to MOVE THIS BILL FORWARD. A sample letter to Christine Quinn is HERE. 

Homeless people have worked TOO HARD, FOR TOO LONG to see this bill die in committee. 

And since we're Picture the Homeless, you can be sure that some exciting/surprising/edgy direct actions are in the works... if we don't see some motion on Intro 48, and fast!!