Shelter’s a right, but it’s not the destination

Bronx: Recent reporting on New York City’s shelter capacity highlights an important truth: While the right to shelter under Callahan vs. Carey ensures that families are not left on the streets, it does not guarantee timely access to permanent housing.

The right to shelter is a critical legal protection that reflects our city’s commitment to basic human dignity. However, on any given night, thousands of families with children remain in New York City shelters for extended periods due to housing shortages, administrative delays and limited coordination between agencies. Prolonged shelter stays contribute to chronic stress, disrupt children’s education and create barriers to employment for parents. These harms fall disproportionately on Black and Latino families, who are overrepresented in the shelter system. Research also indicates that without adequate post-placement support, many families reenter shelter, reflecting ongoing housing instability.

The policy should not be weakened, but strengthened through improved implementation. New York City should establish mandated time benchmarks for families with children, including required coordination between the Department of Homeless Services and housing subsidy programs to prioritize permanent placement within 90 days whenever possible. The city should also expand community-based stabilization services to reduce shelter recidivism. Shelter should be a short-term bridge to housing, not a revolving door. Strengthening accountability around length of stay and post-exit support would shift the policy from crisis response to long-term stability. Joycelin Rosa Martinez

Categorically criminal

Holliswood: The photo caption on Monday’s front page (“Feds open terror probe,” March 9) says: “Man is handed explosive device by fellow activist.” Activist? Your newspaper has jumped the shark. “Terrorist” is the appropriate word. Do better with hiding your woke, liberal bias. Gregory W. Chupa

Manhattan: To Voicer John Brindisi: You instruct the public to “wake up” to the billions of a “bloated MTA.” You sound like a car driver encapsulated in a heated or air-conditioned globe who has no notion of what life would be like in New York were our world-imitated subway system to crank to a halt, our commuter trains ground out of service and our buses stopped. With nothing but cars clogging our roads, how would ambulances reach stranded drivers? Fire crews get to burning buildings? Pregnant women get to midwives and emergency departments? Produce to get to our grocery shelves? That’s all short-term stuff. Long-term, as reflected in Singapore’s wise priority setting, automobiles are yesterday; public transportation and walking are today and tomorrow. More existentially, public transportation and walking, not cars, will save our planet and us. Lisa Meyer

Bronx: Re “Stiller slams W.H. for using ‘Tropic Thunder’ clip in war video” (March 8): I agree with the singer Kesha that “trying to make light of war is disgusting and inhumane.” Where was this anti-war sentiment expressed by her, Ben Stiller and others during Barack Obama’s administration? Gene Roman

Blunder after blunder

Paramus, N.J.: Who is the mentally disturbed, dementia-laden individual who caused oil prices to go above $100 per barrel? Gas prices to approach and maybe pass $4 a gallon? Is it the same individual who thought he should win the Nobel Peace Prize? How many wars has this clown started? The same clown who is owned by Vladimir Putin. Tom Greff

Greenburgh, N.Y.: President Trump’s decision to bomb Iran has resulted in significant increases in gas prices for Americans. I suggest that the president do what former President Joe Biden did in 2024 when he released 1 million barrels of gasoline from a northeast reserve, which helped reduce gas prices during the summer of 2024. This would increase the gas supplies available to Americans, eliminate the need for significant increases in our gas prices and help keep inflation down. Paul Feiner

Delray Beach, Fla.: With the bombings in Iran, it seems like every few months with Trump, we have another story. Gas prices will spike, and this is just after tariffs made Americans feel the pinch. You’ll never see that $2,000 check as he promised. There will be some excuse, I’m sure. Goldman Sachs has record profits, grocery store prices are through the roof and who suffers? We do. I’m sure that by this summer, something else will happen, draining our savings even more. Manny Agostini

Rockaway Beach: Unlike Voicer John Piccolo, I wasn’t born in Brooklyn but raised in Queens, not far from Trump’s house. Still, I can’t attest to how or if Trump thinks at all. But John’s probably correct: Trump likes “throwing down,” bombing, no matter who, what or where. “Hi-ho! I’m the chief!” Countless innocent lives lost, and for what? Aggrandizement? Or a mere distraction from some of those dreaded files? Likely both. We all hope for peace, but with the warrior in chief and his salivating war dog Pete Hegseth, this seems an unlikely prospect. Maureen McNelis

Chatham, N.J.: Trump’s worsening geriatric problems — apparent senility and vascular disease — shouldn’t be the only things standing between us and the utter degradation of America’s international standing, as happened to Germany after the inevitable collapse of the Third Reich. The detoxing of MAGA-think requires only some attention to history in the aftermath of World War II. Paul A. Denk

Peters Township, Pa.: It didn’t require much intellect to recognize at the outset how woefully unsuitable Kristi Noem was as a candidate to head the Department of Homeland Security. She’s perhaps best known for murdering a dog that disappointed her. She poured gasoline on the fires the administration set in Minneapolis by spitting on the graves of those who her officers killed, accusing them of being “domestic terrorists.” Noem’s replacement may represent jumping from the frying pan into another frying pan. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin is a Trump sycophant (of course), a bully in the mold of his master. On Nov. 14, 2023, Mullin demonstrated that the decorum of the Senate is of no importance to him when he challenged to a physical fight a union official who was testifying before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Oren Spiegler

Manhattan: Republicans, belatedly OK’ing Trump’s war on Iran, now want the passage of the DHS appropriations bill. Sen. Chuck Schumer has offered to negotiate wildly overfunded ICE and Border Control funding separately and let DHS go about the rest of its business, but the GOP wants to let masked ICE agents keep grabbing citizens and legally authorized residents simply because they’re Black or Brown, are using their First Amendment rights or are speaking a language other than English. The complete abandonment of Americans in the Middle East while other countries are efficiently evacuating theirs raises serious competency concerns about our post-DOGE government. I support Schumer in standing firm against ICE abuses. The GOP was so eager to declare war abroad. They can stand down on the war against the rights of everyone on American soil. Christina Norum

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