New York's homeless must work for shelter

"This could literally put hundreds, if not thousands of people on the streets."

--- PATRICK MARKEE, a policy adviser for New York City's Coalition for the Homeless

By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

The Associated Press

NEW YORK --- Homeless people looking for a place to sleep in New York City shelters will have to work for it under a policy beginning this winter --- a move condemned Tuesday as "a throwback to the days of Dickens."

New York is believed to be the only major U.S. city to impose a work-for-shelter requirement.

The city already requires welfare recipients to work to get their benefits. On Tuesday, Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said the city will extend the policy in about 60 days to the 4,600 families and 7,000 single adults staying in city-run shelters.

New York operates the largest, most comprehensive shelter system in the nation for a homeless population it estimates at 23,000. In other parts of the country, shelters often are run and financed by private charities --- some of which require people to seek work.

The mayor's plan stunned advocates for the homeless.

"This could literally put hundreds, if not thousands of people on the streets," said Patrick Markee, a policy adviser for New York City's Coalition for the Homeless.

City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, a Democrat, said Giuliani's move is "a throwback to the days of Dickens. We cannot tolerate this morally or legally." Vallone acknowledged, however, that the City Council has little power to stop the policy.

The city's new requirements are supported by 1997 state regulations aimed at moving the homeless to work and ultimately to self-sufficiency. Last February, an appeals court ruled against the objections of advocates for the homeless.

Giuliani, who laughed when told that Vallone compared his policy to something out of Charles Dickens' novels, defended his plan.

"The apostles of dependency want to bring us back to where we had 1.1 million people on welfare and a city where dependency was the rule, working the exception," he said. "I think this is the highest form of compassion and love --- to help people to help themselves."

Giuliani has made welfare reform a centerpiece of his administration. The work-for-a-bed rule is similar to requirements city welfare offices have used since 1995 to move more than 400,000 people off public assistance.

Already, many homeless parents clean parks or do other jobs in exchange for welfare benefits while their children are in shelter day care centers.

Nica Person, a 26-year-old mother of three who has lived in the city shelter system for about a year, said city officials are making an unreasonable demand.

"There are parents who have four kids. They can't get day care to work. Who's going to pay for the day care?" she asked.

She also said the jobs the city sends people to are often menial, not the type of jobs that could provide a decent living.

"That just puts me right back to welfare," she said.

Greg Bowens, a spokesman for Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, who is a Democrat, called Giuliani's move "typical Republican simpleton logic."

"Would Joseph and Mary get a spot in New York today? Amazing," he said.

Copyright 1999
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