City Comptroller Scott Stringer is rightly raking Mayor de Blasio over the coals over his new budget, which proposes $2.3 billion in spending on the homeless — nearly double the outlay of three years ago.
Yet, Stringer asks, “are we seeing results?” The answer, he makes clear, is no: “The crisis is growing; it is not receding.”
Yes, Stringer wants de Blasio’s job. But the facts speak for themselves.
Spurring the wave of spending is the ever-increasing shelter population, which hit a record in December and is slated to cost $1.4 billion in the fiscal year ending June 30.
Because even as de Blasio points to increasing numbers of homeless people and families moving into permanent housing, a far greater number are entering the system.
No great mystery why: Under de Blasio — and his homeless czar, Steven Banks — the shelter acceptance rate is 50 percent, more than double what it was in the Bloomberg era.
Meanwhile, Stringer noted, the city continues to spend an “out of control” amount on placing families with children in hotels with no supportive services.
The mayor — who once denied a crisis even existed — barely mentioned the homeless in his State of the City spectacle. He now says he’ll have something more to say “in the days to come.”
If so, it had better be more than his usual verbal meanderings and vows to just keep spending. The crisis he’s created isn’t going away anytime soon — and, as Stringer says, it’s time to “just get specific.” And realistic.