Bloomberg: Impoverished families must pay rent to stay in shelters

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.progressivepuppy.com/the_progressive_puppy/2009/05/bloomberg-impoverished-families-must-pay-rent-to-stay-in-shelters.html

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is defending a new policy which will force homeless New Yorkers to financially support the city's ramshackle shelters that provide housing for indigents. Instead of helping disadvantaged families rise above grinding poverty, municipal officials have decided, rather high-handedly, that these folks' meager wages should be used to pay rent. Says Bloomberg: "Everybody else is doing it... so we're going to do it." snip

Mayor Bloomberg is the eighth richest person in America with a net worth of $16 billion, earning much of his fortune by advising real estate magnates and bankers on how to maximize profits and obtain tax-free loans. He has never known what it feels like to spend the night under a scratchy blanket, wondering whether he can afford to buy food or clothes for his children. For those who DO know that feeling, their place in poverty will now be fixed - by paying this extra rent to the city. For them, there will be no escape from a life of hopelessness and drudgery. This is an unfortunate position for the mayor to take, especially since his stand on other social issues is so forward-thinking.

[demwing]

1. Now Bloomberg will be known as the "Mayor who Charged Rent to the Homeless"

And another potential 2012 Republican Presidential player burns the bridge while before he crossed it...

It's very sad that the homeless are used to try to score political points. I hope this plan dies quickly, and its memory lives on for the ages.

[fishwax]

2. I hope you're right on both counts

"I hope this plan dies quickly, and its memory lives on for the ages."

:thumbsup:

:grr:

[Raineyb]

9. I hope so. On the other hand the man is running for a third term after

tossing a ballot initiative that the electorate passed. A lot of people seem to be forgetting this rather undemocratic bit of fuckery by the mayor.

I never liked him, and I never voted for him. He's a rich fuck who bought his way into office and is running it like those who live outside of Park Ave don't count worth a damn. Apparently, he doesn't understand that if the hired help can't afford to live in the city him and his ilk will have to start doing things for themselves.

Unfortunately stupid people will probably give him the 3rd term he was looking for.

Regards

[east texas lib]

3. Someone (I think it was a man named Antonole, but I could be wrong) once said...

"The law, in it's majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges and
to steal bread to eat."

[lunatica]

4. What a true and living fuck

But it probably won't be long before he and his friends get offended by the homeless who can't afford shelters.

Here in California you run the risk of pissing homeless people off by suggesting they might find more comfort in a shelter. I did it once, and boy oh boy, never again! Evidently those shelters are so dangerous that they'd rather huddle in a dry building corner in the middle of winter during a rainstorm than go to shelters.

[juno jones]

5. Under a goddamn scratchy blanket with your shoes on

so they won't be stolen.

Fuck Bloomberg. For the man who has everything: The 2009 model guillotine.

[Joanne98]

6. Return of the Slumlords! Someone should make a video.

[dorkulon]

7. And if they don't have the money?

Are they really going to evict homeless people from homeless shelters?

[anonymous171]

8. Fuck him. nt

[varelse]

10. So, the money they might have saved up for a deposit

to get out of the shelter will now be paid in rent? Seems sort of self-defeating as a public policy.