editorial 40 THE QUEENS COURIER • DECEMBER 1 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com SNAPS QUEENS SUNSET IN GLENDALE // PHOTO BY DENNIS POPP Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! To submit them to us, tag @queenscourier on Instagram, visit our Facebook page, tweet @QNS or email [email protected] (subject: Queens Snaps). sun WWW.COURIERSUN.COM VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS BOB BRENNAN ROBERT POZARYCKI AMY AMATO-SANCHEZ NIRMAL SINGH CHERYL GALLAGHER RON TORINA, JONATHAN RODRIGUEZ EMILY DAVENPORT KATRINA MEDOFF, ANTHONY GIUDICE, ANGELA MATUA SUZANNE MONTEVERDI CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI JACLYN HERTLING DEBORAH CUSICK WARREN SUSSMAN CELESTE ALAMIN MARIA VALENCIA VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS PUBLISHER & EDITOR CO-PUBLISHER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF VP, EVENTS, WEB & SOCIAL MEDIA ART DIRECTOR ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR ARTISTS SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER STAFF REPORTERS CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS EVENTS COORDINATOR ASSISTANT TO PUBLISHER SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE CLASSIFIED MANAGER CONTROLLER PRESIDENT & CEO VICE PRESIDENT Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 www.qns.com editorial e-mail: [email protected] for advertising e-mail: [email protected] Entire Contents Copyright 2016 by The Courier Sun All letters sent to THE COURIER SUN should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and o ce telephone numbers, where available, as well as a liation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE COURIER SUN. 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REACH: 3,250 people (as of 11/28/16) Money isn’t enough to address homeless crisis For the fi rst three years of his administration, Mayor Bill de Blasio has made combating homelessness his top priority. When he fi rst took offi ce, more than 50,700 homeless people — a city within a city — resided within the fi ve boroughs. Today, that number is now over the 60,000 mark, and that’s with the city spending in excess of $1.6 billion to address homelessness last year. The number of homeless people in New York City continues to climb even with de Blasio and company scrambling to stem the fl ow, and spending huge money to do it. How is it that the city can spend so much money on a major crisis without abating it in a signifi cant way? No one expected de Blasio to wave a magic wand and create housing for 60,000 people overnight, but for more than a billion dollars, couldn’t we at least have reduced the homeless population rather than expand it? The Wall Street Journal recently published an in-depth report which found that more than two-thirds of the $1.6 billion spent on homelessness in New York City last year went merely toward shelter operations. The city has created myriad shelters across the fi ve boroughs, including Queens, primarily converting underused hotels into homeless havens, much to the disapproval of local residents. But the city can’t just keep pouring money into the shelters; it must also pump more money toward programs to keep people out of them. The remaining third of the city’s homelessness spending goes toward rent payments, security, rental assistance for low-income families, outreach services and legal services for those at risk of becoming homeless. Governor Andrew Cuomo allocated last week released more than $770 million in bonds to clear the way for new affordable housing construction in the city, enough for 6,000 families. The city also has a plan to create 15,000 units of supportive housing — which provide affordable rents and other services to qualifi ed individuals — over the next 15 years. These programs, however, just scratch the surface of the problem. New York City needs a new round of rent regulations to keep homes affordable. It should also work with banks to transform abandoned foreclosed properties into affordable homes. It must also double down its efforts to get shelter residents into sustainable homes in a timely manner; the average homeless family spends 568 days in cramped shelter quarters. That time frame is totally unacceptable. It’s time for the de Blasio administration to work even harder in addressing the homelessness crisis, lest it be held accountable at the ballot box next year.
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