We're Talking About People, Not Money

The number of homeless people in New York City is at a record high. But this isn't stopping the Bloomberg administration from moving forward with a new plan for assisting the homeless that focuses on saving money and streamlining services. Advocates fear that this new plan will reduce the number of shelter beds available and make it tougher for homeless people to get the help they need.

There's no question that our economic crunch is forcing cities to make some tough funding decisions in the coming months. But, as one critic of the NYC plan correctly stated, "We're not dealing with a commodity that you buy and sell. We're dealing with human lives."

Here's the scoop from the Indypendent:

The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) issued two requests for proposals (RFPs) Dec. 12 that involve the operation of five drop-in centers and a respite bed program for homeless single adults. The respite bed program would replace the current Emergency Shelter Network Program. The request, which is the process the city follows to contract out services, indicates that newly approved contractors will begin services in compliance with the RFP guidelines in early July.

The new respite bed program would mandate that faith-based and community shelter spaces be open for a minimum of five nights a week with a minimum of 10 beds, will be difficult for some locations to do, as they rely on volunteer labor and have limited bed space. Other concerns include proposed changes to the screening process and the type of transportation to be used when moving the homeless from drop-in centers to shelter spaces.

DHS maintains that the plan will improve the city's homeless policies. "Our strategies, including reorganization of our street outreach program and the RFPs, will continue to produce results and move street homeless individuals into housing," spokesperson Kristy Buller wrote in an email message. "These innovative solutions have less red tape and barriers to entry, resulting in increased chances clients will accept services and housing, not less."

John Benfatti, the co-president of the Riverdale Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture and emergency overnight shelter coordinator, may be forced to close his center because he does not have the volunteer labor or beds to meet the new requirements.

"We're a very small operation, so I feel very threatened by what the mayor is doing," Benfatti says.

"Streamlining" seems to be a buzz word these days when it comes to social service operations. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since there's certainly a need for cities to become better coordinated with an influx of stimulus money on the way. But at what cost? Smaller, volunteer-driven organizations are critical to the fight to end homelessness. And closing the doors to these operations when the economy is down and homelessness is on the rise will likely aggravate New York's homeless crisis.