State of the Homeless: More Need, Less Funding

by Rich Lombino & Elizabeth Lombino · 2010-03-10 15:19:00 UTC
Topics:

This past week Coalition for the Homeless released its State of the Homeless 2010 report and Rich attended the press conference. Coalition, for short, is an advocacy and direct service nonprofit serving homeless men, women and children in New York City. (Disclosure: Rich has worked at Coalition since 2004). Together with The Legal Aid Society, Coalition brought and won the class action lawsuits that guaranteed the right to shelter for homeless New Yorkers decades ago.

The thrust of this year's State of the Homeless report is saving funding for homeless services programs. Governor David Paterson, currently involved in numerous scandals and possibly on the verge of resigning, has proposed budget cuts of over $100 million in homeless services in an effort to close a statewide budget deficit. This would have a profound effect on the level of care that our most vulnerable New Yorkers receive.

This is in the midst of record homelessness! Not since the Great Depression have we seen this many people experiencing homelessness. According to New York City's statistics, on any given night there are over 39,000 homeless persons, including nearly 16,500 children. The report notes that "the Governor's budget plan, if enacted, would increase New York's homeless population, force cutbacks to emergency shelter and services, and could force thousands of homeless New Yorkers from shelters into the streets." Moreover, during fiscal year 2009, "an all-time record 120,381 different homeless men, women and children slept in the New York City municipal shelter system." These numbers do not include the thousands more who are surviving on the streets, residing in private shelters and doubled/tripled up temporarily with relatives.

It is unfathomable that in the midst of what some are calling the "Great Recession," New York is looking to cut services while the number of homeless is soaring. You can join the movement to protest these homeless services cuts. What's the state of homelessness where you live?

Photo credit: jonfeinstein

Rich Lombino & Elizabeth Lombino are an attorney/social work student and a social worker, respectively, working to end homelessness.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Start Tweeting, Nancy Pelosi!
NEXT STORY:
Sallie Mae Blinks!

COMMENTS (4)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.