ALBANY – The head of a key Assembly committee criticized Gov. Cuomo for withholding state aid for 16 city homeless shelters after the de Blasio administration missed a deadline to address serious code violations.
“Cutting off funds for shelters, as the governor has done, is only hurting the poorest New Yorkers,” Assemblyman Social Services Committee Chairman Andrew Hevesi told the Daily News.
The fight over the shelters is the latest skirmish in the ever-growing battles between de Blasio and his frenemy, Cuomo.
“The poor conditions in the shelter system have been acknowledged by both Gov. Cuomo and Mayor De Blasio,” Hevesi said. “In the midst of the worst homeless crisis ever, these two gentlemen need to work together.”
Kristi Berner, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Temporary Disability Assistance, said the state is “engaging with the city to ensure egregious issues that put the health and safety of New York’s most vulnerable citizens at risk are resolved.”
The Cuomo administration on April 28 sent a letter giving the de Blasio administration seven business day to fix what it deemed serious building and housing code violations at 16 family shelters across the city.
After not meeting the deadline, the state began withholding aid.
The de Blasio administration claimed many of the problems pre-date his taking office last year. The mayor recently announced a task force charged with cleaning up the shelter system.
“Instead of spending scarce resources to re-inspect shelters and issue redundant reports, while citing issues which it knows are already being addressed as an excuse to withhold needed funding, the state should be meeting its own fiscal responsibility to New York City’s homeless families,” said city Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Gilbert Taylor.
The Cuomo administration letter came weeks after a city Department of Investigation report outlined egregious conditions at numerous shelters first highlighted by the Daily News — including one run by Cuomo’ sister, Maria Cuomo-Cole.
A coalition of anti-homeless groups known as Homes For Every New Yorker ripped Cuomo’s subsequent decision to withhold funding as a “political stunt” and questioned why it was done days after de Blasio announced his task force to address the problems.
