Well thought-out TANF reform makes good social and fiscal sense, but Mayor Rudy Giuliani's policy announced yesterday (see below AP story) of disqualifying those who fail to comply with welfare-to-work activities, apparently irrespective (at least according to some published accounts) of whether such failure is due to mental illness, addiction, or other barriers, seems to me inhumane and possibly unconstitutional. I'm no lawyer, but the meaning of the following seems fairly plain:
New York State Constitution
Bill of RightsSection 1. No member of this state shall be disfranchised, or deprived of any of the rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof, unless by the law of the land, or the judgment of his peers * * * http://assembly.state.ny.us/cgi-bin/const/ With the city seeming to take this step unilaterally, and out of sync with surrounding and upstate jurisdictions like Sullivan County, isn't it likely that we in adjacent areas may see a sudden and rapid influx of the extremely hard to employ? Are news accounts incomplete? Am I missing something?
Does anyone foresee the possibility of a significant consequence to this apparent deprivation by a nearby metropolis of the same protection to its citizenry that upstate counties in New York must and do provide, whether at institutional shelters or by providing emergency shelter to homeless people more expensively in motels? Even if Giuliani's move is eventually overturned by courts as unlawful disparate treatment, in the short run should we expect mid-Hudson counties to soon host a wave of welfare recipients who would otherwise have been content to remain at "home" in the city?
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Thanks.
By Chelsea J. Carter
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End of rant.