After the devastating attacks last week on four homeless New Yorkers, where two of them lost their lives, we continue to demand the Mayor and Governor urgently take action by providing more housing, services and care - not increased policing. Read our statement here, and the coverage in Gothamist and WNBC-TV. "Homeless New Yorkers have historically suffered due to police violence, and this current shutdown is no exception. Increased policing does nothing to keep those who are unhoused safe," said VOCAL's housing campaign coordinator, Joe Loonam.
Stanley Martin, our parole and re-entry coordinator, responded to Rochester Mayor Lovely seeking a third term and her flawed and underfunded implementation of the crisis intervention program. Read more in the Appeal. “There’s no way we’re going to be able to fully fund mental health assistance with the [economic] fallout from COVID without defunding the police,” said Stanley Martin, a parole and re-entry coordinator for VOCAL-NY
The devastating impacts of Cuomo neglecting to fund an infrastructure to address the overdose crisis, cutting funds to harm reduction programs, and inaction on approving lifesaving Overdose Prevention Centers was covered in the New York FOCUS and THE CITY. “We’re responding to a public health crisis from two years ago,” said Jasmine Budnella, a drug policy coordinator at VOCAL-NY. “We know that the need is increasing. We’re losing more people, but if we don’t have the data to show that, we’re not able to respond.”
Jawanza Williams, organizing director at VOCAL-NY, called out Cuomo's focus on legalizing marijuana a way to fill the state's major budget shortfall amid the COVID-19 in City & State. “If you're talking about legalization, in the context of the deficit … it doesn't center the need for social and racial and economic justice,” Williams said.
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