NYC Mayor Bloomberg's newly released budget cuts $7 million to the city's Runaway and Homeless Youth Services, and plan to eliminate 160 youth shelter beds,.
Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center, NYC's largest LGBT homeless youth shelter, released a statement this morning:
“Mayor Bloomberg's plan to throw 160 homeless children out of their shelter beds and into the streets is cruel, reckless and contemptible. These cuts create an even bigger crisis for the LGBT teens who are thrown out of their homes and forced to endure homelessness on the streets of our city. The LGBT community needs and demands political leaders who will protect our children. Instead, Mayor Bloomberg has proposed eliminating more than half of their shelter beds. The Ali Forney Center, and all those who work with and care about LGBT homeless youth, will not be silent in the face of this decision, which offends us as a community and needlessly puts our young people in harm's way.”
According to the Center:
Today's cuts come in spite of the fact that the need for youth shelter beds continues to grow; in 2011 alone, the waiting list for AFC's 77 shelter beds grew to 199 youths – an increase of 40 percent over the prior year. In total, the city only funds 250 shelter beds, for a population of 4,000 homeless youth. In response to this crisis, the Ali Forney Center and a number of allied LGBT organizations have launched the Campaign for Youth Shelter. This initiative calls on New York City and State to back an additional $3 million in annual funding, set aside to create 100 new shelter beds every year. The Campaign today calls for the city to raise its Runaway and Homeless Youth Services budget from the just-announced $5 million to $13.5 million, both revoking today's cuts and including the city's half of the annual $3 million.
