County Executive Rob Astorino Responds to Governor’s Homeless Shelter Mandate
As temperatures began to sink well below the freezing mark on Monday, Jan. 4, Gov. Andrew Cuomo released a statement that all homeless people in New State State should be removed from the streets by local governments and put in shelters for their own safety if the temperature dips below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
Already vocal about the affect state programs have on county and other local municipality budgets, Westchester County Rob Astorino released a statement in response on Monday evening.
“Westchester already has programs in place that meet the Executive Order. If the state is going to dictate additional requirements, we ask for them to pay their full cost and not leave the county with another unfunded mandate. Currently the state pays only 29 cents of every dollar we spend on sheltering the non-family homeless population. Also, if the state is serious about this and not just playing political games with the New York City Mayor, the constitutional issues in taking people off the streets must be carefully evaluated. Helping the homeless is a lot more complicated than simply rounding them up and bringing them to a shelter,” Astorino stated.
