Most records are meant to be broken. But when the Department of Homeless Services announced earlier this week that 59,698 people, in a single night, slept in a shelter, it wasn’t the kind of record worth celebrating. The DHS Commissioner is Steven Banks. He says, “The most pressing problem is to keep a roof over people’s heads and get people out of the
shelter system and into housing.” Banks spent more than three decades addressing income inequality and advocating for residents with the Legal Aid Society. But his role as commissioner has made him a lightning rod for some, like in Maspeth, Queens where DHS is proposing a hotel be turned into an adult shelter. READ MORE
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