New York pays homeless people to leave town

Since 2017, New York City has funded one year of rent to homeless families so that they can move to Newark City. The municipality files a lawsuit against the Mayor of the Big Apple.

Every night in New York, 63,000 people sleep in emergency shelters, while 4,000 others sleep in the streets, according to the homeless assistance association, Bowery Mission. To hide this problem, the Mayor of the Big Apple Bill Di Blasio has found the solution: pay a year’s rent to homeless families to force them to move elsewhere. This program was implemented in 2017.

So, it is more than 3,500 families who have already migrated to other cities. The majority are relocated to 62 towns in New Jersey, including almost 1,200 for the city of Newark alone. Now, the Mayor of the most populous city in New Jersey, Mas Baraka, decided to file a complaint against the administration of New York, as our colleagues from Slate point out.

Unsanitary housing

This complaint denounces the fact that the New York City Hall forces the homeless to move to substandard housing. If, at the time of benefiting from the program, they have the right to choose between staying in New York or leaving, 65% of them prefer to leave the country’s largest city to find more affordable housing. As a result, the homeless choose housing in poor condition.

The CBS channel has also reported several testimonies of people who had to leave their accommodation center. “If you are in a center, they force you to take the first available program. You don’t really have a choice, ”explains a mother.

Ceilings are in danger of crumbling

And since the rents are paid for a year, families cannot ask landlords to do the necessary work. Thus many homes have no heating or hot water or suffer from mouse invasions. Worse yet, the ceilings are in danger of collapsing.

Last February, Steven Banks, director of the municipal homelessness agency, had to apologize, after an investigation showed that families were living in dangerous conditions. But it was not really followed up with action. To deal with this scourge, the city of Newark passed a law in November that strengthens obligations regarding home inspections. At the same time, it prohibits landlords from accepting more than a month’s rent in advance.