NYC Slashes Funding For Homeless Youth

I no longer live in N.Y. -- I live in Texas. As a result I often get my news second hand.

Now, I know cities and states are facing a budget crunch -- there's less money coming in, real estate is worth less, lower tax receipts, etc., etc., etc. At the same time, everyone says Wall Street is doing VERY well.

Imagine my surprise when I read this in Joe.My.God. (please follow link to original)


NYC Slashes Funding For Homeless Youth

On Thanksgiving Eve, the Ali Forney Center received a grim letter from New York City's Department of Youth and Community Development.

Due to a combination of City and State budget reductions for FY11 and FY12, DYCD has made the difficult decision to reduce Runaway and Homeless Youth Services funds by $969,407 and $700,000, respectively, beginning this fiscal year. In order to preserve residential services for young people in need of a safe place to stay, DYCD has decided to modify Street Outreach and Drop-In Center Services. As a result of the combination of State and City reductions, Street Outreach Services will be reduced by 50% in FY11 and eliminated in FY12. Drop-In Center services funded by the City Council will be reduced by 50% in FY11 and DYCD’s Borough-based Drop-In Centers in Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens will be reduced by one-third in FY11 and 23% in FY12. The Staten Island Drop-In Center will be reduced by 10% in FY12

Ali Forney Center executive director Carl Siciliano:

LGBT youth make up 40% of New York City's homeless youth population. Every night there are hundreds who suffer on the streets with nowhere safe to go. While I agree that housing is the most crucially needed service, outreach workers and drop-in centers are a lifeline for kids who are stranded on the streets without shelter. These reductions frankly constitute an attack on the safety and welfare of our most vulnerable youth.

I have been in contact with members of the City Council who are outraged by the cuts and want them overturned. I have been asked to have as many people as possible turn out for a DYCD-sponsored Forum on Homeless LGBT Youth this Wednesday at 5:30pm at 1 Center Street, so the City can see that people are upset by these cuts. In order to show your support for our youth in a time of crisis, I am asking each one of you to make every effort to attend.

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This is just WRONG. Homeless youth are often young people who have been THROWN OUT by their everloving parents. They have been cast away, left to make it on their own, left to the tender mercies of so many of the "mentors" who prey on children. With no place to stay, thrown away, IF they make it to adulthood they are the folks who are "raised by wolves". They are often unsocialized, feral youth.

Saving 1 or 2 million dollars today might well cost us all 8 or 10 million down the road.

Perhaps it's best they learn now that NO ONE can be trusted -- EVER. Of course, if you want a "civil society" (whatever that means) it might be best to spend that money now.

Amid all this joyous holiday news, we learn our President, the "Great Hope" of all us Democrats has made another skillful pre-emptive collapse on the popular stand AGAINST continued tax cuts for the rich.

I find it amazing that he is ALWAYS the one willing to "negotiate", willing to make "concessions", while NEVER asking for concessions from his opponents. Very Strange.

So, homeless kids get the shaft while MULTI-MILLIONAIRES reap the benefits. Homeless kids must make "concessions" when the only thing they have to bargain with is their lives.

Multi-millionaires get to keep way more than anyone needs -- while over 40 million American CITIZENS are on food stamps -- and homeless kids suffer the consequences of a recession they have nothing to do with.

It's time to raise the taxes on the rich. Time to expand all social services. Time to cut back -- severely -- on "Faith Based Initiatives". Bring back real WELFARE. After all, it was an outgrowth of The Great Depression -- time to recognize the needs of the "formerly middle class". Remember, these poor slobs actually BELIEVED in the "American Dream", now that they have lost it -- they don't know what to do, how to negotiate all the various "support groups" out there. Bring back that big Government Agency, all the Poverty Programs, raise taxes on those who are still doing well -- try to make this America again.