Why We Went to Albany! By Picturethehomeless.org And Our Reply

From:

PICTURETHEHOMELESS.ORG  BLOG

http://www.picturethehomeless.org/blog/node/450

“Why We Went to Albany! By Picturethehomeless.org And Our Reply

By Jean Rice – Member, Picture the Homeless Board of Directors.

 4:30AM – the first day of spring, 2014. I am up and out of bed in order to make sure I am on time to join members of Picture the Homeless and allies for the bus ride to Albany, New York.

Our intentions were to lobby the anti-criminalization bill that we had pushed through the state assembly during the last legislative session. This is what my fellow board member, Willie Baptist, means when whe says we have to organize to ‘stick and stay.’

However, the fact remains that the group that accompanied me to Albany had a great deal to learn about “effective lobbying.”

This trip was a somewhat humbling experience for me, in that it revealed to me that my leadership avbility isn’t at the level that it neeeds to be at in order to move my organization towards achieving their elected objectives and goals.

Based upon the knowledge and the insight that I attained during the last legislative session, I should have made sure that all of the logistical steps that ensure productive lobbying were in place.

Years ago PTH had sent me to Albany with our sister group Domestic Workers United, to lobby for a domestic workers’ bill of rights. This was a successful campaign, and our sisters arenow national in scope and building an international domestic workers’ movement……”

 

COUNCIL OF HOMELESS NEW YORKERS, (COHONY) REPLIES:

We appreciate all the fight and campaign done by Picturethehomeless.org and applaud their efforts and motivation. They among the very few homeless advocate group who genuinely have interest in homeless problem in New York and doing all that is possible for them to find solutions to combat this specter.

Mayor De Blasio is not only a good man, but intelligent and smart too and we welcome his plan to address homelessness problems in New York City through creating affordable homes and houses for the poor.

The truth is that true power lies in the hands of the people. 

All the problems in the society can be solved. 

New York City is already spending enough money (more than $1 billion) to address the homeless problem in New York City.

The problem is that much of that money is being embezzled and squandered by the criminal and fraudulent service providers and organizations contracted by New York City Department Of Homeless Service, (DHS) because of their incompetence and lack of supervision and the audit of their contractors. 

Coalition For The Homeless was created to help monitor the shelters and be able to make DHS aware or these problem so they can be rectified.

But all that it focus in doing is Callaghan inspection, during which they inspect the newly painted walls and scrubbed floors. As long as they are clean, they declare the shelter in compliance.

They never inspect the clients or interview them.

Even when clients take the trouble to visit their office and file complaints, they jerk the clients around.

We don’t know one single homeless man in New York that this coalition has helped to solve any problem with the shelter.

And yet they claim they are advocating for the shelter and use this claim to get funding and grants.

Ms. Brosnahan, the President and CEO is a fine woman. 

But please Ms. President when was the last time you visited any of these DHS shelters, specifically Delta Manor, (at 1530 Beach Ave, Bronx, Phone: 718-409-2815,) the most dysfunctional, corrupt and criminal of all the DHS shelters and interviewed the homeless clients to know if they are getting the services that they are supposed to get and their problems with the shelter?

And if you have never done this, how then do you know their problems?

And if you don’t their problems, how then do you advocate for and help them to justify the millions of dollars that your group use them and their plights to obtain?

If you’re not part of the solution, then you must be part of the problem, Ms. President.

Thousands of homeless people including families now are so disgruntled and fade up with your Coalition that they are now agitating for it to be scrapped since you’re useless to the cause and interest of homeless people in New York City.

Department of Homeless Services, DHS (who are in charge of
the shelters) spend $1 billion dollars annually and yet in one of the shelters
called “Delta Manor,” (at 1530 Beach Ave, Bronx 10460, phone
718-409-2815,) they feed the homeless clients trash and limit them to small 12 oz bottle of water daily. (Not even enough for a puppy!) 

Imagine if they can’t provide the homeless clients with ordinary water, what else are they able to provide? We’re not talking about soda or orange juice or wine. Just drinking water! 

And yet Delta Manor gets more than $245,000,000 annually from DHS to operate this shelter!
Where do all these millions go to? Their bank accounts!

Delta Manor is owned by SCO Family of Services Of Long Island

Website: http://sco.org/ 

See their annual budget here:

http://sco.org/about-us/annual-reports-financials/

They receive more than $245,000,000 annually to provide services to homeless people and yet they have a problem giving ordinary water to them. 

They tell them after the one 12 oz allotted bottle of water
for the day that they are allowed, if they are thirsty, they can drink toilet
water! 

Delta Manor have 6 staff who are related to the director of
the shelter Ms. Maitland and who come to work and sit down for 16 hrs playing online game, cards, chatting with their girlfriends and boyfriends on the phone, surfing the internet using the office computers and laptops, eating homeless clients’ food, drinking clients’ water, gossiping and mocking the clients, calling them derogatory names. 

They have no work to do and yet they get paid regular salary plus the extra 8 hrs double pay for over time! 

All complaints to the Department of Homeless Services, DHS (who contracted these bunch of low life criminal predators, parasites and uneducated nincompoops; many don’t even have a GED! that victimize homeless people) are neglected. 

This was one of the reasons why COHONY was formed because it is fraudulent for DHS and its gang of criminals service providers (aka predators and parasite criminals) to use homeless people and their plight to collect $1 billion annually of tax payers hard earned money that they embezzle and squander. 

Can you believe that DHS has about 4000 staff, and all they do is just calling landlords to rent rat and roach infested rooms to the homeless people?

4000 staff is enough personnel to run a few small countries!

And there are a few small countries whose annual budgets are less than a billion dollars and they live very well, too!

And yet with $1 billion and 4000 staff (who work for 1-2 hrs daily but get paid for 8hrs) DHS cannot rent a room for a homeless New Yorker.

Many homeless New Yorkers can rent these rooms themselves.

There is no need squandering billions of dollars with 4000 staff just to rent rat and roach infested rooms for homeless people. 

Many decline them and prefer to continue living in the shelters or to live outside elsewhere, despite of all the harassment, degradation, mockery, insults and exploitation that they experience from these criminal service providers, like Ms. Maitland and her Delta Manor Shelter in the Bronx, New York 

(Ms. Maitland is a sadistic militant lesbian who openly talks of how she hates and enjoys hurting men, and carries on lesbian sexual activities in her office (and bathrooms, sometimes,) with her secretary, Abigail who is also a lesbian)

And DHS and their criminal service providers don’t care because they are paid anyway, no matter what! 

About 200 well trained staff with laptops, phones and a list of landlords in New York City staff can do the job that 4000 present DHS staff find it difficult to do.

And they can do it in less than 6 months instead of 1-10 yrs it takes the present 4000 staff to do!

And $100 million can help provide job re-training, and also rent good clean rooms for all the homeless people right now in New York City.

Besides homeless people, there are other members, groups and institutions in New York City who need help as well, such as toddlers (who need funds to pay for their pre-K schools and day care centers); the senior citizens (whose Senior Citizens homes and Centers are being closed down) ; hospitals (many of which are being closed), nurses and health care professionals (who are over worked and need to be paid more money); high school teenagers, college students (who need grants and loans); teachers (who need to be trained much better and paid more money to become great teachers); veterans (many of who are disabled and needs to be paid all the
benefits that were promised them!)

The balance of $800 million that DHS and its gang of criminal service providers (Like Delta Manor and SCO family Services) embezzle and squander can go a long way to help them. 

True power lies in the hands of the people. We all should stand up united and say to these mad bureaurats, ENOUGH!

Please help us report this to all the elected officials of New York City and state who can take appropriate actions to stop this flagrant and shameful scam. 

Thank you and God bless. 

 

John Payseur (aka J-PAY,) 

Communication Manager,

Council of Homeless New Yorkers, (COHONY)

 Phone:
1- 206-426-0848

 

E-mail:

cohony@mail.com

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/cohony.advocacy