Homeless in NYC Today

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My name is Cathy Bernstein, and I am running for Congress against Jerry Nadler this November 3rd, 2020.

I have lived on the Upper West Side for the past 35 years and am witnessing the city decline again due to the progressive policies of Mayor DeBlasio and Congressman Nadler. As a fellow constituent, I care deeply about the quality of life in the 10th Congressional District.

Today, I would like to address the single most pressing issue facing our community which is homelessness.

My proposals are listed below... but, first, I do need to discuss the events that occurred this summer in July 2020 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

The UWS has an exceptionally large homeless population that has been and is currently living on the street. The majority of them are suffering from mental illness and/or substance abuse issues.

This summer, our elected officials with FEMA money (Federal) moved into this area more homeless men into 3 different hotels in a ten-block area that already had two men’s shelters. Sadly, there was extraordinarily little oversight and care for the wellbeing of the homeless or the existing community of elders and children.

The Hotel Belleclaire and the Lucerne both have permanent, long -term elderly populations that have resided in the hotel for years and their health was not taken into consideration. They expressed concern as the new residents did not wear masks or socially distance. This is the segment of the population that is the most vulnerable and should be safeguarded at all costs.

At the Hotel Belleclaire, 14 new guests were registered Sex Offenders.
13 of the 14 raped children, boys and girls as young as age 4.
This hotel is within 1000 feet of 2 playgrounds and 3 schools.

Please view my video on this story on twitter @CathyCongress. It received over 251,000 views and it is a story that resonates with the community.

https://twitter.com/CathyCongress/status/1289330873662234624?s=20

At the Hotel Lucerne, 283 men were moved into the hotel who suffered serious substance abuse issues. Many of the men came from the Washington Jefferson Hotel on West 51st Street after tension in the Midtown community. This is where the game of hot potato began.

Homeless who suffer from substance abuse issues require a closed hospital setting where they can get proper treatment/ detoxed. That is true compassion.

Putting men with severe drug issues into hotels (4-star hotels) where they are not required to attend any drug treatment doesn’t help them overcome their addiction and the senseless deaths from overdoses at the hotel bears that out. It also hurts a neighborhood community where children have witnessed shooting up and drug deals.

If our elected officials are adamant that the men should be housed in a hotel, instead of a hospital, why not use the hotels that are empty and 1/3 of the cost at LaGuardia or JFK and use the extra money for mandatory AA and NA meetings and job training. Remember, this is taxpayer money that FEMA was using... this is your tax money. Your elected officials are public servants and should serve the community's needs and safety first.

As I said, this is one of the most pressing, exigent issues facing the 10th Congressional today. NYC has the largest homeless population in the country with estimates per July 2020 of over 58,000 children, women and men, many living in squalor and despair on the street. The City was given an F for its handling of the homeless in 2019 by the Coalition for the Homeless.

While Jerry Nadler has "led a delegation to inspect ICE detention facilities containing separated families", I challenge him to pay the same attention to his district.... Visit the West Side of Manhattan and view our homeless US citizens living in filth, eating out of garbage cans and being preyed on at night.

We also have the right to a safe environment where there is not aggressive panhandling, homeless encampments, open bottles, needles, public urination and defecation, encased mattresses for bed bugs ripped open for sleeping, public exposure to children, and public sex. The residents of the 10th Congressional should not live in fear walking down the street at night.

I have spent my time attending Community Board meetings, meeting with the City Council women for District 6 with DJ Jaffe, Executive Director of Mental Illness Policy Org, and talking to the homeless in the 10th Congressional.

Some were able to express their need for affordable housing, drug and alcoholic treatment, and safe and clean homeless shelters.

For those with dogs and cats, they told me about their loyalty to their pets and the fact that the shelters had no special accommodations for them.

But the majority of the homeless were mentally ill and they could not converse on any rational level, did not know what year it was or even what city they were in. The very few who could speak told me of hearing voices and of being preyed upon. Unfortunately, I do not think they were being paranoid as this is the group that has experienced the most violence sleeping unprotected on the streets at night.

The Liberal view is that being homeless is a right to be protected and that we should eliminate the stigma and educate the public. Under de Blasio it is illegal to arrest the homeless and the police officers have not received enough training to enact Kendra’s Law.

The problem is that New York State has slashed its psychiatric bed count in a movement known as Deinstitutionalization, which reduced the State costs of caring for the mentally ill but moved this problem to the local levels.

Proposals:
A significant increase in federal funding for the 10th Congressional.

Compassionately help the Homeless to move off the streets to affordable housing, drug and alcoholic treatment centers, safer and cleaner homeless shelters with required spaces set aside for those with dogs and cats, and psychiatric hospitalization for those who suffer from schizophrenia and bipolar episodes.

Work immediately with HUD for special emergency measures to increase the budget for the homeless in providing urgently needed support for shelters, housing and mental health services.

Eliminate the IMD Exclusion Rule of Medicaid Permanently.

(IMD Exclusion Rule – restricts any use of Federal Medicaid funds to pay for psychiatric care hospitals known as “Institutions for Mental Disease” for individuals from the age of 22 to 64 unless the facility has 16 beds or less and/or the stay is 15 days and less).

The background was that Congress wanted the states to meet their financial responsibility, but with NYC now housing the largest homeless population in the country, the IMD Exclusion Rule of Medicaid has placed the homeless in the 10th Congressional in a precarious, life threatening conditions with insufficient funds to adequately provide for their needs.

Support the Police with more training in using Kendra's Law.

(Named after Kendra Webdale, who died when a schizophrenic individual had stopped taking his medicine and pushed her in front of a subway.

To learn more about my proposals, please check out my website:

https://bernsteinforcongress.com/homeless.html

Twitter: @CathyCongress

Paid for by Cathy Bernstein for Congress.

Cathy Bernstein is a Mom, CPA and does consulting work today.

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