As Mayor de Blasio continues to open temporary shelters to address a homelessness epidemic unseen since the Great Depression, a growing number of homeless New Yorkers have opted to stay in the region's airports. Bloomberg News reports that in recent months, as many as 50 people stayed inside LaGuardia's central terminal overnight, an 80% increase from 2011.
Volunteers for America, a faith-based charity, provides aid to the homeless populations at JFK and LaGuardia, and the Port Authority says they are welcome to stay so long as they don't interfere with the airport's operations.
The eponymous publication of the mayor who exacerbated the issue of homelessness during his second and third terms also finds that one man lived in LaGuardia's 24-hour terminal for 20 years.
Rachel Weinstein, Volunteers of America’s chief development and communications officer, said one man, an alcoholic, lived at LaGuardia for 20 years.
“The guys got him into rehab, he got dried up a couple of times, and he’d keep coming back,” she said.
Last month there were more than 60,000 people in the City's shelter system, 25,000 of them children, an increase of 10,000 from when de Blasio first took office.
In his State of the City speech, the mayor pledged to place 1,000 veterans who are currently living in City shelters into permanent homes. Today, he released a statement praising the State Assembly for restoring Cuomo's cuts to homelessness funding in the budget, and for fully funding a program that provides shelter for homeless New Yorkers suffering from mental illnesses.
