Press Room

NEW YORK: Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released the following statement as the Legal Aid Society's lawsuit to stop the mass relocation of hotel residents to congregate shelters had its first hearing in federal court today.

"I applaud and support the Legal Aid Society in their efforts to prevent the mass and immediate relocation of thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers from hotels to congregate shelters. Naturally, as we continue the recovery efforts from COVID-19, many of the emergency measures put in place will be rescinded - but in moving forward, we cannot return to the strategies and spaces of the past. 

"As variants still circulate and vaccination rates remain stubbornly stagnant, it's vital to ensure the health and safety of vulnerable New Yorkers - which hotel spaces are largely protecting and which congregate shelters largely cannot. In this moment, these would-be vacant hotel spaces are most crucial in their current capacity. The administration's commitment to uprooting and shuffling shelter residents around the city, including defending those practices in court, undercuts its stated commitment to progress on these issues.

"As part of a Renewed Deal for New York's recovery, every effort should be made to move vulnerable unhoused New Yorkers into permanent housing, rather than relying on stopgap short-term measures that conceal, rather than confront, the housing and homelessness crisis in our city."

"We offer prayers of peace and comfort to the family of President Moïse and his wife Martine, as well as to the Haitian people -both on the island and throughout the diaspora in the wake of this horrific attack on not just a person, but a nation. Violence is not a solution to the discord and pain that Haiti is experiencing, it will only perpetuate them.

"As the world watches - a world which was eager to appear before cameras in the wake of natural disaster but long ago abandoned the work of recovery - we pray for the people still suffering, and we all must follow our prayers and posts with assistance."

"Our city would not be where we are today, in the long work of recovery, without the dedicated essential and frontline workers who risked their own health and safety to protect and provide aid to others across professions and boroughs. Our expressions of gratitude will never match their sacrifice, our words never capture their courage.

"More than 75 percent of our city's essential workers come from communities of more color, and throughout the pandemic - from infection to injection - these heroes, their families and their communities saw disproportionate suffering and loss.

"While today is a day to honor their dedication and service to our city down the Canyon of Heroes, our gratitude cannot end there, and must be reflected in policies, practices, and critically, paychecks, as we move forward with a just recovery that would not have been possible without the New Yorkers on the front lines."

"I am glad to see the Governor begin to treat gun violence as the emergency that it has long been, and today's announcements are as welcome as they are overdue. People doing the work of violence prevention on the ground, within communities, have long asked for the kind of funding, resources, and attention they may now receive.

"Both the proposed Office of Gun Violence Prevention and the Council on Gun Violence Reduction have the potential to be critical in coordinating strategies that address both the supply and demand sides of this crisis. They will only be truly effective, though, if they are an integral part of public safety conversations and solutions, rather than an afterthought. I would also like to thank the Governor for signing anti-gun violence measures into law this afternoon, in particular a bill by Senator Zellnor Myrie which aims to prevent the gun industry's immunity from civil lawsuits stemming from the dangers posed by its products.

"Addressing the root causes of violence requires a holistic reimagining of public safety, with input from a number of areas of government - sharing data across agencies and across localities will be key. As we have seen, as I hear in the conversations I'm having today, the gun violence epidemic is plaguing not only New York City, but Syracuse, Buffalo, and places across our state and nation. This has been a public health crisis that predated and was exacerbated by the pandemic - those of us who have been in the streets know that the state of emergency is not new even if this declaration is.

"Whether these new initiatives are successful will ultimately depend on whether today's announcements are about a headline, or whether they signal the kind of structural changes and leadership support that New York needs toward reimagining public safety. I look forward to seeing these initiatives implemented, and being a part of the ongoing work to save lives."

"The Fourth of July is a reminder of our centuries of working toward a better nation, one framed in the principles of America's founding. For my family, it is the day that my mother arrived in this country over five decades ago.

"This holiday is commemorated as Independence Day - but in its origins did not assert independence for all, as Juneteenth reminded us just weeks ago.

"It is true that we as a nation have not fully attained many of the values espoused in our founding declaration, but among those values is a pursuit - an acknowledgement that independence doesn't come solely from a declaration, that work is required to make America's practice live up to its promise. It is the pursuit that brought my mother here over fifty years ago, one that continues today. As our city and state are in the process of reopening and recovering, I urge New Yorkers to safely celebrate that spirit and continue that pursuit."

"As last year's budget was developed in the early days of the pandemic, this year's was crafted as our city is undergoing the long work of recovery from the public health and economic crisis. Federal aid has been critical to sustaining our city's finances, and the long-term state of those finances depends on foresight, and on what we prioritize.

"Throughout this and past budgets, and on public safety in particular, there was an opportunity to invest in new systems and structures, rather than prop up old ones. Adding funding to the NYPD instead of other, more suited agencies, one year after we appeared on the precipice of transformational change, is an inexplicable example. Additional funding should be going to programs in non-police agencies, such as DYCD or DOHMH. With a $6 billion budget and a headcount of 35,000, the NYPD should be focusing on reallocating and optimizing current resources where they are most helpful, not monopolizing funding which could go to non-police alternatives. And while critics blame the current increase in some crimes on activists' call to defund the police, it is unfortunately necessary to remind them that New York City did not in reality ever defund the police, and that crimes were not caused by a hashtag.

"To be clear, there are many positives in this budget. But we should be doubling down on those positives, rather than retreating to what is easiest when the external pressure of a protest or a primary is over.

Improving healthcare, investing in affordable housing, providing jobs and encouraging economic growth in underserved communities, as well as investing in evidenced based models to address gun violence and mental health crisis, will all help to secure and advance public safety. These investments have a long tail effect, and we can't shy away from them just because their results aren't always immediate, and won't make the papers tomorrow - just as critics of reform don't shy away when their strategy of adding police isn't immediately effective. We cannot repeat and perpetuate the mistakes and patterns of the last decades.

"At a time when we should be re-defining public safety, too much time and money has gone into the systems as previously defined. And while there have been notable changes and programs funded, the biggest disappointment is that this administration's final budget continues eight years of failing to figuratively and literally buy into true structural changes to redefine public safety - a stain which many hoped the last budget would help diminish. When so many millions are allotted in overtime for the NYPD, but none for agencies like the Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene, that stain persists. 

"Recovery from this pandemic will be long, and our investments should match. A budget for the future cannot and should not reflect the mindsets of the past."