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The city is going to spend an astonishing $819 million this year to shelter the homeless — an increase of nearly 20 percent in just two years, the Independent Budget Office said yesterday.
Even as advocates for the homeless pummel the administration for not doing enough, taxpayers are picking up the tab for record numbers of homeless who are staying in shelters longer than ever.
Families that found their own accommodations after an average of 325 days in 2010 took 443 days this fiscal year. The 31,063 individuals who lived in shelters when Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002 grew to a high of 50,135 in January, before falling back to 48,577 this week.
The total budget for the Department of Homeless Services was expected to reach $955 million this year. In 2002, the homeless agency had a budget of $540 million.
“I don’t blame the Bloomberg administration,” said Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute. “I really blame the court decree and advocates fighting common-sense measures.”
She was referring to a consent order signed by former Mayor Ed Koch — in what some critics describe as one of his worst mistakes — to offer free shelter to anyone claiming to need it.
“There is no other city in the country with this kind of burden,” noted McDonald.
Republican mayoral candidate George McDonald, who founded the Doe Fund in 1985 to link the homeless with jobs, said he would attempt to overturn the decree if he makes it to City Hall.
“When you have the right to shelter, what prevents America from coming here and saying the taxpayers of New York City are going to pay my rent?” he asked.
The mayor blames the exploding homeless shelter population on the state’s decision in mid-2011 to end a rent-subsidy program known as Advantage.
In the two years since, the city’s shelter bill has gone from $686 million in fiscal 2011 to $723 million in fiscal 2012 to a projected $819 million in fiscal 2013, which runs through June 30.
“This is an indication their policies are a failure,” charged Annabel Palma (D-Bronx), who chairs the City Council’s General Welfare Committee.
“I was not a fan of Advantage, but it was something that could have worked had the administration focused on connecting people to real jobs.”
Seth Diamond, the Homeless Services commissioner, defended the city’s policies as humane and practical under the circumstances.
“The important thing from our point of view is we are committed to making sure everyone who comes into the system and doesn’t have an alternative will have a secure place to go,” he said, adding the city is prepared to spend “whatever funding is required” to meet that goal.
With less than 10 months to go, though, it’s clear the mayor won’t be able to meet another goal announced in 2004 to cut the homeless population by two-thirds.
“The next administration is going to have a lot of work to do,” concluded Palma.