Department Of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks yesterday pushed back on City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens), who led about 40 residents in protesting in front of Banks’ Windsor Terrace Home this past weekend.
The demonstration was against the de Blasio Administration’s homeless policies and and protesters called for Banks’ resignation. As DSS Commissioner, Banks oversees both the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) and the Human Resources Administration (HRA).
“Steven Banks is the worst DHS Commissioner in New York City history. Tonight, more than 60,000 men, women and children will be sleeping in a City shelter – and thousands more on the streets and subways,” said Ulrich at the rally.”Creating new shelters has done nothing to address the homeless epidemic. We need real permanent housing programs for the people who need it most.”
But Banks, who attended the one-year anniversary of a Google/Goodwill Industries partnership to give underemployed and unemployed residents training in computer technology, noted he worked at legal aid for about 33 years before going into government because of his strong belief that government can make a difference in people’s lives.
“I think that we are beginning to make progress in addressing a 40-year problem [homelessness]. We have more work to do, but the changes we have made are beginning to take hold. We held the homeless census flat for the first time in a decade. We dropped addictions by 37 percent while addictions are going up nationally. We’ve been able to connect 109,000 people to permanent housing. We’ve gotten out of 180 shelters and cited 42 borough-based shelters. We’ve gotten 2,000 people off the streets. There’s a shelter about three and a half blocks from my house.”
Banks also pushed back against the perception that the de Blasio Administration has not sited shelters in the Park Slope, Windsor Terrace/Kensington/Gowanus district where both Banks and de Blasio reside.
DHS lists five shelters opened or slated to be opened in the district under the de Blasio Administration, although none are located in the main thoroughfares of Park Slope or Windsor Terrace proper.
They include 385 McDonald Avenue in Kensington, which houses 64 families and 174 Prospect Place in Prospect Heights, which houses 90 single adult women experiencing mental health challenges.
The three shelters projected to be open include 500-576 Coney Island Avenue in Ditmas Park, which is expected to open in the spring of this year and serve 136 single adult men; 535 4th Avenue in lower Park Slope, which is expected to open this summer and serve 148 families with children; and 601 Sackett Street in Lower Park Slope/Gowanus, which is expected to open in 2020 and serve 200 single adult men.
“We’ve been siting a number of shelters in these locations. The difference I think we see with Councilmember [Brad] Lander (D-Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Gowanus) is we engage Community Board 6 and there’s been an ongoing engagement process, and now we’ve got a number of shelter citings there as well as in Community Board 7 and Community Board 12,” Banks said.
“We reached out to Councilmember Ulrich when we were siting shelters in his district and he offered us sites in Councilmember [Rafael] Salamanca‘s (D-The Bronx) district. I’m an optimist by nature. I don’t feel its right to demonize our clients and those are the people who I care about,” he added.
The Ulrich-led protest also drew a rebuke from Lander and Assemblymember Robert Carroll (D-Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Ditmas Park), who in an open letter said Banks should be commended.
“Here in this neighborhood, we do not vilify Steve Banks. We honor him and his hard work to extend compassion, opportunity and a place to spend the night to all New Yorkers,” they wrote.
