City Council Hearing Tomorrow!!!!

faithful · September 2008

Hello, everyone,

Here's an update on last week's events from Sandy (and please note that the City Council hearing on Bloomberg's entire homeless plan will be tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept 23 at 10 AM. at City Hall (instead of Wed):

Hi

The press conferences were really good. Our 2,300 + letters have been delivered to the mayor's office.

And, letters are still coming in. So, if you like, keep collecting them. They're a great way to get the word out. And I'm sure that now that we have sent/delivered so many, sending more would continue to prove our point.

Also, any of you with children in school, could you please discuss the problem of the intake center with other parents and if possible get contact info for your PTA; or speak about the intake center at your next PTA meeting? Most of this happened over the summer so many school affiliated people probably don't know enough about the City's plan yet.

The State Assembly Hearing was pretty powerful. The hearing was chaired by Assemblyman Wright and members of the committee included Assemblypeople Jeffries, Camara, Anderson and others. They asked excellent questions that highlighted how misguided the current intake center plan is. About five people from the community testified, council members de Blasio and James, a representative for Marty Markowitz and more testified against the intake center as did various agencies for the homeless and a number of homeless people themselves.

Except for DHS and the Mayor's office, no one wants an intake center at the armory.

Thank you all once again. Please everybody give yourselves a big pat on the back. This hearing is the result of the incredible effort everyone has been making. And, it is a big step forward. The job isn't done yet but we are becoming a very powerful David angainst the Goliath City.

Remember, the City Council hearing on Bloombergs entire homeless plan will be tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept 23 at 10 AM. at City Hall

Sandy

won't ub my nabor · September 2008

Thanks for keeping us informed about this Faithful. I actually read the following article from Errol Louis this morning:

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/columnists/louis/

I'm curious -- what are people's sentiments about Hess's proposal?

faithful · September 2008

Thanks for posting the link. I read the article too and to be honest, it's a little scary that our elected officals can turn on us at any time. I think that CHRM is doing a great job with this issue and we all have to continue to be involved. United we stand, divided we fall. We all have a vested interest in our communities. This proposal is just reckless. We just had a beautiful ribbon cutting for a multi-million dollar facility -- the Brooklyn Children's Museum, which our wonderful mayor attended, but he seems to have forgotten that his proposal for the Bedford Atlantic Armory will have sexual predators within close proximity to the precious children that will be utilizing this facility -- including my own children. This just shows how well this proposal was thought out.

mister softee · September 2008

One of the worst parts of the plan is to deprive the homeless of any intake resources in Manhattan. This means all homeless men from all over the city - the Bronx, Staten Island, wherever - will be forced to come out to Crown Heights for emergency shelter. Can people imagine what that's going to be like for people on 0 degree night? Many people simply won't make the trek, and some of them may literally die.

Last month the City committed to opening a new 24 hour intake center in Manhattan concurrent with the move of any intake services to Brooklyn. While they didn't detail how large this center would be, or where it would be, the news was generally received as a step in the right direction. Last week at the state hearing the City downgraded this commitment from "we will open an intake center in Manhattan" to "we are considering the possibility"... not a good sign, and very bad faith on the part of the city to go back on their word. More evidence, unfortunately, that they cannot be trusted to follow through on their promises, and as discussed in the Errol Louis piece above, we must vigilantly monitor them and hold them to their commitments every step of the way.

City Council Hearing Tomorrow!!!!

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