April 1, 2011
Homeless LGBT Youth Advocate Blasts Finalized N.Y. Budget
Michael K. Lavers READ TIME: 2 MIN.
The budget that homeless youth advocates had feared has come to pass.
New York State lawmakers early on Thursday, March 31, approved a $132.5 billion budget. It is the first time in five years that legislators have passed an on-time state budget, but activists blasted the 50 percent cut to runaway and homeless youth programs-a decrease from $4.7 million in 2010 to $2.35 million this year.
Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center, told EDGE the budget will disproportionately impact homeless LGBT youth in the five boroughs. "This is going to shut down programs," he said, adding the city is going to have to eliminate 20 beds in homeless youth shelters. "More than 200 kids are going to be homeless over this."
As EDGE previously reported, Siciliano and other advocates and public officials lobbied Albany lawmakers to restore the funding. The Cuomo administration removed a proposed $35 million block grant that would have forced child welfare; juvenile and youth programs to compete for funds, but
Siciliano stressed this move was simply not enough.
"He [Cuomo] has an obligation to explain to his constituents why they're going to suffer so much," he said.
A Cuomo spokesperson did not return EDGE's request for comment. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said in a statement before Albany lawmakers approved the budget that she and her colleagues had "aggressively pushed" legislators to restore education and other funding that had been previously cut.
"We were happy and grateful for a number of the ones which got restored," she said. "That being said, I am disappointed that New York City did not receive full restoration for our LGBT runaway youth programs. As we move on to the city budget, the City Council will work diligently, as it has in the past, to ensure that this vulnerable population receives the funding it needs."
As for Siciliano, he said he is planning a rally outside Cuomo's Manhattan office to shed further light on the impact he said these cuts will have on Ali Forney clients and other homeless LGBT youth in the five boroughs.
"I'm not going to drop this," he said. "It's really important to me that Cuomo hear from the LGBT community that this isn't cool."
Based in Washington, D.C., Michael K. Lavers has appeared in the New York Times, BBC, WNYC, Huffington Post, Village Voice, Advocate and other mainstream and LGBT media outlets. He is an unapologetic political junkie who thoroughly enjoys living inside the Beltway.
