HOLY WAR ERUPTS OVER CHURCH HOMELESS SHELTERS

By TIM PERONE, AP

 

Last updated: 2:20 am
November 23, 2008
Posted: 2:09 am
November 23, 2008

The city has ordered almost two dozen churches to stop providing shelter to the homeless - even as last night's temperatures dropped well below freezing, potentially leaving hundreds out in the cold, officials said yesterday.

By a city rule - which homeless advocates said is little-enforced - all emergency shelters must operate a minimum of five days a week or not at all.

Each of the 22 church shelters, which had limited resources, were able to operate for only a couple of months out of the year, but were forced to stop putting people up under the order from the Department of Homeless Services.

Advocates blasted the move, charging that it would keep people from getting needed shelter.

"There's a net loss," said Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless. "However you cut it, there will be less shelter for the street homeless - at a time when the economic downturn is causing more homelessness."

The decision will leave hundreds without anywhere to sleep, said Arnold Cohen, head of the Partnership for the Homeless, a nonprofit that serves as a link between the city and shelters.

"We know the people who go to churches are people who do not go to the large city shelters," Cohen said, noting that the large shelters make some "feel like [they're in] medium-security prisons."

But the DHS said there was plenty of space at other shelters to make up for the beds lost in the churches.

And with temperatures plummeting last night, the city sent out three dozen outreach teams to help people find warm places to stay.

DHS spokeswoman Heather Janik said the capacity at four new city shelters exceeded that lost by the closed church shelters.

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