Yonkers & Mt. Vernon xx–have to grab the west story and add mt vernon stuff -xxx–xx
By Dan Murphy
Several of our readers have emailed Yonkers Rising asking us to look into several media reports that New York City has sent more than 100 homeless families to Yonkers.
Judith writes: “There are stories about that NYC is dumping their homeless in Yonkers (and other places), and paying their rent for a year after which they are on their own. I have no idea if this is true, but this would be a serious story to check out.”
The New York Post broke the story that the new program, issued through the New York City Department of Homeless Services, has paid $89 million in rent for homeless families to move out of shelters. The families have been sent to cities across the country, including Yonkers and Mt. Vernon in Westchester.
The post reported that 136 families have been sent to Yonkers, and their travel expenses and one year rent subsidy are paid for by NYC. But after the one-year rent subsidy, the families will have to decide whether to stay in Yonkers or return to NYC.
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano commented publicly about this issue and said that Yonkers is unaware of the new families coming to the city. “It seems like Yonkers, or Mt. Vernon, are already struggling with their own homeless issue,” he said. “It’s unfair for the biggest city in America to deal with their homeless issue by sending it to other communities without telling them.”
Spano said he was told that last year, 100 NYC homeless families came to Yonkers.
Another concern is the impact the new families will have on the Yonkers Public Schools, which is already 4,100 students over capacity. “We need to know what is the additional burdens placed on the taxpayers of Yonkers,” said Spano. “If you can’t give us that information then don’t do it.”
The program is not illegal, and more than 12,000 individuals have found permanent housing with more than half out of the state. New York City has refused to provide any additional information on the families, including where they have moved to.
The NYC Department of Homeless Services, and the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, defends the special one-time assistance program, saying it actually saves the city on shelter funding – which amounts to about $41,000 annually per family, as compared to the average yearly rent of $17,563 to house families elsewhere.
But the concern is what happens after one year, and if the family decides to stay in Yonkers, or any one of the 393 U.S. cities where NYC has sent these people.
“We were initially seeing a lot of complaints about conditions,” said Jacquelyn Simone, policy analyst at Coalition for the Homeless. “Now that the program has been in operation long enough that the SOTA subsidy is expiring, one of our main concerns is it might not be realistic for people to be entirely self-sufficient after that first year.”
Spano said Yonkers is considering its options, including taking legal action.
Mt. Vernon Interim Mayor Andre Wallace also objected to the relocation of homeless families from NYC to Mt. Vernon. “I want to send a message to everyone: We know what you are doing, and I’m not playing with you,” he said. “Those days are over. Our town is not standing for it.”
About 138 NYC families have been sent to Mt. Vernon over the past two years. Wallace said that one family, once their rent subsidy ran out, “the landlord then kicked them out of their dwelling, and then they end up in the basement of a zombie home. We had to get them out of there and into a shelter.”
