Federal law that protects the educational rights of homeless children and youth under 21 says young adults should be enrolled in school immediately, but the city is not meeting this requirement, advocates say. They report newly arrived immigrant youth being placed on waiting lists, told there are no spaces, or advised to take the General Educational Development (GED) high school equivalency test instead.
While the Department of Social Services says more people were accepted into supportive housing last year than the year prior, a new report shows persistent barriers and rejections, including some that violate the city’s own guidance.
Whitford, who joined City Limits as Senior Housing Reporter in February, will continue to report for the news site’s core housing beat and will serve as editor for its series on NYCHA, launched earlier this year to provide in-depth coverage of the nation’s largest public housing system.
“New York City is preparing for its first official heatwave of this summer. And while many of us are able to stay inside, limit outside activities, and safely work from home, many of our city’s most vulnerable residents are not as fortunate.”
Reactions to the news were subdued in City Hall Park Thursday, where the organization VOCAL-NY had gathered to mourn not only Neely, who had been unhoused, but the at least 815 other unhoused New Yorkers who, according to city data, died in the year ending last July.
Protestors crowded the F train station Wednesday in response to the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, chanting “Housing, not cops,” and “Homeless lives matter” alongside repeated calls for justice.
An annual vigil honored the New Yorkers who died on the streets and in shelters while highlighting the lethal impact of chronic homelessness. “We should be clear that these outcomes are the result of public policy choices we make in the United States,” said one of the organizers.
The declaration will allow the city to open a new intake facility specifically for asylum-seekers and immigrants who have made their way to city shelters. It will also allow the Department of Homeless Services to issue contracts to nonprofits to open additional shelters, most likely in hotels, while bypassing public review and the usual competitive bidding process.
Some 1,121 babies were born into the Department of Homeless Services’ (DHS) shelter system last fiscal year, and a disproportionate number of low-income New Yorkers depend at least in part on formula to feed their infants.
More than 700 people staying on trains or at end-of-line stations accepted placement in a temporary shelter in the first two months of Adams’ so-called “Subway Safety Plan,” according to Homeless Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins. But he would not say how many stick around.
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