CONTACT: Mariah McGough, mariah@vocal-ny.org

VOCAL-NY DENOUNCES GOV. HOCHUL’S 2024 LEGISLATIVE APPROACH LAID OUT IN THE MOST CARCERAL STATE OF THE STATE IN RECENT YEARS

New York Can Build Safe and Thriving Communities by Solving Ongoing Crises of Homelessness, Overdose, and Criminalization

NEW YORK — Today, in response to Governor Hochul’s 2024 State of the State and Briefing Book, VOCAL-NY released the following the statement, attributable to Jawanza Williams, VOCAL-NY Director of Organizing:

“Governor Hochul has once again demonstrated in her address that she is driven by sensational headlines, rather than committed to substantive evidence-based solutions that will make New York safe, healthy, and thrive. 

Despite all her talk about housing creation and affordability, she provided no plans to address the rising homelessness crisis in the next year. The overdose crisis is one of the most urgent public health crises of our time, yet Hochul completely ignored solutions to address the surging rates of overdoses among Black and Latino New Yorkers. While the governor centered mental health in her address, her words were used to weaponize and stigmatize, rather than offering solutions of care, housing and services. 

Instead she leaned on the failed policies of criminalization at every turn. Reminiscent of Guilliani, she addressed issues like graffiti and organized retail theft — a moral panic that’s been largely debunked — and threatened once again to further erode pre-trial protections passed by the legislature to prevent people from languishing in jail. 

The Hochul administration approach will cause further harm and destabilize the same New Yorkers who are dying from preventable overdose, who are crowding homeless shelters and living on the street, and other vulnerable communities the Governor should be championing instead of casting aside. We know the solutions that will address the root causes of New York’s intersecting crises, as VOCAL-NY leaders and members have long advocated for them. We vow to hit the streets and the hallways of the Capitol making sure we get proven policies that create housing, care, and services to the governor’s desk.”

BACKGROUND:

VOCAL-NY’S 2024 legislative platform — which includes 12 different policies — underscores the politics of compassion and care, and uses three main themes to ground legislative demands:

• Rapidly Scale-up a Sustainable Caring Infrastructure to Address the Housing and Overdose Crisis
• Support Health-Based Approaches, Not Criminalization
• Decarcerate and Hold Power Accountable

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