The Bloomberg administration has quietly begun charging rent to homeless families who live in publicly run shelters but have income from jobs.
The new policy is based on a 1997 state law that was not enforced until last week, when shelter operators across the city began requiring residents to pay a certain portion of their income. The amount varies based on factors that include family size and what shelter is being used, but should not exceed 50 percent of a familys income, a state official said.
Vanessa Dacosta, who earns $8.40 an hour as a cashier at Sbarro, received a notice under her door several weeks ago informing her that she had to give $336 of her approximately $800 per month in wages to the Clinton Family Inn, a shelter in Hells Kitchen where she has lived since March.
Its not right, said Ms. Dacosta, a single mother of a 2-year-old who said she spends nearly $100 a week on child care. I pay my baby sitter, I buy diapers, and Im trying to save money so I can get out of here. I dont want to be in the shelter forever.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/nyregion/09shelters.html?_r=1
As a result (allegedly), women from low income families that are breaking-up are filing false accusations of domestic violence charges. Notably, domestic violence shelters DO NOT charge rent.
This is a real problem, not only for the domestic violence shelters, but for the men being falsely accused of domestic violence.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE EMERGENCY SHELTER* [FONT=Garamond,Garamond][FONT=Garamond,Garamond]There are 2,084 domestic violence emergency shelter beds citywide, a 35% increase since January 2002. [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Garamond,Garamond][FONT=Garamond,Garamond]*Statistics provided by the Human Resources Administration [/FONT][/FONT]DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CALLS FOR ASSISTANCE*
[FONT=Garamond,Garamond][FONT=Garamond,Garamond]Police responded to 234,988 domestic violence incidents in 2008; this averages to over 600 incidents per day. In addition, NYPDs Domestic Violence Unit conducted 72,463 home visits in 2008, a 93% increase since 2002. [/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Garamond,Garamond][FONT=Garamond,Garamond]As of 12/31/2008, the Citys Domestic Violence Hotline advocates answered 134,903 calls in 2008, averaging 370 calls per day; 123,409 calls were answered in 2007, averaging 338 calls per day.[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Garamond,Garamond][FONT=Garamond,Garamond]* Statistics provided by NYPD and Safe Horizon[/FONT][/FONT]
http://www.nyc.gov/html/ocdv/downloads/pdf/2008_Fact Sheet_updated.pdf