While advocates who specialize in public benefits have called for these backlogs to be cut, they say New Yorkers who rely on cash and food support are not yet out of the woods.
Despite a veto override, a December letter from Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Park says certain CityFHEPs voucher legislation passed by the City Council “cannot be implemented at this time.”
The interrogation from councilmembers came on the heels of new data showing processing delays the likes of which New Yorkers haven’t seen in at least a decade.
An inaugural city report groups together shelter headcounts from five municipal systems, revealing a truer—and larger—picture of the homelessness crisis than the often-cited Department of Homeless Services count.
The Human Resources Administration (HRA) is promptly processing just 46.3 percent of applications for SNAP benefits, commonly known as food stamps, the agency told councilmembers at a committee hearing on the impact and cause of the bureaucratic delays.
Since Jan. 1, City Limits has been publishing more accurate homeless shelter census figures after a Council bill to force the city to publish a true number failed last year. The total commonly cited by city officials excludes thousands of people staying in shelters run by agencies other than the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), failing to count more than 15 percent of the actual population.
“Using police to remove the homeless off the subways, we have to be very careful about that,” Councilmember Diana Ayala said in an interview on WBAI’s City Watch. “Most of these people are not hurting anyone.They’re just looking for a warm place to sleep at night.”
Grandes diferencias en dinero recaudado para la campaña separan a los candidatos en el distrito 8 que incluye barrios de Manhattan y el sur del Bronx.
Big differences in money raised for the campaign separate the candidates in the 8th district, which includes neighborhoods in Manhattan and the South Bronx.
A winner hasn’t been officially declared, but Diana Ayala has a two point lead over Assemblymember Robert Rodriguez
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