Victory! NYC Will Not Charge Shelter Residents Rent

We discussed in a recent post that New York City was planning to charge homeless shelter residents rent in an effort to "motivate" them to change their circumstances. The Daily News has just reported that new Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond anounced that the city would not be charging rent for shelter after all!

Instead, there will be a savings requirements. As we noted in our previous post, this makes much more sense. The working homeless will be required to set aside a portion of their income each month, which will enable them to save up for the typical move-in fees for their own apartment. Paying rent would have kept many from putting aside enough money to pay for the first and last month's rent, the security deposit, new furniture, etc., and would actually have delayed their ability to be self-sufficient.

Although the new commissioner continues to emphasize his "work first" mentality, this is a huge victory for the homeless and their advocates. Diamond said the "money was never about revenue for the city, it was really about building good behavior and providing a way for families to learn that they would need to contribute something out of their income." What he's really saying is that homeless people are lazy and don't want to work and live independently. What a paternalistic and demeaning statement. It tells us that he has probably never spoken with a homeless person, let alone tried to empathize with her situation.

Diamond, who we previously noted has never worked in homeless services, needs to spend some time on the front lines and meet the remarkable people we work with every day before he starts shaping policies that will drastically affect tens of thousands of New Yorkers. We are overjoyed that he has decided to not pursue the flawed policy of charging rent to stay in a shelter.

Photo credit: hojusaram