After Delay, City to Issue Scorecard for Homeless Shelters

Liberty Family Residence, a homeless family shelter in East New York, run by a non-profit Win, will get a scorecard, like all other shelters.

After an eight-month delay the de Blasio administration is set to issue a scorecard for homeless shelters.

Mayor de Blasio recently said members of his administration would suffer consequences if the scorecard, which was supposed to be out in May, wasn’t issued by February. Now, the city will provide a list of violations for each shelter and the status of repairs.

Leaders at four non-profits that run shelters said the initial scorecard won’t be accurate. That's because the city can take more than two months to update information once violations are corrected. They also said the scorecard will reflect deteriorating conditions at shelters, which they say are a result of the lack of investment by the city over many years.

A city spokesman said the purpose of the scorecard is to inform the public on where things stand with needed repairs and to improve conditions in homeless shelters.

The move comes at a time of increased scrutiny of city shelters. Last week, the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance introduced a new effort to inspect shelters more thoroughly. In his State of the State address, Gov. Andrew Cuomo also announced City Comptroller Scott Stringer would have expanded power to review and inspect shelters.