New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed an executive order that can force the homeless into shelters if the temperature drops below freezing.NEW YORK – As bitter winter weather arrived in the Northeast, New York’s governor issued an executive order requiring the homeless to be forcibly removed from the streets in freezing temperatures, an unprecedented government interjection that faced immediate legal questions and backlash.
The order, believed to be the only one of its kind in any city or state, would require communities to reach out to their street homeless populations and take those people to shelters, voluntarily or not, once the temperature drops to 32 degrees Fahrenheit or below.
“We have to get people in off the streets,” Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
But the order faced resistance, including from New York City officials, who threatened not to comply. The prospect of forcible removals from the streets also raised deep worries among advocates for the homeless.
“Put simply, being homeless is not a crime,” said Mary Brosnahan, president of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York, who warned that aggressive measures would push “the most marginalized homeless men and women further away from the very networks needed to engage them.”