As winter approaches
New York mayor unveils attack on homeless
By Gery
Armsby
New York
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has special New Year plans for the
working, poor and homeless people of New York. This coming
winter, while he's off celebrating the millennium in high
style, at least 4,600 homeless families and 7,000 single,
homeless adults will be greeted with a chilling
predicament.
Giuliani has announced a new policy requiring them to work
in exchange for beds in the city's shelters. If they refuse,
they risk being turned away and/or having their children placed
in foster care.
This mayor had the audacity to unveil his plan as an "act of
compassion and love--to help people to help themselves." But,
in reality, Giuliani's work-for-shelter plan is an act of
cold-blooded war against the poor and oppressed of this
multinational city.
His move comes after dozens of similar attacks on the
poor--from trying to shut down hospitals in oppressed
neighborhoods, to levying astronomical traffic fines on
underpaid, predominantly immigrant cab drivers, to attempts to
silence the Million Youth March two years in a row.
The inauguration of this shelter policy will mark the
two-year anniversary of Jason Turner's arrival in New York.
Turner was the union-busting architect of the Workfare (WEP)
program. Together Giuliani and Turner have stripped benefits
away from thousands of single mothers, children, immigrants,
disabled people and people living with HIV/AIDS and cast them
into the streets, while forcing many more to work far below
minimum wage for their measly monthly checks and food
stamps.
Over the years, New York has operated the country's largest
comprehensive system providing shelter and other services for
the homeless. These shelters are woefully inadequate, but
especially as the winter arrives they can be the only
alternative to freezing to death on the streets for those who
have nothing more than a cardboard box and a flimsy
blanket.
More and more today, shelters in the U.S. are run by private
charities--some even require people to seek work. But Giuliani
was the first public official in line to apply recently upheld
state regulations aimed at dismantling social programs and
forcing homeless people to work under the threat of having
their kids taken away by the state.
The homeless in New York are part of the working class,
whether currently in a job or not. Many are already working at
jobs cleaning parks and public places in exchange for welfare
benefits. Many are on waiting lists for subsidized child care,
or are struggling with substance abuse and can't get adequate
help. These are among the vital programs that have been cut way
back.
For thousands of workers, the shelter system is a
much-needed place to stay while on waiting lists or when
they're unable to afford a rent deposit on an apartment until
income from a job starts coming in.
The desperately difficult struggle of the homeless in New
York makes Giuliani's attack on them all the more deplorable.
He is a political animal who wants to run for national office,
and is looking to earn points with right-wing, ruling-class
funders by trying to poison relations among the workers of this
city. So far, however, what he has succeeded in doing with his
racist, anti-poor attacks is to bring together the many
communities slandered by his reactionary rhetoric.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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