New York City officials have been quietly dumping homeless people to more than 370 cities across 32 states, including Honolulu and Houston.
Under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Special One-Time Assistance Program,” (SOTA) local homeless families are given a full year’s worth of rent - which has cost NYC taxpayers $89 million on rent alone since August 2017 - before exporting some 5,074 homeless families (12,482 individuals) to cities as far as the South Pacific, according to the New York Post, citing data from the Department of Homeless Services (DHS).
The city also paid travel expenses, through a separate taxpayer-funded program called Project Reconnect, but would not divulge how much it spent. A Friday flight to Honolulu for four people would cost about $1,400. A bus ticket to Salt Lake City, Utah, for the same family would cost $800.
Add to the tab the cost of furnishings, which the city also did not disclose. One SOTA recipient said she received $1,000 for them.
DHS defends the stratospheric costs, saying it actually saves the city on shelter funding — which amounts to about $41,000 annually per family, as compared to the average yearly rent of $17,563 to house families elsewhere. -New York Post
Critics say the solution has failed to curb the city’s homelessness problem. Moreover, officials in the receiving cities are furious - while some of the homeless families are now suing NYC over being abandoned in ‘barely livable conditions,’ according to the report, which claims that “multiple outside agencies and organizations have opened investigations into SOTA.”
The mayor of Willacoochee, Georgia, was similarly stunned. “I’m not familiar with none of that,” Samuel Newson said.
The mayor of Harrisville, Utah — who was so baffled to receive a call from The Post that she questioned if the reporter had the wrong number — asked if SOTA recipients are connected to social services in the towns where they move.
“Are they just cutting them loose and saying, ‘Here you go’? Or are they making sure they don’t find themselves in the same situation a year later?” Michelle Tait asked. -New York Post
“We were initially seeing a lot of complaints about conditions. Now that the program has been in operation long enough that the SOTA subsidy is expiring, one of our main concerns is it might not be realistic for people to be entirely self-sufficient after that first year,” said Jacquelyn Simone, policy analyst at Coalition for the Homeless.
According to DHS, 224 SOTA families have returned to NYC shelters.
“We suggested that DHS reach out to people as their subsidy runs out to confirm they will be secure and not have to re-enter shelter, but the agency told us they have no plans to do that,” said Joshua Goldfein, a legal aid attorney whose firm represents SOTA families who claim they were pressured to move to New Jersey slums.
About 56 percent of the families move out-of-state, costing the city an average of $15,600 in annual rent. Thirty-five percent move within city limits with an average rent of $20,500, and 9 percent move elsewhere in New York state, costing approximately $17,900.
Homeless individuals and families are eligible for SOTA if they can prove they have been in a New York City shelter for at least 90 days and that their household income is no more than twice what it owes in rent. DHS would not expand on eligibility rules. -New York Post
Read the rest of the report here.
via zerohedge
Gee in New Jersey, if you are a legitimate homeowner and want to move out of the State, you have to PAY a tax to leave. Yep, that’s right, through real estate taxes. But in NYC, hey homeless usually equals illegal in many cases, bam, money in hand, nice move out of state to another, and have a nice life. But in a year, they are NOW that States problem?
And let me guess, where does this money for these “homeless” come from? The AMERICAN taxpayers.
All for helping LEGAL AMERICAN CITIZENS, that’s what CHARITY is all about. Go see the churches and the self help groups. But because of Obama and the Dem/Libs/Rino “open door policy for illegal voters”, I say this has to stop. And to stop this, NYC has to do something. I could bet and win New Jersey is doing the same thing as the HOJO near me is full and they are NOT travelers. It’s WAY too expensive. To a point Legitimate Homeowners are LOSING their homes. So sad.
GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TRUMP! GOD BLESS THE USA!
Karen, you nailed it!
Ship them back to NYC - let DeBlasio take care of them!
I KNEW the DEMITTS were CRAZY but this is INSANE ! SO NY wants to ship their PROBLEMS as SEED for other MAJOR ciities ! WELL “if” you are going to do that NY, THEN MAKESURE THEY ARE CITIES THAT ARE EITHER “SANCTUARY CITIES” or “DEMWITT CONTROLLED LIKE CHICAGO”. And the reason I suggest that is because that will feed the apetites for killing by MS13 gangs.
Cute, DeBlasio. Clean up your city by exporting your problems to someone else. Deal with your problems. Don’t give them to me.
this is why we have guns
Yes but they limit our access to guns here in Honolulu
DeBlasio taking the easy way out by relocating people who are homeless shame on him u need to deal with your own problems and take care of your own problems instead of relocating people to another state and be a sneak about it what goes around comes around.
Fight and get this out,now,You stupid Democrats killed the water to hydrogen inventor why? I hope you know your damnation is in hell, Hillary said in 2005 ( that the average democrat voter is just plain stupid, they are so easy to manipulate, that’s the easy part ),It looks like Trump is an oil company stooge to selling us out, you stupid retarded Trump, The only thing that will bring us out of this depression is free energy, hydrogen from water, you can make all the hydrogen, as you drive from a tank of water, you know our space shuttles,are powered by hydrogen / oxygen made from water, tell every one not buy a new car / truck, to boycott the auto company’s, when they can’t sell their pieces of junk low mileage vehicles, they will have to bring out water to hydrogen powered vehicles, and kits to change the vehicles now that we have, just think what our world would be like with free energy. a Porge vapor carburetor sitting in the patient office that gets around 200 mpg, Volkswagen diesel gets 264 mpg, The water to hydrogen auto inventor wouldn’t sell out to the demons from hell oil company’s so the Democrat gov. had him murdered with plutonium poisoning, we are getting ripped off by the oil company owned auto company’s Don’t you think it’s time to take our world back.Once free energy gets out all prices for every thing will drop.
Also audit all the Senator’s and congressmen, they have wasted, and stole our money, make them repay all, and tax them.
This is about as smart as Governor Brown blaming President Trump and “climate change” for work the STATE is supposed to do.
https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2019/10/30/jerry-brown-blames-trump-republicans-for-california-fires-the-blood-is-on-your-soul/
The immediate cause of the Getty Fire in Los Angeles, for example, appears to be a tree branch that was blown by high winds into power lines, according to the Los Angeles Times. Critics fault California and its utility companies for spending money on complying with “green” initiatives rather than on burying power lines. Others also cite homeless camps, where past fires have started, and poor forestry management policies that have barred the clearing of brush that can provide fuel for wildfires.
Could of told you “green” doesn’t really mean helping the environment. Kind of like New Jersey and their green effort with their drinking water. Just a LITTLE uranium won’t do any harm. lol
And homeless camps, wonder if any of them came from NYC with a nice check in their pockets for the NYC taxpayers?
Governor Brown, go away, go far, far away. Heck didn’t you go to China and said California wanted to be separate from the USA. Well go see China, you pathetic dolt!
GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TRUMP! GOD BLESS THE USA
Let DeBlasio’s wife take care of these homeless & have it paid for out of DeBlasio’s paycheck.
JUST IN FROM THE FRONT https://rawconservativeopinions.com/2019/10/30/the-plundering-of-ukraine-by-corrupt-american-democrats/