Assertion launched by Secure Horizon, NSCADV, Volunteers of America Larger New York, and URI in help of the Securing Entry to Honest & Equal (SAFE) Shelter Act.
Secure Horizon’s Chief Program Officer Kelly Coyne spoke at a rally final week at Metropolis Corridor urging Governor Hochul to signal the SAFE Shelter Act into legislation.
Final week, Governor Hochul met with personal sector executives to guarantee them she is going to use New York State assets to assist them really feel secure. The identical feeling of security is strictly what we attempt to supply to New York’s most susceptible residents—home violence survivors, trafficking victims and others fleeing violence.
That’s the reason we’re troubled and disenchanted to be taught that Gov. Hochul has vetoed the SAFE Shelter Act, which might have given our home violence shelter suppliers the funding and adaptability they should present emergency shelter to extra susceptible New Yorkers. The Governor rejected this essential laws with out trying to barter amendments with invoice sponsors or stakeholders, leaving hundreds of New Yorkers—lots of whom are LGBTQ+, trafficking survivors, or older adults—to face main obstacles when in search of refuge from abuse.
This veto is a devastating blow to the battle in opposition to home violence. The state’s present reimbursement system makes it financially not possible for home violence shelters to accommodate the entire single grownup survivors with out youngsters in search of shelter, though singles make up half of all shelter requests. The SAFE Shelter Act would have mounted this long-standing however worsening concern by permitting home violence shelters to be reimbursed for the true value of housing a single survivor in a room with two beds, drastically benefiting each survivors and shelters. The veto forces suppliers to make an not possible alternative that may end in many single home violence survivors ending up on the streets or again with their abuser.
Vetoing the SAFE Shelter Act sends a chilling message: the protection and well-being of single survivors of home violence will not be a precedence in New York State. We invite Gov. Hochul to fulfill with us and our shoppers, to listen to our tales and be taught who this veto leaves behind—trafficking victims, LGBTQ survivors of violence and aged victims with no youngsters.
