NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Announces Launch of HOME-STAT Initiative To Address Homelessness
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan of action on Thursday to combat the Big Apple's growing homelessness crisis.
About 58,000 poverty-stricken New Yorkers live in shelters while another 3,000 to 4,000 sleep on the streets. To address this issue, De Blasio unveiled the Homeless Outreach & Mobile Engagement Street Action Team, or HOME-STAT, which will create a new task force to reach people currently living on the street, reports CBS New York.
Under the program, teams will canvass every block from Canal Street to 145th Street in Manhattan on a daily basis along with sections of other boroughs. The outreach staff workers, who will be dressed in bright green uniforms, will cover homeless "hot spots" and connect vagrants with social services while collecting data on the issue, reports The Wall Street Journal.
"Every single street homeless person had their own path to the street. If we do our job right, every single one of them will have their own path away from the street," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio explained before a business group at the Association for a Better New York breakfast Thursday.
The mayor said that under HOME-STATE teams will be sent on scene within an hour of a resident reporting a homeless person.
"When you call 311, when you say, 'I see a homeless person in distress, I see someone doing something inappropriate, I see someone in need,' within one hour, a city professional will be there to assess the problem," de Blasio said.
HOME-STAT will also take a centralized approach to address homelessness by working with both the New York Police Department and the Department of Homeless Services. It will use data collected by both departments to assign each "street- homeless individual a dedicated caseworker who will make it their mission to get their clients off the street and into a healthier place, permanently," said de Blasio.
In addition, 100 more police officers will be added to make arrests when necessary and help the response teams.
"It is not illegal to be homeless and those experiencing this painful reality take no joy in it," de Blasio said. "But it is illegal to harass New Yorkers, use drugs, erect a makeshift shelter, urinate in public and commit other quality of life crimes."
HOME-STAT will be fully operational by March, said the mayor.
The announcement came one month after de Blasio announced a new $2.6 billion homeless program that aims to create 15,000 new housing units for the homeless by 2030. In addition, the program will offer mental and physical health care as well as substance abuse programs.
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