Shocker, neither commie wants to man up to this mess.
NY Daily News: It’s not his fault. The de Blasio administration, which has been under fire for the growing number of homeless New Yorkers, is pushing back and blaming former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
One of Mayor de Blasio’s top aides took to Twitter Tuesday to point out the city’s shelter population exploded under Bloomberg. “Who was mayor during time when NYC homeless numbered 25,000 in 2002 and jumped to 53,000 by 2013. Not @BilldeBlasio,” press secretary Karen Hinton tweeted.
Her comment came hours after MSNBC host Joe Scarborough ripped de Blasio on air for 10 minutes, saying his “misguided liberalism” is contributing to the homelessness crisis.
“There are a lot of liberal New Yorkers that are sick and tired of this happening with de Blasio,” Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida who lives in New Canaan, Conn., ranted. “He can run a social experiment somewhere else, he can go to Philadelphia if he wants to run it.”
“Talk from pundits is cheap,” Hinton said. She said in the “face of past deep cuts to successful programs,” de Blasio has offered more support services and more care for the mentally ill homeless and increased affordable housing.
The number of people living in city shelters is close to 57,000, down from a historic high of 59,068 in February — which was a 10% jump from the number of people who lived in shelters when de Blasio took office in January 2014.
Numbers spiked after the city eliminated the Advantage Program, which gave rent subsidies up to $1,000 a month to select homeless families, following state budget cuts in 2011.
Bloomberg said on the radio that year that the program might have encouraged people to become homeless. “One theory is that some people have been coming into the homeless system, the shelter system, in order to qualify for a program that helps you move out of the homeless system,” he said.
Mary Brosnahan, of Coalition for the Homeless, said Bloomberg’s policies have contributed greatly to the uptick in homelessness in recent years. “He never really believed housing was the solution,” she said. “It was always, ‘Get a job.’ ”
A spokesman for Bloomberg declined comment.
On Monday, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani told NBC New York that he recently filed a complaint about a homeless man on his block. He said as mayor his policy was to “chase ’em, and they either get the treatment that they need or you chase ‘em out of the city,” he said.
His comments angered Brosnahan. “Asking Giuliani for advice on homelessness is like asking Bill Cosby to pour your wife a drink,” she said.
DCG