Rockland executive signs emergency order over NYC's plan to send homeless residents across state
Under the new plan, New York City's Department of Social Services will allow low-income and homeless residents to use city-issued housing vouchers statewide.
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Rockland County has responded to New York City's plan to send low-income and homeless residents across the state.
Under the new plan, New York City's Department of Social Services (NYCDSS) will allow those residents to use city-issued housing vouchers statewide in hopes of alleviating the city's homeless population and making room for incoming migrants.
In response, however, Rockland Co. Executive Ed Day signed a new emergency order prohibiting any municipality from operating social services housing without a license. Landlords also cannot participate in those housing programs without a license.
"This County already has a housing crisis so extreme that Rockland has been unprecedently deputized by the State of New York to take over Building and Fire Code enforcement in the Village of Spring Valley," Day said in a press release. "It is my duty to protect the general welfare of anyone in the County or coming to the County both long term and short term and this new order ensures that. Lifeboats are a great tool to rescue people, but a lifeboat can only rescue so many. If you put too many people into one eventually it's going to capsize."
Any person who violates the order can receive a fine of up to $5,000 per violation, per day. For municipal corporations, that fine can be as high as $50,000 per violation, per day.
