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BLOOM SERVICE: This room at a Bed-Stuy shelter may be tidy, but it’s not quite ready for concierge service, despite Mayor Bloomberg’s comments. (
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Be it ever so humble, there’s no better place to be homeless.
New York’s billionaire mayor yesterday played the city’s concierge-in-chief, declaring that his administration has made shelters so nice, people don’t want to leave.
“We have made our shelter system so much better that, unfortunately, when people are in it — or fortunately, depending on what your objective is — it is a much more pleasurable experience than they ever had before,” Mayor Bloomberg said.
“We are proud that our shelters provide a safe, clean environment with on-site security, support services and caseworkers for children on site.”
While the mayor seems to be see homeless kids as a bunch of Eloises on a magical adventure, just how “pleasurable” homeless shelters are is a matter of opinion.
Bloomberg may be mistaking the amenities he’s used to at five-star hotels such as The Plaza — where butlers draw your bath and you can order caviar and champagne from in-room iPads — for the no-frills reality of shelters.
Sheets and blankets are always basic, toilet paper is rough, and furniture varies — from cots on crowded floors to full-size beds — depending on the location, since shelters are run by both for- and nonprofit organizations contracted by the city.
The Gates Avenue Shelter in Brooklyn, run by the Doe Fund, is one of the more Ritz-like options. Its amenities include black-and-white photos on the walls, a wood-panel library, a computer room and lounges where residents watch donated TVs.
Other features include towels, alarm clocks, fans and, in some cases, flowers in vases. Nice, but it’s not exactly the 1,000-thread-count sheets and free Wi-Fi found at the city’s finest hotels.
Some 44,603 people have flooded the city’s shelters this year.
While the best ain’t The Plaza or the Mandarin Oriental, Bloomberg insisted the shelters used to be worse, saying that before he took office in 2002, they were an “abomination.”
“It is indisputable that the shelter system has undergone a full transformation, and it is a vastly better system that offers those who have fallen on hard times a more supportive option than the city had ever offered before,” he said at a Queens press conference yesterday after being asked about rising homeless numbers.
Advocates for the homeless were horrified by the his assessment.
“The mayor’s assertion that homeless New Yorkers are staying in shelters longer because they’re ‘much more pleasurable’ is shocking and offensive,” said Mary Brosnahan, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless.
“Mayor Bloomberg systematically closed every single path to affordable housing once available to homeless families with vulnerable children. His failed policies are the major factor leading to the record shelter population this summer.
“Blaming homeless families and suggesting they are luxuriating in ‘pleasurable’ accommodations shows just how badly the mayor is out of touch.”