Dusting off an idea dating back to the Giuliani era, the Bloomberg administration has quietly started charging rent to homeless people who stay in emergency city shelters, the Voice has learned.
With no fanfare, Bloomberg officials in June began charging residents of at least four Brooklyn shelters up to 30 percent of their income, records obtained by the Voice show. People who don't pay could be kicked out of the shelter, the documents show.
Eric Deutsch, a spokesman for the Department of Homeless Services, tells the Voice that the so-called Client Contribution Program is a "very small" pilot program for people with a significant amount of income in the shelter. "We're trying a variety of new strategies to help families and individuals move towards permanency and into their own homes," he said.
According to Deutsch, the first month at the shelter is free, with fees rising from 10 percent in the second month to 30 percent in the fourth month. Deutsch said the money goes into a pool that "clients" can draw from when they leave the shelter. But shelter residents say a number of people have already refused to pay the rent fee because they can't afford it, and because the city hasn't offered any additional rights or benefits in return.
"From the time I walked in here, I've done what I'm supposed to do," says Dawn Ashwood, a domestic-violence counselor living in the 66-bed Saratoga Women's Shelter in Brooklyn, where residents are already required to save 30 percent of their income. "Most of the permanent residents have complied. So why am I paying rent just to stay in a shelter?"
The program got similarly poor reviews from residents at Brooklyn's 200-bed Pamoja House, a shelter located in an old armory on Marcus Garvey Boulevard.
"It's bullshit," says Dale Peterson, 46. "It's just not right to ask homeless people to pay rent to stay in a shelter."
Ezra Matthews, 27, agrees. "I have other expenses, and I can't afford to pay it when they are also asking us to save another 30 percent of our income," he says. "If you ask us to give up what money we do make for rent, it's going to take us longer to get out of the system."
Patrick Markee, a senior policy analyst with the advocacy group Coalition for the Homeless, calls the program "deeply misguided" and suggests it may be part of an attempt by the Bloomberg administration to counteract the rising numbers of homeless in the system.
After pledging to reduce the homeless population by two-thirds by 2009, Bloomberg has watched the number of homeless families increase to record highs this year.
"DHS is under pressure to reduce the population, and what they've done is turn to a more punitive model that is reminiscent of the Giuliani approach, which was to blame the poor and homeless for their own problems," Markee said.
Ex-mayor and now presidential candidate Giuiliani tried to install a rent program during his tenure. but he was defeated in court. Bloomberg quietly appealed that decision and eventually won the right to do so in 2003, but held off until two months ago.
Markee has written a letter to the state raising complaints about the rent program. Michael Hayes, a spokesman with the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, tells the Voice: "We are aware of the program, we do have some concerns, and we are looking into it."
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chizau 05/14/2009 9:45:37 PM
I voted for Bloomberg... twice. But this was enough, this was the deciding factor. Bloomberg, now you lost my vote, because now, its personal. When I was in high school, we had couldn't afford our own apartment, we were two families sharing one apartment because it was getting too expensive to continue living in our own. Then the landlord hiked up the rent an extra $300 a month to $1200 with almost no notice before the next lease, well, we had just lost our job, and the other family couldn't afford the increase either, so we ended up forced to live in a shelter. It was almost what I had imagined hell to be, our first night at what used to be called "Powers Center", had one sheet, and a broken window, it was November, and I nearly froze, the next night they moved us to the top floor and I nearly suffocated from the mold, the ceiling was black. Nobody went here unless they had no where else to go. I was always late to school because I had to wait for the EAU bus before the token line, and then the line for my "8 hour approval form to leave the shelter" (If I was late, my family would be kicked out), only to return back to Powers on a 1 a.m. bus, a nightly lineup, and role call, and security escort to our room that we were not allowed to leave till our 6am mandatory breakfast call. Eventually we got a tiny hotel room, three buses away from my school. It was cleaner, but we barely made it. We then went about a month and a half with almost no food until food stamps kicked in. My stomach hurt badly from the hunger, and I got very sick. Everyone that worked while in the shelter got fired over and over eventually for missing work because of so many "mandatory appointments" by the social workers. Eventually we did "OK" but not well. I cannot imagine having to worry pay rent during that time. My mom would have probably lost it from any more stress. People had mental breakdowns all the time in the shelter because we were all looked down on, and forced to "comply this" and "comply that". Then somehow we were required to save for a security deposit on an apartment? This will only drive families to the streets. I can't even believe this heartless policy was enacted in this city. Our family is and always has been nothing but hard workers, you are ruining kids lives. I still remember how hard my senior year was, and it still affects me to this day. Adding more stress to these parents when they are desperate, and now cut off from Section or NYCHA options too?!?! Where else can they go now? You will starve these kids and scar them for life. You will beat any sort of hope from these moms (and sometimes dads) out there trying their hardest. If it gets any worse, the kids growing up in the shelter system will likely need therapy for life at an amount that will cost much more than any savings this program could ever bring.