Janae Pierre: New York State dips into its rainy day fund. New York City's parks commissioner steps down. A New Jersey City rethinks a law that would jail homeless people, and National Teachers Appreciation Day. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Janae Pierre.

New York State is tapping into its rainy day fund. Governor Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders are taking $8 billion from reserves as part of the state budget deal. They're using it to pay off an unemployment insurance debt that ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hochul says it'll save businesses money.

Governor Kathy Hochul: I'm doing this to help the businesses prepare to weather the storm that we are entering. I think we're in for a recession.

Janae Pierre: New York businesses had been paying more in taxes to pay off the debt. At the same time, unemployment benefits had been reduced. Lawmakers are expected to start voting on the state budget deal later this week. New York City's parks commissioner is stepping down later this month. WNYC's Liam Quigley has the details.

Liam Quigley: Sue Donoghue has overseen nearly all of New York City's green spaces since early 2022, including its beaches. She's been credited with helping the Parks Department regain control over lifeguard hiring during a time when the city has struggled with shortages. Now she's joining a growing list of commissioners leaving Mayor Eric Adams' administration with the mayoral primary just weeks away. In a statement, Adams thanked Donoghue for her work and wished her well. Her next move is not yet clear. The mayor's office imposed multiple budget cuts on the Parks Department during Donoghue's tenure.

Janae Pierre: Officials of a wealthy city in New Jersey are rethinking a law that would jail homeless people living on the streets. More on that after the break.

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Janae Pierre: City Council members in Summit, New Jersey, have been considering a contentious law that would allow police to arrest homeless people camping in public places. It's one of several New Jersey towns that have either thought about it or adopted similar laws in recent months. It set off an uproar among residents in Summit, and lawmakers there may now be backing away from the measure. WNYC's Mike Hayes has the story.

Mike Hayes: Under the proposed ordinance, homeless people could be jailed up to 90 days for camping in public spaces and/or fined $2,000. It set off a firestorm in the Summit community, including over three hours of public testimony at a council hearing two weeks ago.

Enrique Guncardi: You can't just jail someone into housing. This law doesn't address the root cause of homelessness; it hides it.

Karen Olson: It's absolutely ridiculous and insane. This ordinance is not needed.

Mike Hayes: That was Enrique Guncardi and Karen Olson. City Hall staff had to provide multiple overflow rooms to accommodate the crowd of more than 200 that showed up to oppose the measure, including Joseph Maraziti.

Joseph Maraziti: It's a classic case of blaming the victim for their unfortunate position.

Mike Hayes: I wanted to understand why this proposal got the people of Summit, which is one of the wealthiest towns in the state, so riled up. I went to Summit, where I met with someone who's been working a lot with the city's homeless population.

Rich Uniacke: Sometimes they're on the other side of the train station. Other times they're down on the tracks. I figure we just walk around a little bit and see who we see if we see anybody.

Mike Hayes: Rich Uniacke is the president of Bridges Outreach. His job is to engage homeless people on the street and try to get them into a home. We walked around downtown, the train station where he says people sometimes sleep on benches, and we checked some of the covered bus shelters near the Village Green, but no luck.

Rich Uniacke: Here we are talking about this in the context of the ordinance and not able to find anybody who's unsheltered in town at the moment.

Mike Hayes: Uniacke says there used to be dozens of homeless people in Summit. In 2024, a year before the current ordinance was introduced, Mayor Elizabeth Fagan established a homelessness task force. It brought together nonprofits like Bridges, first responders, and elected officials to rehouse people. Together, Uniacke says, they've been able to find housing and services for most of those who need it.

Rich Uniacke: We started with 35 names. Over the past year and a half, we've kind of reduced it to five or six.

Mike Hayes: Wait, so this whole debate is around five or six people in this city?

Rich Uniacke: Yes. It's down to single digits. Unsurprisingly, the folks at the end are the folks who are the hardest to get to that finish line.

Mike Hayes: Nonetheless, Uniacke says the homelessness task force has been working. Earlier this year, Summit received recognition from the National Alliance to End Homelessness for how it was addressing the issue, which has left a lot of Summit residents asking why the city needs a new law. The story of how that happened starts with a phone call.

Councilmember Jamel Boyer: Typically, my daughter doesn't call me unless it's for money. She said, "Daddy, I got to tell you something."

Mike Hayes: Councilmember Jamel Boyer is a Republican who was elected in 2023. He's a former detective for the state's attorney general's office and ran on a public safety platform. His daughter, he says, was calling from a street in downtown Summit.

Councilmember Jamel Boyer: I said, "Oh, what's up?" She says, "I was out in front of Lululemon with my girlfriends and this guy had approached us and asked us for money, asked us for like a dollar, and we told him we didn't have any money. He pulled a knife on us, and he was chasing us. We ran all the way to Starbucks."

Councilmember Jamel Boyer: He filed a police report. The man accused of pulling the knife was arrested. Then less than a month later, Boyer introduced the camping ban ordinance at a council meeting.

Councilmember Jamel Boyer: We are balancing compassion with accountability and upholding law and justice. It's not about criminalizing homelessness, but it's about doing the right thing. We want to prevent homelessness, not maintain it.

Mike Hayes: The ordinance was expected to pass. Four other towns in New Jersey have approved similar laws after the United States Supreme Court upheld the law in Oregon last year, banning homeless people from using blankets, pillows, and cardboard boxes for shelter and protection, but then came Summit's council meeting late last month.

Abigail Kane: Councilmember Boyer, I am so sorry for what happened to your daughter, but I don't think that this is the right way to solve your issues of safety here.

Eric Salcedo: To have this ordinance all of a sudden up for vote is the epitome of a knee-jerk reaction. That was Abigail Kane and Eric Salcedo. An overwhelming number of people at the meeting spoke against Boyer's ordinance, though some were there that night to support it, including Tom Zebra and Irwin Miller.

Tom Zebra: There's nothing compassionate about enabling individuals who are clearly already facing hard times to sleep on concrete.

Irwin Miller: If there are people who aren't accepting our help and they don't want to be helped, we can't have our kids be at risk.

Mike Hayes: The meeting dragged on until 2:00 AM. Attorney Jeff Wild is a founder of the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness. He warned the council about the legal risk of voting yes.

Attorney Jeff Wild: I applaud how you have made so much progress here, and please don't blow it when you're about to take the last step here, because legally, there is a fatal flaw in this ordinance.

Mike Hayes: While the Supreme Court may have given the okay for laws banning homeless encampments, Wild says what Summit was proposing violates New Jersey's constitution.

Attorney Jeff Wild: There is a right to pursue and obtain safety, among other things. That's right in the very first article and section of New Jersey's constitution. It's not a crime to be on public land when you have nowhere else to go.

Mike Hayes: Wild says it would violate someone's constitutional rights to arrest them if there are no shelter beds available. He later met with the council on revising the ordinance, and now Summit council members appear to be backing down from the original proposal. On their agenda tonight, a new ordinance with significant changes that they'll be introducing for a vote.

Attorney Jeff Wild: The revised ordinance, if it is acceptable to Summit, will have a carve-out, an exception for anyone who does not have access immediately to adequate indoor emergency shelter or housing.

Mike Hayes: The state attorney general's office declined to comment on the legality of Summit's ordinance and public camping bans in other parts of the state.

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Mike Hayes. It's National Teacher Appreciation Day, so before we go, a huge thanks to all the teachers and instructors who are making a difference in the lives of students all over the world. Students like 16-year-old Xavier Lyons at Bronx River High School. He has a special shout-out for his former teacher at a different school, Ms. Brandi Kovac.

Xavier Lyons: This teacher was actually my math teacher last year. At first, I struggled because I really did not like the class I was taking at the time. I was taking geometry, and I really sucked at geometry, but she kind of convinced me, like, "Hey, why are you holding yourself back by just saying, 'Hey, I can't do it, I'm not good enough, I'm just not going to try'?" She's like, "Try and see what happens."

I used to do lessons with her every day and to help me study for the Regents. I thought I was going to fail the Regents. I thought I was going to have to retake it constantly, constantly. She was like, "Just give it your best shot." I passed. I was like, "That's great." Because I did not think I was going to pass at the beginning of the year, because I had no faith in myself. She just helped me build my confidence and it paid off. Thank you, Mrs. Kovac, for all your help. Thank you so much.

Janae Pierre: Thanks, Mrs. Kovac. Happy National Teachers Appreciation Day to all. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

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