Bloomberg Unveils Plan to Reduce Homelessness

NYT

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced today a new, more aggressive approach to hard-core street homelessness, while putting in place a more comprehensive approach to keep people from becoming homeless in the first place, and to help the homeless get back on their feet faster.

The mayor unveiled his plan at an address to the National Alliance to End Chronic Homelessness Annual Conference....In a prepared text of the speech, Mr. Bloomberg talked about his administration’s progress in its goal to reduce homelessness by two-thirds by 2009. He noted that there are almost 20 percent fewer individuals and 30 percent fewer children in shelters since 2003....He said that his administration’s efforts to keep people who are living on the margins from becoming homeless were clearly working, according to surveys, but he said there were still too many people that were not responding to any efforts of help. And those, he said, included some people who were living under highways, next to train trestles and on the streets that the mayor called “degraded and unhealthy environments.’’...

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The mayor said that beginning in the next few weeks, (the commissioner of the Department of Homelessness) and his team, working with community organizations and faith based groups, will begin visiting these sites to “humanely, respectfully, and firmly’’ talk to the homeless seeking shelter there to convince them to “enter supportive housing, enroll in treatment programs, or go into shelters.’’...

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“Our view is that any level of street homeless, no matter how reduced in scope and visibility, is an inexcusable civic failure that consigns our fellow human beings to lives tragically shortened by exposure to the elements, to the ravages of disease, and to their own self-destructive behavior,’’ he said. “Such chronic homelessness remains a blight on our streets and a blot on our conscience.’’

The mayor also said that his administration is continuing its commitment to increasing the supply of affordable housing....In addition to that, the mayor said that the city will take the $10 million it saved because the homeless population has declined from its peak three years ago, and use it to build more housing for the homeless and provide them with more services that will keep them from sliding back, such as job training and day care for children....