Steven Banks, Reporting for Duty by Heather Mac Donald, City Journal 18 April 2014
18 April 2014 - by Heather Mac Donald
When New York mayor Bill de Blasio announced his choice to lead New York’s $9 billion welfare agency, a collective gasp went out from the agency’s staff. As lead attorney with the Legal Aid Society, Steven Banks had been one of the premier litigators againstthe Human Resources Administration during the mayoralties of Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg. Bankschallenged the city’s implementation of welfare reform and helped create, through lawsuit, New York’s unique obligation to provide housing on demand to families claiming homelessness. So when Banks toured HRA’s offices on his first day as commissioner earlier this month, employees were undoubtedly eager for signs of his intentions. More worrisome than what Banks said was what he didn’t.
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Turner and Doar’s transformation of HRA into a vehicle for self-help was a managerial triumph, requiring an attitudinal sea-change on the part of staff. All that organizational effort could easily be undone. De Blasio and Banks have already reversed the city’s opposition to counting enrollment in a four-year college as “work” for purposes of welfare receipt. They have stopped recouping from immigrant sponsors the costs of welfare illegitimately collected by those immigrants. Banks is looking to make it easier to apply and qualify for welfare. …
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