Bravo to the Adams administration for launching a pilot program to kick troublemakers out of some city homeless shelters — but it should take the rules system-wide, pronto.
On Monday, Homeless Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park told the City Council that to create a “culture of accountability,” her department will begin temporarily booting residents who repeatedly engage in “gross misconduct,” like violence, failing to complete housing paperwork or rejecting a viable offer for permanent housing.
Rulebreakers will get plenty of due process, including multiple chances to show that the violation wasn’t really their fault, with (for example) Homeless Services confirmed that a rejected offer of new housing was actually viable; those with mental illness will have that taken into account.
Yet the commissioner says the change is starting on a “very small scale” at just “few” adult-only shelters so Homeless Services can “understand the implications and the workload.”
Why? It worked perfectly fine system-wide in the Bloomberg years, before the de Blasio crew lowered standards because leftists think “accountability” is a dirty word.
It’s common sense to get residents who attack others or actively sabotage efforts to find them permanent housing out of shelters.
It lets city workers focus their energy and resources on residents who actually want help.
And booting chronically violent goons will vastly improve the conditions of city shelters too often so dangerous that many would rather sleep on the street.
Leftist whining is inevitable: Councilwoman Tiffany Caban groaned of her “concerns” about allocating resources to “push people out of housing.”
Yes: People who are repeatedly flouting the rules and rejecting permanent housing.
What actually pushes innocent people out of housing is chaotic, unsafe shelters filled with lifers who have no intention of leaving the system.
Progressives side with disorder so reflexively that they’re opposed to even the homeless being protected.
DHS shouldn’t drag its feet on a city-wide rollout: Give all homeless people the dignity of being treated like adults who are responsible for their behavior — and trying to make facilities better for everyone.
Ignore the infantilizing lefties and bring standards back to all shelters ASAP.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
