Mayor de Blasio forced out Homeless Services Commissioner Gilbert Taylor by sidelining him in favor of a trusted adviser, sources said Wednesday.
Taylor’s departure, announced as a resignation on Tuesday, was “in the works for at least two months,” a City Hall insider said.
In addition to stripping the Homeless Services agency of its ability to award contracts and shifting the job to the Human Resources Administration, de Blasio has been relying on HRA Commissioner Steve Banks to handle the spiraling homelessness crisis, the sources said.
“[Banks] does just about everything. The mayor goes to him for everything because they are close friends,” the insider said.
After news of Taylor’s sidelining broke, Banks said of the homless crisis, “It’s a problem that we inherited. Other mayors could have and should have done things they didn’t do.”
One key event in Taylor’s downfall was the Department of Investigation’s May report that revealed squalid and dangerous conditions at 25 city shelters.
“That’s a huge deal,” another city government source said.
Taylor was “not a good manager,” said a City Hall operative briefed on the matter.
“The [homeless] kept piling up and things were not going well in the department and, quite frankly, the mayor just trusts Banks more,” the source added.