Bloomberg Hits the Homeless Again

Richard Anderson waited patiently outside for a surplus of H&H Bagels on West 46th Street on Saturday afternoon.  He needed to get the bagels to a homeless shelter before dinnertime but to his surprise, the bagels and his volunteer efforts were turned away under a new edict by the Bloomberg Administration that bans food donations to homeless shelters.  "I can't even give them a bread item?  Sorry, that's absurd," said Anderson.

According to health officials, it's impossible to gauge the items' salt, fiber and other nutritional stats, said a CBS report.  "For the things that we run because of all sorts of safety reasons, we just have a policy, it is my understanding, of not taking donations," said Bloomberg to Huffingtnon Post last week.  For Anderson, who has been collecting food for the homeless for 10 years, the new law seems absurd.  "I brought over a Minestrone soup recently and they couldn't even take that," said Anderson.  "They want to monitor salt intake?  These people have no food!  Who cares about their salt intake!"

As well, Bloomberg is already under fire from the New York City Council, who intend to file a lawsuit, because of his proposal of a new law that would require any homeless adult to first prove that they have no other options before receiving shelter.  According to the Coalition for the Homeless website, more than 45,000 people experience homelessness and over 40,000 of those use municipal buildings for shelter, making the task of questioning shelter recipients daunting.  “More that 110,000 different homeless New Yorkers stay in a shelter system a year,” said Cindy Gawkin, a volunteer at Women in Need (WIN).   “Bloomberg wants me to ask each of them if they are worthy of housing?  He can come do it, not me.”  

As it turns out, the need for homeless shelters is growing, according to Coalition for the Homeless, whose website states that the number of homeless families has nearly doubled over the past decade.  

“You know, during the summer it’s not so bad.  It’s just the winters, the winter is harsh here,” said John Comstock, a homeless man who frequents the Travelers Hotel, a homeless shelter on West 40^th Street.  “I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for that shelter.”  Likewise, Jolene Hites, a homeless woman for the past seven years, credits homeless shelters to her survival.  “After I got clean it was still hard to find a job.  That means that I don’t even have money for public housing,” she said.

Although there is no minimum income for public housing, a resident in public housing does need to have some sort of income and rent is based off of 30% of a families adjusted gross income, according to the New York City Housing Authority website.  Applying for public housing may not be as easy as one thinks, especially if the individual applying does not have a job, or is not living with someone who has a job.  “There are a series of interviews and applications that take forever to process,” said Gawkin.  “That’s why there are homeless shelters such as WIN.  We are doing what the city government can’t and not allowing food donations is hurting us greatly because donations are our largest source of food income.  This law is preventing me from doing part of my job.”