Lew's View: Homelessness in New York

NEW YORK - Lew Leone is the vice president and general manager of WNYW-FOX 5. He takes to the airwaves with "Lew's View," his thoughts on current affairs. In this commentary, Mr. Leone talks about New York City's homelessness crisis and what Fox 5 is doing to draw attention to it.

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The number of homeless in New York City is at an all-time high. It's so out of control parts of the city have turned into squatters' camps. New Yorkers feel under siege.

So far, there's been a lot of hot air and finger pointing but where is the plan to fix it? Fox 5 has been aggressively covering this story since last year. Since nothing has been done to stem the tide we are devoting a half hour to examine this important and widespread problem.

"Homeless in New York: Crisis on the Streets" will give an overview of the alarming numbers and the theories as to why there are so many homeless people and take a critical look at the Mayor de Blasio's recent initiatives to clear out encampments and offering rent assistance, finding shelter for all homeless vets. Lisa Evers has a report on the number of homeless students and how you should talk about homelessness with your kids. And we will offer solutions and highlight examples of programs and plans that are being implemented to solve the problem.

Mayor de Blasio recently had a war of words over the homeless issue. De Blasio says under Rudy there were more homeless and called him "delusional." Rudy responded and said de Blasio is "ignorant."

I'm not sure if it is accurate to say if you live in a shelter you are not homeless but in any case we have a problem and all of us must come together to solve it. With the pope coming to New York there is no better time to show the world that our great city can treat the most needy with dignity and compassion.

Please watch our special Wednesday, September 16 at 5:30 p.m. We will also post the entire show on our website and on our YouTube channel.

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