The Numbers STILL Don't Match

THE NUMBERS STILL DON'T MATCH!!!

Now that City Councilman Bill de Blasio" office has released its Independent Budget Office IBO report indicating what we've known all along one would hope that this administration would see its errors. But that is highly unlikely without tremendous public pressure.

Picture the Homeless would like to take this time to publicly thank Councilman Bill de Blasio for inviting us to his press confrencelast week in order to let it ne known this plan is way off track.

Here is what Picture the Homeless leader Rose Marie Santiago had to say to Mayor Bloomberg and New Yorkers.

August 7, 2008

Good afternoon my name is Rosemarie Santiago. I am a proud member of Picture the Homeless. I am here today to speak to you on behalf of all the homeless people of New York City. As of Monday there are 32,733 people in the New York City Shelter system. This number does not include the thousands of street homeless and hundreds of thousands of doubled up families who are technically homeless.

Picture the Homeless has known for some time now that the Mayors office DHS, HRA and others had, nor do they have to date a real solution to the Homeless problem here in New York. We attempted to engage the Mayors office in sitting down with us on numerous occasions in order to come up with real solutions to this problem only to have been ignored and placated to. Now we feel the time has come for us all to hold all responsible parties accountable. That is why we are honored that the City Councils General Welfare Committee has asked us here today. We are asking the committee to invoke its oversight powers in order to convene an emergency hearing with DHS and HRA in order to address, and if necessary stop the continued mismanagement of funding unrealistic rental voucher programs. We need to address those who are in dire straits immediately.

Many of the Mayor’s programs for dealing with homelessness, such as Housing Stability Plus and the newer New York Advantage rely on State money through the Office of Temporary & Disability Assistance. And while the Mayor’s office refuses to address the failures of these programs we also feel it is necessary for a representative of the Gov office to sit down with us and the city council members to address OTDA’s continued support of failed city programs.

New York spends upwards of ¾ of a billion dollars on sheltering homeless people rather than housing them. Picture the Homeless has collaborated with a city councilmember on a Housing not Warehousing Bill that would and could take a large burden off of the city, if it redeveloped some of the housing stock that we know still exists in this beautiful city.

In conclusion we are asking yet again that the General Welfare Committee, allocate a time in which to meet discuss and implement a strategy that will realistically work as Mayor Bloomberg would say significantly reduce Homelessness in New York City.

Thank you in advance for your time and patience.