Isn't this lovely

Just in time for the holiday season, New York City institutes a policy of no room at the inn:

NEW YORK - New York City has a new policy that may result in some homeless people being turned away from emergency shelters at night.

[. . .]

The Department of Homeless Services said that many people have already applied for longer-term shelter, which involves a city investigation into their last living situation. Some are found to be ineligible for shelter because the city believes they have alternatives, such as relatives who'll give them shelter.

Hell, as long as "the city believes" it, I'm sure it's true. I suppose they could douse themselves with water, let themselves freeze solid and wait for Spring - that'd be an "alternative" as well!

Homeless Commissioner Rob Hess said dozens of families have figured out how to bypass the city's eligibility process by repeatedly coming in after hours. Until now, the policy has been that everyone who asks for a taxpayer-funded room after business hours gets one. "They've found a loophole in our system," Hess said. "They're coming in after 5 p.m. and they're asking for an overnight and they're getting it. We need to put a stop to it."

Those damn Lucky Duckies, figuring a way to sneak around the careful process set up to ensure only the ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY neediest get a bed! Why can't they get there before 5pm like everyone else?

Maybe having kids in school has something to do with it:

They camp outside, their children and their belongings all over the street, waiting for buses to come and take them to a one-night-only shelter often far from their children's schools.

Are these city buses? Are they limited by the city bus schedules? (As anyone who's ever regularly ridden the bus can tell you, sometimes it'll take you a couple hours to just get across town, depending on the schedules and the connections.) Does "one-night-only" mean that they'll have to go to a different shelter the next night, possibly one even further away?

Who CARES? They're gettin' stuff for FREE! That should be reason enough to treat them like lazy bums, thieves, criminals and subversives.

And just think - if St. Rudy of 9/11 becomes Preznit, the whole country join in on the "New New York City" experience! Whee! It'll make Ronald Reagan's term look postitively SOCIALIST.