[Photo by Derek Berg]
Mayor de Blasio is expected in the Park today at 1... we hear it's about an outreach program for the homeless...
[Photo by EVG reader Ronnie]
You may watch the livestream here.
Or you can be like Ese ... and bring your own cushion in and find a nice spot to sit...
[DB]
Updated 12:30 p.m.
A Park worker told an EVG reader: "The mayor's coming to talk about the homeless and they moved all the homeless so he wouldn't see them."
And the Park regulars were absent from the freshly cleaned area around the chess tables by East Seventh Street and Avenue A ...
[Photo by Steven]
...and the Mayor making his way from the Park...
[Photo by Steven]
Updated 5:30 p.m.
The Post reports that Avenue A and Park regular Jerry got the boot from the Park. (The Post refers to Jerry as a "drunk vagrant.")
“Politicians suck!” shouted Jerry Foust, 41, who had grabbed one of the blue folding seats in the East Village park set up for the mayor’s Tuesday afternoon press conference in hopes of hearing how he planned to improve life on the streets.
“I want to see what the mayor had to say about homelessness because I’m homeless and I want to f–king help homeless people,” he said.
But around 1 p.m., two cops approached Foust and booted him from the park, where he regularly hangs out and which is a haven for homeless encampments.
Foust said he was told to leave because he was taking swigs out of a bottle of gin, but was not issued a summons for an open container.
5:35 p.m.
The Mayor was there to announce that the city's Home-Stat program was now fully operational. Per the Mayor's office:
Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced over 500 workers are helping homeless people move from the streets of New York City to shelters with an array of services now that the Administration’s new HOME-STAT initiative has been fully staffed. The Mayor also announced that beginning May 2, the City will be adding three new homeless counts, in addition to the annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE Count).
“HOME-STAT represents an unprecedented response to street homelessness in New York City. Today, we are doing even more to count and connect homeless people to care. Every homeless person had a path to the streets. Each one needs to find a path back from the streets. It is our responsibility to help them get there, and we will continue these efforts until we reach each person. The only way to do that is to literally walk the streets.”
17 comments:
Why not host the outreach speech in the southwest corner of the park? Oh that's right, it's inundated with drug addicts and full on homeless encampments. Thanks DeBlasio.
Stop using the East Village as a dumping ground for the real estate industry. I guess you figure we've already been wasted so why not keep the progess going, no one will ever notice. We want the city to take over the land on Second Avenue, and create 100% affordable housingg back, bring back the people and families who lost their homes. We want you to do something about all of the open violations at DOB that are just sitting there rotting.
Oh that guy's coming to the park? I am going to pass some gas in that general direction then. Don't like that guy.
Will the NYPD tower be there?
"outreach program", i.e. shipping them out of NYC, like what Bloomberg did, so that BdB can lift deed restrictions on properties for the developers to flip for private use.
Not a great week for the Blas, that building on Rivington would have been a good place for a shelter, but that slippery deed...
To kick a mayor while down, which the Post will do, ran this story. Two men on de Blasio's "inauguration team" have been caught paying off cops.
http://nypost.com/2016/04/05/fbi-investigating-nypd-for-alleged-gifts-for-favors-scandal/
That was a voluntary program. Nobody was shipped out. In fact the city finally realized that the overwhelming majority of homeless are from here, have family here, or lived here for many years and cant be sent to another city/state to reconnect with family.
The Mayor cant win here. No matter what he proposes. Hes either too soft or hes being mean and cruel. The fact that NYC has shelters anyone can go too should mean no tolerance for encampments or subway sleepers. Isnt that the point of spending over a billion a year on homeless services? Improve the shelters and make people go there.
Ese the dog is awesome
Does that mean a out reach worker will be on the Bench at Crusty Row when the summer season starts
For any homeless persons reading this, I just read about a networking tool for the homeless that sounds better than HOME-STAT. It's called streetlives.nyc. They were recently profiled by Civic Hall.
Everyone knows that the conditions in the shelters are deplorable, with rats and poor security, etirely unsafe. Many families living in shelters have full time jobs, attend school and programs, and they still can't get an apartment. There's no excuse for this. It's criminal.
the park was very empty yesterday..
BDB is a punk bitch because he'll never turn the vacant lot on Second Avenue into affordable housing and if he does he'd make it for people who earn at least 50K a year and at least one of the people who get a place would be a friend of a friend of a friend of a...of the mayor.
2:21,
Wow, railing against middle class housing. Taking a brave stand against the middle class.
Correction: The dog's name is "Ese"
Remember: I know you've read a zillion times that "the homeless don't like shelters because they are unsafe"... But nobody ever says what that means. It means: imagine you're just homeless. It's a money thing. But you're made to sleep in a room with a ton of people who are schizophrenic, methed out, hearing voices, enjoying the splendors of bath salts (Calgon take me awayyyy), and/or just plain shitty. If it was you then you'd absolutely choose the streets. At least there you can choose who you sleep next to. THAT'S what needs to change.
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