It seems that New York Governor Andtew Cuomo has plans to show the Empire State’s homeless population a little love and compassion – whether they want it or not.
Cuomo, in his never-ending petty battle with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, has issued an executive order that will force homeless people off the streets and into shelters should the temperature dips low enough.
Via CSM (h/t Weasel Zippers):
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order Sunday requiring homeless people throughout the state to be removed from the streets and brought to shelters when the temperature is below freezing.
In his executive order Sunday, Gov. Cuomo directed state agencies to take “all necessary steps to identify individuals reasonably believed to be homeless and unwilling or unable to find the shelter necessary for safety and health in inclement winter weather, and move such individuals to the appropriate sheltered facilities.”
In recent years, homelessness in New York City has reached its highest levels since the Great Depression. In October 2015, the Coalition for the Homeless estimated over 59,500 homeless in New York City alone, including over 23,000 homeless children. And larger homeless populations have coincided with more shelter visits: The number of New Yorkers sleeping each night in municipal shelters is now 86 percent higher than it was a decade ago.
“Everybody makes a New Year’s resolution or many people do. Well, this is a State’s New Year resolution, a New Year resolution for the State of New York and in many ways, its keeping with the spirit of the holiday season, right? Which makes it very simple” Cuomo says in an interview with NY1 Sunday morning. “It’s about love. It’s about compassion. It’s about helping one another and basic human decency.”
What kind of slippery slope are we engaging when it comes to “basic human decency?” A temperature of 32°F seems an arbitrary line. Hypothermia can occur at warmer temperatures, depending on wind and rain conditions.
The shelters, moreover, are hardly a safe haven where a guy down on his luck can enjoy a free hot and a cot. A report last May found that crumbling shelters throughout New York endanger the lives of thousands of families in their care and that the city’s Department of Homeless Services is the main culprit.
Apart from that, many of the shelters are hotbeds for crime, ranging from petty theft to murder.
De Blasio is already arguing that Cuomo’s executive order is not legal.
“We support the intent of the executive order, but to forcibly remove all homeless individuals in freezing weather, as the governor has ordered, will require him to pass state law,” said the mayor’s spokeswoman Karen Hinton in a statement.
“This executive order adds no legal or financial resources to New York City’s programs to assist the homeless and merely requires all New York state localities follow many of the same requirements as New York City to shelter families and individuals in need in freezing temperatures,” she said.
In public comments, de Blasio cited individual rights that Cuomo seems to have ignored.
“If someone’s not in danger, the law says that they still have rights to make that decision themselves,” he said.
In a series of tweets, Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin mocked Cuomo’s decree against the homeless.
Tired of fighting state workers, biz, gun owners, parents, teachers, land owners, social cons, BdB, Cuomo moves on to…the homeless. ????
— Steve McLaughlin (@SteveMcNY) January 4, 2016
At 33 degrees they're on their own…but at 32 Cuomo will haul them off involuntarily. Where's the funding for mental health, training etc.?
— Steve McLaughlin (@SteveMcNY) January 4, 2016
Is it that it wasn't below freezing during @NYGovCuomo's first 5 years in office. …or that he wasn't fighting with @BilldeBlasio then?
— Steve McLaughlin (@SteveMcNY) January 4, 2016
One homeless man named Alan told the Daily News, “No way I would go, It’s a violation of my rights.”
Cross-posted at the Mental Recession
