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At the same time that homeless encampments, violence and looting, defunding police and no bail laws, graffiti and destruction of public property multiply throughout New York City, Mayor de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray and her $1.25 billion program to help people who need mental health services, ThriveNY, continues as usual and is hiring.
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| Lovely. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News) |
Or, are you simply hiring people based upon what they can give to your future political campaign for Brooklyn borough president.
It is time to investigate the Mayor and his wife for financial fraud and other actions that do not benefit the City and only themselves.
Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, ADVOCATZ.com
Editor, ADVOCATZ Blog
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, ADVOCATZ Blog
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials
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| The makeshift homeless encampment in the East Village.Stephen Yang |
July 20, 2020, Julia Marsh
The hiring freeze clearly doesn’t apply to the unelected, anointed bureaucrat named Chirlane McCray . . . This gross abuse of power needs to end.
— Councilman Robert Holden
— Councilman Robert Holden
While other city agencies are tightening their belts under budget cuts and a hiring freeze, the city first lady’s embattled mental health program is thriving.
McCray’s $1.25 billion ThriveNYC program is recruiting new staff — despite Mayor de Blasio’s hiring freeze on municipal employees and warnings of layoffs for 22,000 city workers because of the $9 billion budget hole left by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Mental Health Service Corps is hiring! Spread the word!” McCray tweeted Thursday.
The Corps’ workforce development program — which was rebooted last year after initial mismanagement — is holding a virtual job fair for social workers on Thursday. It is one of several programs under the ThriveNYC plan, which was expected to cost the city $1.25 billion since its inception.
De Blasio has said that only COVID-19 jobs are exempt from the hiring freeze, but the ThriveNYC flyer makes no mention of the pandemic.
“Corps members are offered a three-year fellowship to deliver mental health services in highneed locations within the H+H system,” said Christopher Miller, a spokesman for the city’s public hospital system, NYC Health + Hospitals.
“ThriveNYC provides programmatic oversight,” he said.
“H+H is not subject to the City’s hiring freeze because it is not a city agency, it’s a public benefit corporation. H+H considers Mental Health Service Corps members to be essential health care workers and is working to fill vacancies in this program.”
There are currently 54 Corps members. H+H is offering $60,000 salaries plus a “competitive benefits package” to six new staffers.
Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) slammed the carveout for the mental-health plan.
“The hiring freeze clearly doesn’t apply to the unelected, anointed bureaucrat named Chirlane McCray,” he said. “The amount of conflicts of interest and nepotism by this mayor and his wife is disturbing, and allowing this gross abuse of power needs to end.”
McCray is mulling a run for Brooklyn borough president. Critics have accused the mayor and his wife of using city resources to boost her political future.
De Blasio has said he’ll have to put 22,000 public employees out of work, including frontline workers like cops and doctors, if the federal or state governments don’t provide a bailout by this fall.
In May, Holden and his colleagues ripped de Blasio’s willingness to sacrifice the jobs of city cops, doctors and teachers before slashing funding from ThriveNYC.
“I understand it’s a pet project, but there needs to be equity across the system,” Councilwoman Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) said at the time.
ThriveNYC ultimately survived the budget process with just $12 million in cuts.
First Lady Chirlane McCray’s embattled ThriveNYC mental-health program is recruiting new staff– despite Mayor Bill de Blasio’s hiring freeze on municipal employees — and warnings of layoffs for 22,000 city workers because of the $9 billion budget hole left by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Mental Health Service Corps is hiring! Spread the word!” McCray tweeted Thursday.
The workforce development program — which was rebooted last year after initial mismanagement — is holding a virtual job fair for social workers on July 23. It is one of several programs under the ThriveNYC plan, which was expected to cost the city $1.25 billion since its inception.
De Blasio claims only COVID-19 jobs are exempt from the hiring freeze, but the ThriveNYC flyer makes no mention of the pandemic.
“Corps members are offered a three-year fellowship to deliver mental health services in high-need locations within the H+H system,” said Christopher Miller, a spokesman for the city’s public hospital system, NYC Health + Hospitals.
“ThriveNYC provides programmatic oversight,” he said. “H+H is not subject to the City’s hiring freeze because it is not a city agency, it’s a public benefit corporation. H+H considers Mental Health Service Corps members to be essential health care workers and is working to fill vacancies in this program.”
There are currently 54 Corps members. H+H is offering $60,000 salaries plus a “competitive benefits package” to six new staffers.
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| Jason Curtis, a resident of the encampment. Stephan Yang |
Lorena Mongelli and Bruce Golding, NY POST, July 24, 2020
An entrenched group of homeless people is making life miserable for residents and merchants in Manhattan’s East Village — despite Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vow to “do whatever it takes” to break up such encampments.
The vagrants are living under a stretch of scaffolding along Second Avenue between East Seventh and East Eighth streets, where they’ve arranged cast-off furniture and set up a tarp under which two men were sleeping Friday afternoon.
“It makes me feel uncomfortable. It makes our city dirty and noisy,” said neighborhood resident Olga, 78, who’s lived in the East Village for 33 years.
“There was one woman who was making pee-pee and caca by the bus stop. It was very dirty and disgusting. Nobody wanted to use the bus stop.”
The owner of an eatery across the street also said the situation appeared to be spiraling out of control.
“They started camping out there when the weather got warmer and recently it got bigger,” the restaurateur said.
“Some of them have mental issues. They drink a lot and fight with each other. They throw bottles.”
On Thursday, de Blasio was questioned during his daily news conference about a series of other encampments across Manhattan, following a NYPD raid that broke up the “Occupy City Hall” site early Wednesday morning, about month after it was established.
“Anyone who tells us about an encampment, we’re going to have it addressed right away by Homeless Services, Sanitation, [NY]PD,” de Blasio said.
“Whatever it takes.”
One homeless resident of the East Village encampment, who identified herself as Solaura, 43, said she wound up there after losing a taxpayer-funded bed at the DoubleTree hotel in Chelsea.
Solaura, whose face and limbs are covered with tattoos, said she was a transsexual sex worker and was unable to abide by rules that required her to be inside by 10 p.m.
“I am a highly marginalized individual and I just don’t have the same opportunity as a lot of cisgender people as far as employment goes, so the work I do is at night or I would have no income,” she said.
Another resident, who gave his name as Macswel Hasanoeddin, said he was registered to stay at a nearby shelter but had been living at the encampment on and off for the past two or three weeks.
“In homeless shelters, people feel like it’s like a jail,” said Hasanoeddin, 52.
“There are a lot of concerns about things getting stolen so a lot of people don’t want to go. Curfew isn’t bad but there are other factors that people don’t wanna deal with, so they’d rather stay on the street.”
City Hall didn’t return a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Julia Marsh
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