Mayor de Blasio must restore $10.3 million to the upcoming city budget for critical services for homeless kids, advocates and families insist.
De Blasio included the money in his 2017 budget as part of a $30 million package of services for homeless families, but it was not included in a draft budget for the 2018 fiscal year he revealed in January.
The money would be used to continue funding social workers for homeless kids in public schools, literacy programs in shelters and enrollment workshops for homeless families, among other things.
Advocates say the services are needed now more than ever because the city’s homeless crisis has reached historic proportions, with an all-time high of 105,000 kids in temporary housing now enrolled in public schools.
“Students living in shelters need supports in order to succeed in school,” said Randi Levine, policy director for the non-profit group Advocates for Children of New York.
“With a record number of students living in shelters, now is the time for the city to increase its support, not pull it away,” Levine added.
The funding for homeless services omitted from de Blasio’s draft budget would provide services for hundreds of homeless families, Levine said.
Statistics show that the city’s homeless students are less likely to read and do math at grade level or graduate on time, compared to their housed peers. They are also more likely to miss class and be suspended from school for disciplinary issues.
The programs included in de Blasio’s 2017 budget helped address those issues, Levine said.
The money paid for 33 social workers who work at 43 public schools with high populations of homeless kids across all five boroughs.
Those social workers help homeless kids by providing a variety of services including individual and group therapy, help with tutoring and assistance getting to school.
Security guard Shameeka Williams, who lived in a Brownsville shelter with her two kids until February, said a social worker at her daughter’s school helped her family obtain better living conditions.
“That funding needs to be in the budget,” Williams said. “I felt like I was overlooked, but when our social worker made calls for us, she was able to get the right attention and assist us.”
De Blasio may issue his revised 2018 executive budget as soon as next week and the final budget will be approved in June.
City Hall spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein said the city is still weighing whether to fund the programs that were cut from the draft spending plan.
“We’re committed to supporting students in shelter and we’re doing our due diligence to make sure resources are used wisely,” Goldstein said.
