De Blasio's 'harebrained' homeless program is ridiculous: Lynne Patton
"I'm surprised more mayor's aren't suing de Balsio," says Lynne Patton, NY & NJ Regional Administrator, HUD, discussing Newark's move to sue New York to stop homeless relocation.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is ducking the city's homelessness crisis by attempting to move the homeless population into New Jersey, said U.S. Housing and Urban Development administrator Lynne Patton, on "Fox & Friends" Thursday.
"The president doesn't want homelessness moved, he wants homelessness resolved. And that's why this administration, with Secretary [Ben] Carson's leadership, has given record levels of funding to homeless grants over the last two years -- almost 15 percent more than the last administration," she said.
Newark, New Jersey's largest city, filed a federal lawsuit against New York City and de Blasio on Monday claiming recipients of the subsidized rentals are ending up living in poor conditions, according to the New York Post.
"I know both of these mayors, just last week I worked with the mayor of Newark to help house 55 families during Thanksgiving," Patton continued. "I'm quite frankly surprised more mayors aren't suing de Blasio. Because this program's ridiculous. It literally helps people one time," she explained.
Patton argued that providing people with a free apartment for a year will not encourage them to find work and will only perpetuate a cycle of false hope, that will end up crushing their spirits.
"It invites slum lords to let the apartments grow into distress. They've got the money upfront. Why maintain the upkeep of the apartment? Plus it doesn't give the homeless recipient the incentive to better themselves, to be self-sufficient," she said. "'I'm set for a year, what do I have to work for?' And then when the year expires and the homeless person can't pay for the rent going forward -- or at least 50 percent of it, they're back out on the street and what have you really accomplished?
"Nothing but giving that person false hope," Patton added. "And now they're maybe 100 miles away in New York City where they once were, and it becomes the burden of the new city to house them again."
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Patton also mocked de Blasio's solutions for the homelessness crisis and accused him of wasting almost $200 million in taxpayer funding to purchase rundown buildings.
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"Clearly, this isn't the first harebrained idea that the mayor has had with respect to homelessness," she said. "His comptroller discovered that he had spent almost $200 million of taxpayer money to purchase a bunch of dilapidated buildings, to house formerly homeless individuals, that his own city appraised at only $50 million. So it was a colossal waste of taxpayer funding, so is this program."